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Posted on August 4, 2008 in latest news
Collecting seeds from your garden and storing them for the next season is the most cherished activity for a gardener. The seed collection method varies with the plant variety. Hence you can’t fit the whole garden seed collecting process into one and best suited program. In this article garden seed collection process is categorized into 3 groups which are discussed below.
Collecting and Storing Seeds of Annual Garden Plants
Plants like snapdragon, cosmos, cleome, petunia and amaranth are the best examples for collecting seeds. But you need to be careful as their seeds drop. Given below is the systematic procedure for collecting and storing seeds of annual plants.
Collecting and Storing Seeds from Perennial Garden Plants
Collecting seeds from perennial garden plant is an easier task as compared to germinating them. You can collect seeds from pods or from their fruits. Seeds of perennials in pods are ready to collect only when the pod burst open. There are chances that the seed might drop and germinate. Hence you need to pick the pods before they open and allow them to dry. But make sure that pick mature pods as early picking will result in immature seeds.
You can even collect seeds from the fruit trees. You can simply take seeds from the ripe fruit and allow it dry. Once the seeds are completely dried they are ready for storing or germinating for the next season. In case you are collecting seeds from the fruits you bought remember that they won’t produce the same kind of fruit as most of them are grafted. Hence they would revert back to the original plant.
You can store your dried seeds in a paper envelope. Label and date the seed envelope and keep it a dry place for the next season.
Collecting and Storing Seeds from Native Garden Plants
Collecting seeds from native garden plants is a tough and tricky job. The morphology of the seed pods might vary. Sometimes you might come across seed pods which are almost impenetrable. So to collect seeds from such seed pods you need to use different methods like giving little heat treatment. The heat treatment helps in bursting open the pod. Once you have collected the seeds store them dry envelope for next season.
Generally the shelf life of seeds is for few seasons only hence it is better to germinate your hand picked seeds in the next season.
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