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Posted: Jun/04/2007 8:59 AM PST
What is the best method to get the seeds from the veggies? Should they be dried out in the sun? Tomatoes, Green Beans, Peppers, Zucchini................ Thanks |
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Posted: Jun/06/2007 10:58 AM PST
Quote: Originally posted by EdBurke13 What is the best method to get the seeds from the veggies?Should they be dried out in the sun? Tomatoes, Green Beans, Peppers, Zucchini................ Thanks Your best bet would be to track down a copy of Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners by Ashworth and Whealy. It's probably the best book out there on the subject. I save tomato seeds by first letting a few fruit (the best from the strongest plants) get very ripe. I scoop out the pulp and seeds, mix it with water, and set it somewhere out of range of sunlight. The pulp breaks down in the water and the viable seeds sink to the bottom. (You'll need to stir the mess a few times to dislodge the seeds.) When I have a satisfying number of seeds on the bottom of the container (this rarely takes more than a day or two), I pour off the water and pulp, then rinse the seeds carefully and spread them out on an old cookie sheet to dry. For beans it's a matter of timing. I leave them on the plant and wait for the pods to become dry and brittle. Then I pick them and shell out the seeds. The catch here is that if you wait to long the pods might pop open and scatter the seeds. Other people will wait until the pods are almost dried out and then pull the plants out, setting them on a tarp or old sheet to finish the process, then thresh the seeds out. That works if you have large numbers of plants, which I generally do not. To harvest peppers seeds I just wait until they are fully ripe and cut the fruit open. The seeds are easily removed. I rinse them clean, and if this doesn't seem to clean them well enough I use the trick descibed for tomatoes. The viable seeds sink, so this is a good way to screen out bad ones. I pretty much treat zucchini the way I do pepper seeds. |
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Posted: Jun/06/2007 6:04 PM PST
Thank you very much. I figured it couldn't be too complicated. You definately helped me out though. Ed |
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