Saving Seeds and Herbs

You can't rely on seeds from plants at the store. They are hybrid and you never know what you will get. Your cantaloupe may taste wonderful but offspring from its seeds may be vile and unedible.

I take some seed saver bags with me everywhere I go. I never know when I might run across something interesting while traveling around. If you're serious about wild crafting and seed harvesting, consider helping out the Hopi agricultural conservation center and order a pack of 50. They're only $5.00 and really help out the Hopi and the local farms over there.

Seed saving bags from Native Seed Search

https://imgur.com/a/5XwJxAB

If I could give any one piece of advice for a new gardener it would be:

Find out what grows easily in your location that you actually like to eat or are willing to learn to like.

Only grow things that fit into that ^^ list.

The same goes for food preservation. If you are going to dry, freeze or can food - for goodness sake, don't waste your time on food you don't LOVE.

If you have a large ethnic group and you can grow a vegetable that they love it may have extra value in bartering, even if you don’t particularly like it

I saw a video a while back - posted here on GLP - about the song of an ancient tree. It was a recording. That got me researching plant music, resonances, earth sounds, etc. . .

All this gave me the idea that plants that are growing and hardy will "teach" a new seed to grow.

This led to an experiment in which I planted the same cultivar of cucumber seeds in pots alone, and in pots with a hardy, already growing comfrey plant and some with a "just sprouting comfrey plant.

All the same soil, same pots, same location, same water. . .


The seeds in the plants with hardy comfrey sprouted first and sprouted the most.

The seeds with young small comfrey sprouted second.

The seeds in a pot alone sprouted about a week later, and not all of them sprouted.


This was fascinating to me and will change my gardening in the future. I will always leave something in the soil where I intend to plant later. A "mother" to sing lullabies to the new babies.

I do a lot of fermenting as well - wine, mead, kombucha, veggies, etc. . . and you always want a mother, a kveik, an elder to teach the young ones how to live.

WHile writing on the hot sauce thread I realized I probably didn't post anything like this, here. Grow hot peppers. The hot ones tend to be compact (3'x2.5') and are not hard to grow indoors. [link to www.pepperscale.com (secure)]
Even if you do not like them, if you grow a small enough peppers, you can just swallow them to avoid the burn (going down...coming out...well, that's unique to every digestive tract!). Fill a sunny, S-SW-SE window with peppers. They are perennials (even bell peppers are but they are grown as annuals). WHY? Where are your vitamin C sources? Hot peppers are an excellent source of Vitamin C (higher then oranges). You do NOT want scurvy!
[link to www.timesnownews.com (secure)]
I have grown (birds eye) them before and they fruit a lot. Less in the winter without supplemental lighting. Outdoors (where you can keep your peppers until it gets close to the last frost) they are self-pollinating but indoors I would suggest hand pollinating. (I won't embed the vid but here is a short how to) [link to youtu.be (secure)]

I just started a few seeds to grow in my kitchen window, and if need be will buy a full spectrum LED grow panel. We shall see. Odd moving from property to a condo! I'm going to order a mushroom syringe and grow oysters, got some basil going and might try and grow black pepper in a hanging basket!

I saw a video a while back - posted here on GLP - about the song of an ancient tree. It was a recording. That got me researching plant music, resonances, earth sounds, etc. . .

All this gave me the idea that plants that are growing and hardy will "teach" a new seed to grow.

This led to an experiment in which I planted the same cultivar of cucumber seeds in pots alone, and in pots with a hardy, already growing comfrey plant and some with a "just sprouting comfrey plant.

All the same soil, same pots, same location, same water. . .


The seeds in the plants with hardy comfrey sprouted first and sprouted the most.

The seeds with young small comfrey sprouted second.

The seeds in a pot alone sprouted about a week later, and not all of them sprouted.


This was fascinating to me and will change my gardening in the future. I will always leave something in the soil where I intend to plant later. A "mother" to sing lullabies to the new babies.

I do a lot of fermenting as well - wine, mead, kombucha, veggies, etc. . . and you always want a mother, a kveik, an elder to teach the young ones how to live.

Yes! I love fall gathering of flower seeds too. And other gardens are always so thrilled to share. :-)


As far as I can tell, freezing seeds doesn't keep them any better than just keeping them at a steady room temperature. I could be wrong - I'm no scientist. But I have been saving seeds and planting a garden for many years.

The most important factors are:
quality seeds to begin with
thoroughly dry (no mold)
kept away from pests (jar or bag)
stored in the dark at a steady temperature below 80 degrees.

It might prolong the life of the seeds if you vacuum sealed them with nitrogen (the same as you do for food storage.)

1 Illinois Everbearing mulberry can also feed a dozen chickens for the entire summer. When mature that is. I could get into perennial chick feed plants but there are too many USDA gardening Zones to bother much. But yes, mulberries are gorgeous and and odd thing I just recalled.

In Afghanistan, they grow them as street trees and are valued more then a human life if you damage or kill the tree. They make a flour out of them as well. If people are worried about concrete stains with the purplish ones, you can buy white mulberries. They dry really easily. Here's a rundown on mulberries from my favourite site.

[link to pfaf.org (secure)]

When I discussed why they did not include animal feed in their assessment of any various plants they have in the database, I was informed that they were vegans and didn't want people to have critters anyhow.

How to get a high sprout rate with old seeds -

Old seeds can develop a near invisible fungus or mold on them after being stored for many years. If you plant them and they wont sprout it is usually because the medium / water is below 72 deg (should be 74deg and above) and there is fungus making its way inside the seed.

How to remedy

1) Soak seeds in a hydrogen peroxide / water solution. I usually mix one eye dropper per half gallon of water. I soak them for 3-4 hours.

2) Also, using the same mixture, you can germinate them using moistened paper towels stored inside baggies. Not too moist, not too dry. Seeds should sprout in 2-4 days.

Also using same solution for making cuttings, particularly fruit trees with fungus on them. Spray cuttings in same solution then dip in root hormone then add to soil. Also soak shears in hydrogen peroxide and water before snipping.

I'm just migrating things from the Practical Prepping thread because it's dormant.

Your seeds are ruined. You can't just "save seeds". There's a special procedure for cleaning, drying and storing them.

Several years ago, I started saving seeds from fruits and veggies I ate. I didn't always plant them, but I had feeling that it was very very important to start saving them.

This year, I'm doing it again. and I bought baby pools made of blue plastic to turn into extra outside gardens. Just drill some holes in the bottom, fill with dirt, and viola..instant garden.

decent info

You can also save seeds in jars. I have used empty spice jars and half-pint jars for things I don't need a lot of. These stand neatly on the shelf and can be easily labeled.

I began doing it this way, but found I liked having more data with the seed as I can't remember everything from year to year.

There are often little things you will observe about a particular variety: a tomato that seems to do well in dryer soil or that tends to need calcium to avoid end-rot. Or a cucumber that goes bonkers on the west facing side of a wall... it is good to write those things down on your paper for the next year. It will save you tons of effort.

I saved some seeds from a green pepper and I put them in the fridge while I was finishing the diner and I forgot about them.They were in there for 2 weeks and I decided to give them a try.I planted them in an old cardboard egg container and put them outside.5 days later I had sprouts in all slots.I planted 4 seeds in each slot.They are growing great so far and I didn't do anything special other than just planting them after 2 weeks in the fridge.

A cheap way to get seeds you want (cheaper than buying seeds) is to buy fruit and vegetables from an organic supermarket.

I started my heirloom tomatoes and peppers that way until I got a variety that did well in my area.

You can start strawberries, blackberries and raspberries the same way.


I put the berries in a blender and slurry them. Then I mix the slurry with some soil and sand and spread it on a wet paper towel. I fold up the paper towel and put it in a empty sour cream container with holes poked in the lid for oxygen.

I label and date it and put it in the frig to "stratify" for a month.

Then I take it out and shake the seeds (often already sprouting) all over fresh moist soil. Cover lightly and keep moist.

I have sprouted hundreds of strawberry, raspberry, currant, blackberry seeds this way.

Hasn't worked for blueberries though - not sure why.

One thing I would love to still learn: how to grow potatoes well at high altitude (7K').

If there is anyone here that can tell me, I'm still trying to figure that one out. I get a small harvest, but nothing amazing.

Comfrey should be the number one edging plant in every gardeners yard (don't roto tiller it!)
[link to www.tenthacrefarm.com (secure)]
That and in between all your plantings, you can grow chives. WHy?
They encourage the plant growth around them because they prefer shade.