Seed Saving from what you eat

How much of what I buy can I safely save the seeds from

I was wondering something similar just the other day. I ate probably the sweetest, best tasting orange pepper I've ever had! I saved the seeds so I can plant some of them, but I have no idea how to go about it!

I ate the sweetest, most delicious orange pepper I've ever had the other day! I saved the seeds to see if I could plant them. Can anyone advise me on how to go about this? Do I need to dry them out first? Thanks bunches!

Hope this helps, jazzycat. (I have a jazzy dog).
Saving seeds from peppers:
PROCESS: There are two methods, dry and wet, to process pepper seeds. The dry method is adequate for small amounts. Cut the bottom off the fruit and carefully reach in to strip the seeds surrounding central cone. In many cases, seeds need no further cleaning. To process the seed from large amounts of peppers, cut off the tops just under the stem, fill a blender with peppers and water and carefully blend until good seeds are separated and sink to bottom. Pepper debris and immature seeds will float to the top where they can be rinsed away. Spread clean seeds on paper towel and dry in cool location until seed is dry enough to break when folded.

Thanks Kelejan!

(I didn't realize I posted here twice. I meant to start another thread, so as not to highjack this one.)

jazzycat wrote:Thanks Kelejan!

(I didn't realize I posted here twice. I meant to start another thread, so as not to highjack this one.)

I moved the other thread to this post as it was practically a duplicate post. The
Terms of Service request no duplicate posts.

camprn wrote:

jazzycat wrote:Thanks Kelejan!

(I didn't realize I posted here twice. I meant to start another thread, so as not to highjack this one.)

I moved the other thread to this post as it was practically a duplicate post. The
Terms of Service request no duplicate posts.

OK. That makes sense. I apologize for my breach in etiquette!

NO worries

Hi,
It is possible to save seeds from some of the food you eat. It is helpful to know if the food is a hybrid or not. If it is a hybrid plant (F1) than the seeds will probably not produce a similar plant. You might get a plant like one of the parents. If you know that the seeds are from open pollinated plants, than you have a very good chance of getting what you want. An other variable is are the seeds viable. Some of the food we eat that has seeds which are immature, for example cucumbers and summer squashes. That is a very brief course on seed saving. I like to save seeds and would certainly try to grow my own best pepper ever. Please report back with your experiences at the end of the summer.

Patty from Yorktown

You really need to check the lists for safe distance when saving seeds (try google). Some plants can't be any closer than 600 feet to the nearest alternate variety or they'll cross pollinate. Some are ok at only a few feet. Others like root crops will produce their flowers in the fall and you can save their seeds if they are not near another variety.
In all cases, a Hybrid or F1 will not reproduce the exact same fruit the next year because its in fact a cross-bred plant. You need to save seeds from OP or Heirloom plants to be sure what you'll get.
If you are growing OP corn in your yard and there's none closer than several hundreds of feet to yours (its wind pollinated), you can save a cob or two when its dried on the vine, and use the seeds next year.
If you want tomatoes and peppers (they self-pollinate), you can place a net bag over the blossoms of the very first flowers and leave it there til the fruit forms, then mark the branch before removing the bag and save the fruits on that branch for next year's crop at harvest time. You just have to tap the branch with the baggies a couple times a day to distribute the pollen to itself, while its still in flower.
Remember, they can cross pollinate if an insect walks across their flowers of another nearby, so be sure they are in bags with tiny netting. Saving the seed is another matter entirely.

We had a butternut squash awhile back and now I have ten plants on a couple of cold compost piles. Nothing beats free groceries. Have two celery butts growing too. Only problem is, is it the right time for butternut?

Apparently it is the right soil temperature for them. If you have a cold snap cover them.
Cold compost piles is my most successful place to grow squash. Now I even do it intentionally

quiltbea wrote:You really need to check the lists for safe distance when saving seeds (try google). Some plants can't be any closer than 600 feet to the nearest alternate variety or they'll cross pollinate. Some are ok at only a few feet. Others like root crops will produce their flowers in the fall and you can save their seeds if they are not near another variety.
In all cases, a Hybrid or F1 will not reproduce the exact same fruit the next year because its in fact a cross-bred plant. You need to save seeds from OP or Heirloom plants to be sure what you'll get.
If you are growing OP corn in your yard and there's none closer than several hundreds of feet to yours (its wind pollinated), you can save a cob or two when its dried on the vine, and use the seeds next year.
If you want tomatoes and peppers (they self-pollinate), you can place a net bag over the blossoms of the very first flowers and leave it there til the fruit forms, then mark the branch before removing the bag and save the fruits on that branch for next year's crop at harvest time. You just have to tap the branch with the baggies a couple times a day to distribute the pollen to itself, while its still in flower.
Remember, they can cross pollinate if an insect walks across their flowers of another nearby, so be sure they are in bags with tiny netting. Saving the seed is another matter entirely.

wow. So now I'm really confused. I bought a bunch of different tomato varieties. Does this mean I have to plant them all separately and far apart?

There's lots of seed saving information on the forum. You can search for seed saving tips in the search feature on the left side of the screen just above the Latest Topics list. Here is one thread that may be helpful:
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t13946-time-for-seed-saving?highlight=saving+seeds

Jazzycat......No! If you put a net bag over the first blossoms on any tomato or pepper plant as soon as you spot the first blossoms, it will work. Even if different varieties are growing side-by-side. The trick is to bag them with very first blossoms. They self-pollinate so an insect would have to walk across the blossom to spread the pollen to another tomato to cross breed it. The net bag prevents that happening yet allows sunshine and rain to pass thru to the plant. You'll have true seeds in those tomatoes, unless they are Hybrids (F1).
Leave the bag over the blossoms, making sure no insects can enter thru the opening (I make drawstring bags) and tap the branch a couple times a day. When the fruits appear, you can remove the bag. The tomato is bred. Just make sure you mark the branch with a piece of yarn or something so you can save the tomatoes on that branch in the fall.

You tie a net bag over the first blossoms like so. til fruits form.

This small determinate Tom is Sophie's Choice I wanted to save. It does great in pots because its so small yet the tomatoes are regular sized. I kept the bag on even when the tom was quite big to see how well they'd develop still in the bag. Just fine.

So do I only need to do that on tomatoes I'm saving for seeds then? I would hate to think I have to cover all of them. LOL

Jazzycat....You only cover the tomatoes you want to save, not the whole plant nor all the plants in your garden. If you aren't saving seeds on others, you don't want to bag them.
Of 18 varieties of tomatoes I grew last year, I only saved seeds from 4 of them, with one baggy on each of those 4.
In seed saving, you are bagging so the current seed does not cross pollinate with another type. Its like breeding dogs. Two dogs may be purebreds, and if they breed together they'll have more purebreds. If another breed jumps in, you'll have cross-breed puppies. Same principle.
If you only want to save seeds on 3 of your tomato types, you only need 1 bag for each of them, to cover only the very first blossoms on each of them (only on one branch), and to save seeds only from the fruits that were covered on each of them. You can't save seeds from any of the uncovered tomatoes.
This works for both tomatoes and peppers.
Good luck.

quiltbea wrote: You can't save seeds from any of the uncovered tomatoes.
This works for both tomatoes and peppers.
Good luck.

Yes you can, but there are no guarantees that you will have the same fruit as the parent plant.

Camprn....You're right, but I meant you can't save seed from the unbagged fruits and be Guaranteed they will be the same variety when sown next time.

This is one of the most complete books I've found(and own) on seed saving for a lot of different plants. It even gives info on growing the plants too. Seed saving can be involved, and each species is different on what you can get away with.

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners
Suzanne Ashworth (Author), Kent Whealy (Author)