uhhhhhh Where do you keep seeds while you're drying them?

Do you dry them in a dehydrator? on the counter? in a cup? So far, I've read a lot of good comments on what to store them in and how to organize them, but my dumb question is where and how do I keep them whilst they are drying? ( I love old words like whilst and mayhaps) (maybe because I'm old, LOL )

I kept a few seeds from a bell pepper I chopped yesterday. Does that mean since it was a live plant, that the seeds are 'green', and that the seeds I want to save are from a shriveled up pepper? see, I can confuse myself

Phyl
(working on her quota of dumb questions for the day)

I am new to this... last fall was the first time i collected seeds... but i waited until the flower was 'dead' and dry ... then i'd pluck off the whole head and put them to dry in those #1 deli containers. After i "cleaned" the seeds, i'd put them in those "V" [cone] shaped coffee filters, and that is how i store them.

I use window screens suspended on gallon paint cans.Cover the screen with one layer of newspaper.Set this up in the basement in front of the dehumidifier.In about two weeks they are dried out and ready to store.If you only have a few seeds to dry you can use a paper towel,newspaper,coffee filter.Try putting them on top of the fridge or water heater.Recently dried out a store bought green bell pepper seeds.They dried out in a few days.Peppers need heat to germinate,so I started the seeds on top of the furnace,gave them light and they are growing well.Edge

Green bell peppers aren't ripe (most varieties turn color when they ripen, and most "green" bells turn red -- eventually), so if your pepper was green the seeds probably aren't mature. Ah, well, I see Edge just tried that and it worked. Who knows, LOL.

I wouldn't use a dehydrator or other heat source because heat can kill seeds.

Mine end up in containers and on plates (both paper plates and sometimes even big cake plates), usually all over the dining room table and anywhere else I can find room. I tend to leave them out about a week after I "think" they're dry, because I store most of my seeds in plastic zip-bags, and I hate moldy seeds. :-) Pepper, tomato, and similar seeds, when dry, will break or snap rather than bend.

Heyyy critter, that's my method! Paper plates full of drying seeds covering every flat surface! Makes my DH a little crazy for a few weeks.

I also save all those little packets of silica that come in shoes, purses, etc. I throw those in with the seeds before storing for the winter.

This message was edited May 2, 2008 3:49 PM

Cool. For some reason I pictured everyone drying them in dehydrators

I think I'll try to use the pepper seeds anyway and see what happens. Ya never know!

thanks all !

Mine are in paper plates or a regular saucer with a paper towels, too Got to find another place tho. Cat thinks he is duty bound to knock them onto the floor.

You could put them under the lights you use for grow lights couldn't you?

Again, I wouldn't put them in any place particularly warm, like under lights, on top of the fridge, etc... I think it's best to dry them at regular room temperature.

Whoops, goin to take mine out from under the lights!!!

I have written this on other threads, but this is my way to take care of seeds:

1. collect the seeds when the flowers are very dry and the seeds practically fall into your hand.

2. put the seeds on plates, napkins, etc. and leave the seeds to dry at room temperature for about a week - just like Critter says.

3. (Here is where things get more fun!) Put the seeds in a large aluminum pie plate. Put all the seeds on one side of the pie plate, and then clean the seeds by carefully sorting the dried seeds from debris. Of course, you arrange for your partner to read exciting novels to you while you are cleaning the seeds! This past year, DH has read the entire Sharpe series to me ^_^ while I sort, clean, and package seeds; prepare for swaps, design gardens, etc.

Dry seeds in the natural air, no artificial heat. As stated, seeds should be brittle.

Peppers will yield the most viable seed when taken from a fully ripe, but not over-ripe fruit. You will get a few viable seeds at the green stage, and a few at the shriveled and over-ripe stage, but your most and best pepper seeds will come from perfect fruits at their peak of color and ripeness.

As Critter stated, all green peppers will turn another color when ripe, be it gold, red, orange or purple. The red bell peppers that you pay so much for in the grocery store are just the ripe version of their green brothers in the cheaper bin...and no, they will not ripen any further after they are picked. what you get, is what you get, when you pick a pepper.

Melody, that's what I thought, too. But last year, I noticed some of my Gypsy and banana peppers continued to turn more red after they'd been picked (they were at least at the yellow-orange stage, though, not green). I don't know that the seeds inside continued to mature, but the peppers did get sweeter. Odd.

When the gloss is gone from the skin, they are over-ripe...just like an eggplant

My mother would dry tomato seeds on newspaper. She didn't have paper towels!I don't remember how she stored them, probably in pint jars.

That is an accepted way of saving tomato seeds from years ago, but to properly do it, and have the seeds that are clean and look like the ones in commercial packages, they need to be fermented. Fermenting seeds removes the gel from around each one (which is a germination inhibitor) and removes soil-borne diseases from them.

After fermenting, I just pour on an old ceramic plate and let them dry. Makes them easy to handle and store.

Maybe those seeds My mother saved were fermented! She didn't "wash" them or anything, just let them dry. She always had good germination. When she picked them off the papers they were very dry, and clean.

Doe, that's not fermenting... it usually works OK, but you can pass disease along that way. A friend of mine lost nearly all her seedlings one year (fusarium wilt, probably) and traced the problem to a variety that came from unfermented seed. There's a link in the tomato forum resource "sticky" thread to a tutorial that Horseshoe wrote on fermenting seed.

I know! Looks to me like fermenting would cook the seeds.Mother never had any trouble with hers. Of course that was before hybrid seeds, too.

Fermenting doesn't do any harm, and it's a useful step. If you don't ferment your seeds, please mention that if you offer seeds for trade... some people would rather not roll the dice. I'm sure your mother's method worked fine for her, especially if she never had any disease problems, but fermenting just adds an extra margin of safety.

I used to save seeds just by drying them like your mother did, but when I found out the how and why of fermenting, it just made sense to me to do them that way. :-)

I dry my seeds in coffee filters, making sure there aren't too many in the filter (Don't want then to rot) It is easy to write the name on the filter, and this way one can at least store them more or less upright.
I used to have containers all over the place, but they tend to be in the way all the time as we don't have basements here in South Africa. Would have been handy though...

Fermenting does not involve any heat. you squeeze the seeds in a cup and let it set out of the way for 5 to 7 days till the mess gets moldy. Rinse and dry. Nothing to it, and the undesirable stuff goes down the drain.

Yes, Critter is right, most seasoned seed traders would rather pass on the trade than get unfermented tomato or cuke seeds.

Most of the reading I have done is for pepper, tomato and flower seeds. Is there much difference in how one dries squash seeds? I have both home grown spaghetti and tromboncino squash and would like to try this seed saving [and maybe trading] concept.

Thanks, you all are so very helpful.

Squash need to be hard and gourd-like when you harvest them for seeds. They should be well passed the point of being edible to humans. Let the squash sit in a place out of the sun like a porch or garage for about 10 days after it is picked. Tests show that you harvest more viable seeds if you do this. Make sure that the temps are not too hot where they are stored.

After 10 days, cut open and scoop out seeds. I rinse and clean seeds in a colander till they look pretty clean. Lay out in a single layer for several weeks until they are dry. Only when a seed snaps when you break it are they dry enough. Just lay them on an old window screen in the garage and stir them every few days.

Now the spaghetti squash and the tromboncino squash will cross pollinate with each other, so you need to be aware of that. Spaghetti squash is C. pepo, and tromboncino is C.moschata, but even though they are two different species of squash, they will cross pollinate with each other. If you have them planted in the same vegetable garden chances are very good that they have cross pollinated, as bees carry the pollen, and the flowers are very attractive to them.

You won't be able to tell by looking at this year's squash if they have crossed. The genes are stored in the seeds, so it won't be evident until you plant the saved seeds next year.

Melody, Thanks for that detailed information. If I get any more tromboncino's I will consider letting it dry to this point......but the [only] one I have will be eaten this weekend so no seeds for drying. And yes, the spaghetti and tromboncino were planted side by side - silly gardener. I'll do a better job of things next year.

Thanks again.

oh no...does that apply to yellow crook neck and white bush scallop squash too? I planted them side by side even! the bees must've loved me, LOL.

I never thought about veggies cross pollinating....what a wealth of information you can stumble across on here!

( here I am reading at 2am because I had a cup of coffee earlier )

Yes, those two are both C.pepo, and will cross with each other. like I said, it will not effect the harvest that you are eating this year. you will only notice it if you save the seeds.

Nannie, go to bed!! lol

I deadheaded some stuff and for some reason took it inside and laid them down. I know what they are supposed to look like when they are ready (Cosmos) but I noticed a few days later that these looked like the ones that are ready. Are these good? Or did they just dry out? They were still sort of green when I took them.

That confused me, I sure hope someone can decipher it. lol

can anyone tell me if there are other seeds we are likely to save that need fermenting like the tomatoes?

only seeds I'm likely to save are from TB irises (intentional crosses) and columbines (bee crosses) but I'm planning a veggie garden next year and have friends saving seed for me.

Cucumbers do better with fermentation. There's also a group who do peppers, but I see no need. I just do tomatoes and cukes.

thanks

I lay several layers of newspaper out and place my seeds in them and fold them over and write on the paper what is inside if I need to.Then I push them under the couch or other furniture where they won't be seen or be in the way.
I can leave them until winter there if I want to and they will then be opened up and checked and put into proper envelopes for permanent storage in my seed box or refrigerator depending if they need to be stratified or not.

So, the only ones you keep refrigerated are the ones that need to be stratefied? I've been trying to figure that out! And you just save your others in envy's.?

I don't store any in the fridge, but that is just me. There is no wrong or right about it. When I am wanting to plant something that needs stratification, I generally sprinkle the seeds on damp seed starting mix and pop them in the fridge (well labeled with the plant and date) for the correct amount of time. But everyone does it differently.

(after a heartbreaking experience with some special daylily seeds, and a big fridge clean-out, I don't trust my memory)

what I don't understand is keeping seeds from something like a daylily whose seed won't be true to parent unless you are hybridizing like I am. I've been told by others I should expect to produce not more than 10 plants, out of 100 germinated seeds, worth keeping to trial over one more year

For someone that isn't trying to hybridize- that's a lot of work and garden space.

Is it only the true species, or just annuals that breed true to parent in the seed?

Sometimes bee-pollinated hybrids turn out to be "keepers," too!

Oh these weren't species, they were hybrid crosses. And yes, they will all be different from the parent in some way. The thing is...it's just like Christmas. You never know what one is going to look like. I'll probably never register a daylily, but just the thought of having a flower that is all mine, and no one else's is reason enough. Most seedlings will be humanely destroyed, but have 4 acres of sunny garden space. I have the room, and the inclination, to experiment.

oh I get it! the part about being like Christmas! and there are some very famous iris crosses like that - bee pods.

I dry them on paper plates and I also use brown paper lunch bags. I snip off the seed heads that are ready for harvesting right into the paper bag and fold the top down a couple times. Usually the seeds end up falling into the bag on their own. Then I just pick the spent flower heads out. I right the name of the seeds and the date right on the bag. I keep them in the bags or on plates until they are dry enough to put in plastic zip up envelopes. I like the bags better because you can keep a lot more in a lot less space and it's good for seeds that could be lost when they 'pop' open like phlox seeds.