Can you give me the "how-to's" of Seed Saving?

[MoniDew]

I would love to start saving seed. I am aware of certain differences between seeds, such as open-pollination vs hybrid, etc. How does one save seed? Do the plants have to be more mature than just "ripe"? Or when one is ready to pick and eat, say, a tomato or a cantelope, is the seed within it ready for harvesting as well?

How do you clean them? Dry them? Store them?

Thank you for taking the time to answer.

[Backyard Permaculture]

Go to your local library and check out or do an interlibrary loan for "Seed to Seed" and that will give you the info for something like 270 vegetables

Ron

[Garden Green]

It depends on the seed. In some cases, like with beans, you just leave them on the plant until they dry. With carrots, put a baggy around the seed head right before it dries so you can catch those tiny little seeds. In others, like with tomatoes, you have to scoop out the jelly with the seeds in it, add water, let it sit until fuzzy stuff starts growing on it, then you can dry the seeds....

Well, yea, probably a good idea to check out a book, do a search on the net, or ask about a specific variety, there are just too many different plants with different methods to mention.

The Oregon Extension (http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/fs/fs220/) office has a pretty good guide for it.

[MoniDew]

Go to your local library and check out or do an interlibrary loan for "Seed to Seed" and that will give you the info for something like 270 vegetables

Ron


Thank you! Will do!

Thank you to Garden Green, too!