How to Start Saving Seeds From Your Garden (and Why) - Ep. 159

If you were gardening in 2020 you likely remember the shortage of seeds that happened when the world shut down and suddenly everybody was growing a garden. Many seed companies were overwhelmed with the influx of orders and that shortage continued into the 2021 season. There’s nothing more disappointing than to peruse a beautiful seed catalog and make out your list of favorites to grow, only to be told the company is sold out.

Enter seed saving. If you grow heirloom or open-pollinated varieties, you can avoid this problem all together by saving your own seeds. Not only is it cost effective but often times you are creating a stronger strain that is going to work particularly well in your garden each subsequent year because the parent plant has been exposed to, and survived, everything your climate can throw at it.

Today on Just Grow Something we’re digging into why we should add seed saving to our list of garden tasks, even if it isn’t for every variety we grow in our garden. We’ll talk about the practice of saving seeds, including plant selection and pollination control, and go step-by-step into how to extract, clean, dry, and store those precious commodities to be sure we have plenty of options for our gardens for years to come. Let’s dig in.

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Resources mentioned in this episode:

Ep. 63 - Proper Seed Storage: Moisture levels, storage conditions, containers, and more

Chart of Seed Viability and Simple Seed Germination Test

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