Saving Seeds 101

[tortoise]

I need to learn to save seeds. Partly to make gardening more "profitable", and partly because I have heirloom seeds coming to me! (so excited!)

I really liked the green beans we had this year. I've been feeding the plants to my rabbits and the last few beans were on them. The plants are starting to yellow so I figured seeds would be ready?

I shelled them. A few of the seeds looke like they are germinating? And I spread them out on a plate to dry.

Did I do this right?

The green beans were some "Gurney's" hybrid. It looked like there are 4 different types of seeds. I guess I'll see what I get from them next year and pick the ones I like to save?

Any advice??

BTW, I'm also thinking, pending SHTF, saving seeds will be NECESSARY and a great item to barter.

 

[Emerald]

Saving seeds from hybrids will give you plants next year but they may revert to one or other of the parents. They usually are not quite like they were that first year.
With beans the pods should be nice and dry and brown when you go to save them, but I have had seeds that dried part way and then we had damp weather and some of the seeds started to sprout.
Take any that look like they started to sprout and just put them aside to dry a bit and then cook/eat them up like dried beans.
I have taken a few of my pods that were mostly dry and picked them and put the aside to dry fully and then shucked them to get the beans out.
Personally I like pole beans the best(no bending over to harvest ) and once I get tired of putting up them as green beans I let the rest mature and use as seed for next year and for soup/refried beans/baked beans etc.. pole beans will keep producing beans as long as you keep them picked(or like me have some critter chew the vines off at the bottom last week ) at least I had most of them that I wanted for eating! and there were tons that were mature enuf to dry for seed next year.
With pole beans you just have to separate them by about 10 feet to keep them pure-as long as the vines do not grow together they should be fine.
Most pole bean blooms actually pollinate themselves before the bloom opens and do not cross readily.(layman explanations here, the seed to seed book really gets into the proper terms)

A really great book for learning to save your own seed and keep it pure is "Seed to Seed" by Susan Ashworth, I borrow it from our local library every so often to keep the knowledge fresh in my mind.

 

[~gd]

I need to learn to save seeds. Partly to make gardening more "profitable", and partly because I have heirloom seeds coming to me! (so excited!)

I really liked the green beans we had this year. I've been feeding the plants to my rabbits and the last few beans were on them. The plants are starting to yellow so I figured seeds would be ready?

I shelled them. A few of the seeds looke like they are germinating? And I spread them out on a plate to dry.

Did I do this right?

The green beans were some "Gurney's" hybrid. It looked like there are 4 different types of seeds. I guess I'll see what I get from them next year and pick the ones I like to save?

Any advice?? Yep don't waste your time trying to save hybred seeds they are very likely to be sterile, and if not they are unlikely to produce the same plants next year. What a lot of new seed savers don't know is like this: Say you have 3 kinds of heirloom tomatoes. Do you realize that the bees that polinate the plants for you are likely to cross breed between the 3 kinds to produce new hybreds so that the seeds you save may be bred by the right pollen or the other two. To keep a pure line you have to stick to just one kind or isolate the blossoms and hand pollenate. Have fun!BTW, I'm also thinking, pending SHTF, saving seeds will be NECESSARY and a great item to barter.

 

[Wifezilla]

As mentioned earlier, the offspring of a hybrid wont necessarily be like the "parent" plant. Can it be worth a try? Depends if you have room. My space is limited but I do occasionally experiment anyway

My favorite beans for eating fresh are dragon tongue beans. As for dried beans, I don't have enough to actually eat them. Apparently bean plants are a tasty treat to many bugs around here. I will probably get enough seed to try again next year but I will really need to put in some defenses for the young tender plants.

Some plants are more likely to cross breed than others. Squash comes to mind. If you really want seeds to be "true" you have to have some distance between crops.

Here is some info to get you started...
http://www.seedsave.org/issi/issi_904.html

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Tomatoes are not the best example of cross pollination, since they do not require a bee to pollinate them . . . therefore depending upon your conditions, you may not get much in the way of cross pollination. I have grown several varieties of heirloom tomatoes (in close proximity) for years now and I am still seeing very little crossing. But my tomatoes are also not highly exposed to bee traffic.

Yes, squashes you need to be very careful about if you don't want crossing. Corn even more so.

I recommend buying open-pollinated seeds for next year's garden and planting them based upon seed-saving techniques. Read up on how to save the seeds over the winter and plan your garden accordingly. Good luck!