Seed saving

I'm going to ask a truly dumb question. How do you physically save seeds? For example I have California Wonder peppers. Can I just take one of the fruits, cut it open, brush out the seeds, let them dry, put them in an envelope, store in the fridge? Should I pick the big fruit or the little fruit? Can I do the same thing with my Tendercrop green beans?

Save the best and ripest fruit on the vine for seeds the fruit must be ripe,yep just rake out the seeds and rised then then dry on papertowels for 3weeks cool dry place,pack them up in a envelope or jar then store in the fridge or cool dry place:face: you pertty much got in in your post,just add a rise:cheers:

I save tomato and pepper seed, but I put isolation bags over the very first blossoms so that they can't be crossed. They self-pollinate, but a wandering bee can cross your tomatoes on occasion. Just give the branch a tap each time you go outside so it can pollinate itself. It doesn't need bees and insects. When the fruits start to show, I remove the bag and mark the stem with a piece of red yarn so I know from which ripe fruits I can save seed.

I make mesh bags with drawstrings, cover the very first blossoms just as they start to show, and close it up. The reason you cover the first blossoms is you want to be sure you choose the genetically earliest fruits for the following years.



Here's a tomoto cluster enclosed.



Here's a Doe Hill sweet pepper bagged.



When the fruits begin to form, they are safe from cross-pollination. The stem can be marked with a piece of yarn or cloth so you know which ones you can save.



When the tagged tomatoes are very ripe, cut them open, remove the seeds and drop them into a jar of water. I want the gel to separate from the seeds in tomatoes. Peppers can be sieved under running water and go right on a piece of screen or paper towel to dry. After a few days, pour off the gel and then pour the rest thru a sieve and wash under running water for several minutes, moving the seeds around with your fingers to clean them well.

Put them on clean paper towels and dab dry. Then transfer to another dry paper towel for them to finish drying. When completely dry, place in baggies or envelopes with a desiccant, be sure the bag is marked with the variety, and store in the crisper of your fridge. Freezing can cause dampness to form when you remove them from the freezer and then return them if you don't use them all.



Most other crops are pollinated by wind or insects. They must be isolated unless you can distance them 100 or more feet from another variety. Some crops need 600 feet distance and more. If you use isolation techniques, you don't have to worry about distancing the crops, but you will have to be sure they get pollinated. That can be done with a soft paint brush.



Good luck and have fun. I'm saving my first tomato and pepper seeds now as they dry on paper towels with tape marking their variety.

Quiltbea gives good advice. With my tomato seed, I just let the seed and gel sit in a dish for a few days and allow the gel to ferment, then I rinse and dry the seed.
I would suggest doing a bit of research on hybrid, open pollination and closed pollination so you understand the basics. California Wonder is an open pollinated (OP) pepper. Here is some information about the varieties you asked about:
Tendercrop Green Bean

California Wonder Pepper

camprn, Good thought about types of seeds. That's so important.

Any hybrid or one that has F1 after its name is a hybrid and can't be saved true to its variety. Its made from crossing more than one variety so if you save any of the seed, you really won't know what variety you're going to get.



Open-pollinated means its not a hybrid so you can save seeds.

Thanks for all the specific info! My peppers are about to go into a second bloom, so I might make a couple of your bags, quiltbea, for my plants. I might try the tomatoes, too. Did you use wedding veil netting or something finer weaved? It seems like cucumbers might be an easy one to save, too, assuming they aren't hybreds.



Oops, just noticed it is netting. I have screening available that I used for making some tote bags. It isn't quite as flexible as netting - would it be ok to use?

For the bags you really need something soft around those blossoms, like mesh or nylon net. Some use the light-weight row cover and say it works well for the purpose. I like the netting because I want my fruits to get all the sunlight they can and benefit from any rain as well.

I found that the garden twine I used to make the drawstrings didn't work well. Sisal twine would be the same. Next year I'm getting the nylon tomato twine that is used for stringing tomatoes. I string mine and need some anyway.



Here's the bags with the green garden twine.

The green garden twine swelled in the rain and snarled so that it was difficult to remove the bags without tearing them. It looks like I'll be making several more next year but with nylon twine.

I am trying to save some tomato seeds for next season. Took two tomatoes and put the seeds and gel in some water in a jar and seveal days later I have noticed some seeds floating and some on the bottom but no film has formed.

Using this site as a guide to saving seeds

http://www.seedsave.org/issi/issi_904.html


What am I doing wrong???

Maybe your seeds just didn't have a heavy gel around them. Some of mine didn't either. I usually leave mine about 3-5 days but I also give them a good shake now and then while they are soaking to loosen any gel. The dead seeds float to the top so let them float away by pouring off the top inch or more of the water and seeds. Then pour the rest thru a sieve/strainer to rinse well under running water. If you move those seeds around against the mesh with your fingers, any gel that is adhering to the seeds will be forced off and down the sink.

Good luck.

It has been 5 days now so I will add some warm water and let them seperate. My container has only 1/2" if water/gel/seeds in it and that website said to add warm water and seperate the floating ones from the seeds on the botton as they are the good ones. Then let them dry and store them.

I will let you know how this works and have a few more tomatoes to get more seeds......

http://www.organicgardening.com/print/7514?cm_mmc=OGNews-_-683018-_-09142011-_-top_10_tips_for_storing_seeds

Thanks for the link as I can use any help as this is my first time saving seeds and if it is successful will definately save some money. My wife loved this strain of grape tomatoes, which we got at a local nursery by mistake, which didn't have a label on it so we are not sure what brand or type it is but she loves them for both salads and to put on top of pizzas along with salsa.

Now the first batch I care fully removed from the paper towel after they dried but this link says to leave them on.........Does anyone else leave them on paper towels and what effect does that have on germination?

I take mine off the paper towel. BUT, if I left them on the towel, I would fold it up for storage and then at the time of sprouting, unfold it, water it, and watch the wee seeds grow!. Easy peasy.

Wow, camp! I can't decide if it was exciting to watch or agonizing to watch, considering I wasn't there!!! I loved seeing all the plants - could have sat there another half hour watching if he'd shown more plants.

I also missed out an opportunity to buy some seeds at a great seed distribution they had this past Thursday at Gulfport. You could buy a box of 1,000 or more seed packets for $40. They say the packets would have had a $3000-$5000 value. A friend and I wanted to divide a box with 4 other friends, but it was only the day before the sale that we found out about it. We just couldn't find anybody who didn't have to work to go pick them up! Bummer.

Thanks for posting the video!

I've got some four foot tall , three foot wide curly kale plants that are about to come onto flower and I'd like to collect a fair few seeds.

Has anyone any experience of bagging three such big plants once they are pollenated & the next couple of steps . Plus any tips they can offer , rather than me going on line and finding something someone thinks might happen etc.