Hello Gardening Friends
Hello gardening friends and thank you Scroll Trellis for the invite to share some seed saving tips.

 Amaranth Red Garnet

I have learned over the years that saving seeds does take some patience. For instance, waiting for that beautiful plant to turn totally brown before collecting seeds from it and that means the plant stays rooted until the color change takes place.

Okra
Okra plant stems do not turn totally brown but the okra does if left on the stem. It will turn light brown and start to crack and that is a good time to remove the okra and take out the seeds. Okra seeds do not need cleaning/washing before storing them away.

Basil
Some plants like basil will send up stems of tiny blooms (bolt) and some of those stems will go totally brown while others are still green and beautiful. So you want to trim off only the fully brown stems to collect the seeds from.

Cucumbers
Some vegetables, like cucumbers need to stay on the vine until the skin of the cucumber turns completely yellow and then pick the cucumber off the vine and the seeds should be fully formed inside and ready to harvest.

The seeds need to be rinsed well and allow to dry for about ten days before storing away in an envelope or baggie. Be sure to label and date the container. Most of your fruit and vegetable seeds need to be rinsed well and dried well before storing away.

Amaranth Red Garnet
The pictures here are of the Amaranth Red Garnet plant. Showing the beautiful burgundy plume drying out to a brown plume.

Plume dried out

The Amaranth plume needs to change to a light brown color and dry out before removing it from the stalk. But again, the stalk needs to remain in the ground until the plume is ready to be cut away then harvest the seeds.

The plume is full of plant material (chaff) and seeds. Wearing a glove comes in handy when rubbing the plume to release the seeds. Seeds

Then if you want to seperate the chaff from the seeds you can use a screen type strainer like you may have in your kitchen.

Seeds galore!

Closing Thoughts
I hope a few of these tips help you in collecting seeds from your garden plants. It is said if you collect the seeds from your garden and plant them the next growing season they do even better.

 Amaranth Red Garnet, mature plant in home garden

Enjoy your garden,
Gran
GransGardenSeeds.com