This year I was so pleased with the fabulous cos ‘Freckles’ lettuce that I grew, that I decided that I’d have a go at collecting seeds from my crop after they’d started to bolt.
I planted a fair few lettuces,
so my seed collecting patch took up a fair amount of space too.
As I started to sift through the seed casings, I realised that my seed collecting was going to take me a fair old while. Not only do you have to divide the outer brown covering from the seeds, but each seed is attached to its own little fluffy parachute, so this has to be carefully detached too (as you don’t want to leave any organic matter other than the seeds in its envelope, as it could rot and the moisture destroy the viability of your seeds). After about half an hour, I started to get itchy, thinking about all the other things I could be getting on with in the garden.
After about an hour, I did have a good pile of seeds, but I still felt a tad resentful about the time I’d spent sorting the seeds to get to my haul. And that got me wondering about how seed companies collect their seeds.
I called Joy at Sea Spring Seeds (a small seed company offering a choice selection of veg seeds) to ask how they collected their seeds. Apart from their Chilli seeds (in which they specialise and offer 40 different varieties), they buy in all the rest from seeds manufacturers. Whilst we agreed that collecting some seeds (I love collecting seeds from beans, sweet peas and hollyhocks) was a worthwhile project, she advised against seed collecting for some plants for a number of reasons. Firstly, letting your plants go to seed can take up valuable growing space and can lead to weed problems as you ignore the space around plants going to seed whilst tending more critical veg production. This is true. I could have pulled these plants up a couple of months ago and had a whole bed of tasty mustard leaves happily growing by now!
Also, large seed manufacturers have specialist drying equipment for the seeds, so that the seeds are dried correctly before being stored and will maintain their viability. Bad drying and storage of your seeds (always store your seeds in a paper envelope in a cool, dry space), could mean that seeds could have lower germination rates when it comes to sowing them. And then there’s the question of hybrid seeds that will never come true as they have 2 different parents. Blimey, this is where things can start to get complicated (unless you want to be truly experimental). If you’re after a specific hybrid plant and don’t want to waste your growing year on a non-too-certain outcome, then it’s best to stick to bought seeds.
All in all, although there is a thrill about collecting your own seeds (I did really enjoy discovering what a lettuce flower and seed head looked like), certainly for lettuces and other more fiddly seed heads, I think I’d rather pay my £2 and save my precious time and space for growing more veg.
I too have been looking at the bolted lettuces on the corner plot – firstly thinking what a waste more weren’t eaten; and secondly amazed at how like a Michaelmus (sp!) daisy they look with the fluff around them. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed lettuce seed heads before. Also v interesting to find out how long the seeds take to sort out. Tnx. Nicola
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Hi Nicola, This year I didn’t pick the whole lettuce heads and followed Charles Dowding’s advice by picking only the outer leaves, leaving the inner leaves to carry on growing. This way I (and lots of other neighbours) had oodles of salad leaves for over 2 and a half months from this batch of lettuces. It was fantastic! Yes, it was great to see what lettuces looked like as they went to seed, but as Martina said below, one plant would have been quite enough. You live and learn! N x
If you wanted to collect seeds from lettuces, one plant is quite enough! It’s important, though, to choose a plant that’s not bolted prematurely, as this is not a trait you’d want to select! As you have discovered, it’s fiddly, and most of the time I don’t bother with lettuces either. I have occasionally let lettuces go to seed on my allotment to see whether they sow themselves out, and this sometimes works rather well. But you need rather a bit of space for that.
Lettuce seeds don’t keep long. To prolong seed viability you could store seeds in an airtight container with some silica to keep them really dry. This does work rather well for quite a few seed types — I’ve kept tomato seeds for years that way.
Would you like to swap some of your Freckles seeds for something else? I’d love to have some!
Hi Martina, Yes, very happy to swap some Freckles seeds. I planted some of my freshly collected seeds on the 17th September and noticed small shoots appearing today. Hurrah! This is part of my experiment to see how lettuces and other leaves grow throughout the autumn and winter months outdoors in London without any protection. I will be intersted to see if they self-sow where they were sown this year too.
Joy from Spring seeds says that lettuce seeds are fairly long lasting (a bit like tomatoes) so if stored well, as you mentioned above, should keep for a few years.
Yes to the time it takes and to the space taken up by leaving the beds full when you could be sowing something else. But yesterday a neighbour on the allotment gave me a couple of stems of Cerinthe major and I picked off sixteen hard black seeds to sow next year. Then I cleared a bed of nasturtiums and gathered dozens of seeds to store. Some are easy to gather and you can save a bit of dosh and also they make sweet gifts to give away.
Hi Sue, You’re right. Certain seeds are a pleasure to collect and share. I do love collecting Hollyhock seeds and sunflower seeds. I find that Cerinthe major self seeds in my garden and it always surprises me how hardy it is for such an exotic looking plant. And again, I just let nasturtiums self seed and pot small seedlings on to share with friends in spring. However sometimes self seeding can get out of hand and if you collect your own seeds, then you can sow where you want the plants to grow!
If they’re easy to grab flower seeds, it’s fun to see what comes up next season from what’s been collected. Otherwise, it’s too time and space consuming, I agree!!
Good post!
Thanks SHBG!
Hi Naomi
Many thanks for the very useful info. on seed collection and preservation. I know what you mean about the time taken to separate the actual seeds from all the fluff etc., having recently done it for Malva Moschata flowers, and am about to do it for hollyhocks. My grandchildren are very good at doing this as their fingers are small and they find the prospect of growing new plants from the harvested seeds rather fascinating – as long as it is in small doses with a little reward at the end !
Just wondering if you got my email sent on 25 August with the query about the borders for the tree pits. It would be very useful to have some info. about the cost because I am in the process of finalising the bid for funding.
With very best wishes
Mary
Hi Mary, I did think at the time that I was lacking some small children with their small fingers to help out with the task. If there’s a next time I will be better prepared! Sorry, didn’t t get your email- could you send again?
I’m in general agreement with the others – some seeds are a pleasure to collect (like those cerinthes, plus I paid quite a lot for the original packet and got 13 seeds) – and some just aren’t. Interesting, though – you’ve got to do it once at least…
I must admit that the only veg seed I save now are beans, peas and mangetout. I used to save tomatoes too, but following a bizarre Black Russian / Costuleto Fiorentino incident I’ve given up on those. Very strange…
Care to illucidate on strange tomato incident?
Interesting thoughts Naomi and good to remind people that F1 hybrid seed won’t come true (I did wonder when I saw you were collecting Freckles seed).
I’ve just come back from holiday where we had the run of the cottage owner’s tomatoes from his nursery. There was a wonderful yellow plum tomato which the owner had himself saved from seed, so I know it comes true. Needless to say some of the seed has followed me home on a piece of kitchen roll 😉
Have spent my £2 on some Freckles seed from Harrogate Show too 🙂
Yellow plum tomatoes sound great. Indoors only or will they grow outdoors? Nx
I don’t know – they were growing indoors. Will see how they fare outdoors next year…
I think you’re being too fussy 🙂 Why would a bit of dried out petal or bit of fluff be any more likely to rot than the seed itself? Some spices are dried seed pod and all and and they keep just fine. The key is to make sure it’s thoroughly dry before packing it up – as long as you do a bit of stray debris won’t hurt.
I save a lot of different seeds and has never noticed a lower germination rate for self-saved. Some seeds germination can even be improved as they like to be sown fresh.
I think the only big issue is there is no guarantee saved seeds will look/be like the parent for some plants. Sometimes even that can be a plus though, save the seeds from the plant that grows best each year and overtime you’re ‘breeding’ something to suit your soil that might be better than the original.
hi Tam, yes probably being a bit too fastidious, but there was some fresher green plant material – not yet dried, and you’re right, dryness is the key here.
Yes, I like the idea that you may grow a different plant than you started out with. it’s always interesting to see what colour Hollyhocks finally appear from colllected seeds.
Good advice Naomi, I let my leeks go to seed this year and they took up a whole grow bag for weeks before flowering and they still haven’t dried out. I’ll buy in future and just concentrate on growing xx
hi Lindsey, I’m waiting on some leeks to flower too. Not to collect seeds though, just to see what they look like! N x
It can be such a rewarding time of the year, collecting all the various seeds, labeling them and then putting the packets somewhere safe for next year…
… and then forgetting where the safe place is until mid summer – oops not such who would do that though 🙂 We must try and avoid losing our carefully collected seeds this year!
Hi Mark and Gaz, have ‘lost’ seeds plenty of times too, having stashed them away for safe keeping! They sometimes reveal themselves years later.
I usually pick one healthy plant from the crop i wish to collect seed from, let it go to seed and they cut off the stems with seeds and hang upside down in a large paper bag. I then hang the bag in my garden shed and leave it for a month or two. Shake the bag and the seeds fall to the bottom….Easy.
Hi Andrea, A very sound bit of advice! Many thanks.
[…] Freckles (a fab lightish green Cos, spotted with reddy/brown markings, that gave me delicious salads all summer long last year. Originally from Sarah Raven, but grown this year from my own painstakingly collected seeds!) […]
I live in Saudi Arabia. And do not have the opportunity to buy seeds as soon as I plan to grow vegetables. I buy heirloom seeds when I travel so I can collect the seeds to plant them next season. It does take time and effort but it has been successful So far. But I do leave a plant or two to produce the seeds for my needs and do not let all the plants bolt. As for lettuce leaves, I usually grab the fluffy part and pull it out of the brown covering, and you will see all the seeds dangling from it, I use a scissor to cut right above the seeds to detach them from the fluffy part. It will, however, have a tiny thread attached to it, but It takes less time to collect the seeds this way.
Sounds like a good system you’ve got there Anouch. Thanks for dropping by. V.best Naomi