Sunday, October 24, 2021

Saver

Every day, the days grow shorter and darker and colder outside. Inside, I take down whatever seeds I've got drying at the minute, and I examine them carefully each day. 

It always seems such a hopeful thing, the setting aside the seeds for next year. As I use my vegetables from the garden, I set aside the seeds and dry them, test them for viability and after 24 hours on a paper towel, they are ready. The whole process cannot be rushed, or your seeds will mold, so it doesn't pay to be impatient. 

Today, I collected my zucchini seeds and put them in a labeled bottle, secure in the knowledge that the dark times will pass and that, just as it always has, spring will come again. 

9 comments:

  1. Good thought to over winter with - thank you/

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  2. I must get my runner beans in to finish drying, and the pumpkin and winter squashes to a frost free place.
    I think this is why the Celtic year starts on November the first..the dormancy before the growth of spring

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  3. I grow F1 courgette/zucchini which don't grow true to type, so I always get new. A packet lasts three or four years as two plants are more than enough. Ater reading about all the trouble some people have had with toxic courgettes I think it's safest to buy new because with home grown seeds there's no knowing what other members of the pumpkin family the plants have crossed with.

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  4. That's interesting, gz. I never knew that, but it is a fun little factoid to tuck away. Just like our own lives begin with 9 months of 'dormancy'. Interesting.

    I never heard of toxic zucchinis. Tasker, I'm afraid you have sent me down yet another google rabbit hole.

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  5. How do you test them for viability? I don't know how to tell a viable seed from a non-viable one. I just plant everything and cross my fingers!

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  6. I'm with Steve... we just dry them out then plant and hope for the best come spring. Pretty much the only things we replant from our own seeds are tomatoes, pumpkins, cantaloup, and moonflowers. (and not always all of those every year)

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  7. My Dad had the sweetest corn, it was white and something he had saved for years. When ir started to dry and make seed corn people started coming to get a few ears to plant the nest year. He always planted the same thing, it was a seed that was old and never went through any kind of plant or seed company. I imagine there are people still saving it for next year.

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  8. Kelly and Steve: I was taught to test for viability by dumping the seeds in a glass of water. If they float, scoop them out, they're no good. Pour the water off the sinkers (I have a little sieve) and then spread them out and let them dry on a paper towel and then put them away.

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  9. Wow! You are a master gardener!!! The only thing I do relatively well is green onions.

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