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Vegetable Gardening

Seed Extraction?

12 years ago

I may be getting a little ahead of myself but I would like to extract at least 250-500 seeds of each vegetable that I grow (when they start producing fruit that is)

I have cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, peppers and sunflowers.

What is the process to extract the seeds, and is there a process for storing them? Like soaking in water or washing them off?

Last year when I extracted seeds from green bell peppers, some seeds stayed white and some turned brown. I'm not sure which ones germinated this year since I lost track but I was also wondering if anyone knew what caused the seeds to change color.

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Comments (4)

farmerdill
12 years ago
1.In all cases the fruit has to be ripe. Green peppers are immature with exception of a couple of green when ripe varieties. Bells should have their ripe color (red, orange or yellow) before saving seeds. Cucumbers and squash also need to be mature. Since cukes and summer squash are normally used as immature fruits, you need to let the ones for seed fully ripen. Cukes will be yellow or orange, Squash will be hard like a gourd. Winter squash are used in thier mature form so all you have to do is scrape out the seeds.
2. Many folks ferment the tomato seeds to remove the gel. Cleaning the others is a good idea, washing usually works. Dry completely. then store in a cool dry environment. If you store in a freezer, make sure the seeds are absolutely dry.
digdirt2
12 years ago
Over on the Seed Saving forum here you'll find a FAQ on how and what to do with most all flowers and vegetables. Tomato seeds need to be fermented briefly and the FAQ explains how to do that. Squash and pepper seeds just need to be well dried before storing.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Saving forum
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macky77
12 years ago
Ditto farmerdill and Dave, of course. :) Just wanted to add the title of my favourite seed-saving book as well for you (see link). Lots of detail on different techniques or different seeds. Covers vegetables, fruit, herbs, flowers and trees.

Here is a link that might be useful: The New Seed Saver's Handbook by Nancy Bubel
farmermiller01
Original Author
12 years ago
That's great thanks guys

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