As the winter has now settled in, it's our plant friends' last hurrah of the season before beginning anew in the spring. One of our expert Los Alamos Community Seed Library organizers, KokHeong McNaughton, has written an article to help us identify how and when to save seeds. Once your seeds have been collected, we invite you to donate any extras you have to the Seed Library at either branch of the Los Alamos Public Library.

Saving Seeds -- by KokHeong McNaughton

Why save seeds? Given that they are so easily available and so cheap to buy, is it worth the trouble? I’ve been gardening here for more than 40 years now, but only in the last ten years have I been saving seeds from my garden.

 It all began when I started posting pictures of my garden on Facebook. One friend in Minnesota asked if I could save seeds from my red hollyhocks for her. Once I started doing this there was no holding me back! Red hollyhocks, pink four o-clocks, yellow-and-white columbines, maroon snapdragons, purple poppies, purple-and-pink cosmos, red Mexican hats with yellow trim, yellow Mexican hats with red trim, and many others, all neatly packed and labelled with the name of the plants and the year. I started posting pictures of my seed-saving journeys on my FB page to encourage others to do the same.

After I posted a picture of my heirloom tomato seeds spread out and drying on a coffee filter, several friends commented that they have begun saving seeds as well. One friend said to me, “I’m finally getting in touch with my inner gardener!” What a heart-warming testimony!

Some seeds are very easy to save. I simply pick them off from the mother plants when they are ready, or shake them into a paper bag, dry them, then label and store them.  Other seeds require a little more work. Tomato seeds have better germination rate if they were fermented to get rid of the gelatinous covering before drying and storing.  Healthy seeds from the squash family usually sink to the bottom in a bowl of water and can be easily separated from those unfertilized ones that float to the top or are still attached to the “innards” of the squash.  A little test with the finger pressing into the center of each seed can determine if that seed contains a kernel inside. Seeds need to be cleaned before packaging for the seed libraries, often to remove small insects that are still hiding in the seed heads. We use a set of seed-saving sieves with different-size holes initially to separate the seeds from the bulk of the seed heads, petals, and other flowering parts. They can then be separated from the chaffs of about the same size by repeated winnowing outdoor on a windy day.  If working indoor, small seeds can be separated from the lighter chaffs using static electricity. Simply swirl the mix on a paper plate (Chinet classic white is best) to generate static electricity, then tilt the plate to create a slope and lightly tap the upper edge of the plate. The heavier seeds will slide down leaving the lighter chaffs stuck to the plate.  Seeds have to be thoroughly dried before storing or they’ll turn moldy and rot. It is best to store seeds in paper bags so they can continue to dry, and if stored in a jar with lid, I usually put a small pack of silica gel to keep them dry.

 When to save seeds? Timing is crucial. Too early and the seeds are immature. Too late and the seeds would have been damaged by insects, eaten by birds, or have been completely dispersed. I have found that in order to get the most seeds, I wait until the flowers have stopped blooming and the petals have wilted, then I tie an organza bag around the seed head. This will protect the seeds from being damaged by bugs and when the seeds are ready to disperse, the bag will catch them all.

Saving seeds is empowering and allows us to select for qualities we want to preserve. Our ancestors had been saving and selecting seeds since we evolved from hunter-gatherers to settling down into domesticating animals and growing food. People used to save seeds from one year to the next to ensure continuous food production. It’s only in relatively recent human history that we’ve relegated this to seed companies. By doing so, we surrender our power to control our own food sources.

I save seeds for many reasons, the least of which is economic. By selecting the plumpest seeds from the biggest delicata squash, I hope to grow even bigger ones next year. Plants in my backyard produce seedlings that have adapted to the unique soil conditions and mini climate of my little corner of earth. Some seeds are not easily available locally, like those of bitter melons, winter melons, hairy gourds, and a few other special vegetables used in Chinese cuisine. Other seeds are saved for use in cooking, like black mustard seeds, coriander (from cilantro), dill, fennel parsley, and celery. Some plants propagate themselves through self-seeding without any interference from me. All I have to do is make sure they don’t get crowded by transplanting the seedlings to where I want more of them to grow, or give them to friends. I never saved seeds from hybrid plants as they are typically either infertile or revert to parental stocks. Vegetables like cucumbers, beans and summer squashes are at their best for eating before the seeds are mature, and letting them mature on the vines often reduces the plants’ productivity, so it’s best to wait until the end of the growing season before letting a few of them ripen enough to harvest their seeds. Because of cross pollination, may squash seeds may not produce the same fruits as their parent plants. It’s a very rare occurrence when a squash from cross-pollinated seed can cause Toxic Squash Syndrome. To reduce this risk, it’s recommended to cluster the same variety together, and space out the different varieties. Should a questionable squash tastes bitter, discard it.

 Some seeds are easy to germinate, but others need to be frozen for a period of time, like nature intended, before they will germinate. This process is called stratification.  We can mimic nature by freezing them in the freezer. Winter Sowing using recycled milk jugs is one technique that many gardeners are using to get an early start. If you’ve missed the December 14^th Workshop, here’s a blog I’ve written for the Bee City Los Alamos December issue of the newsletter – https://peecnature.org/what-is-winter-sowing/

Saving seeds takes my gardening awareness to the next level. I pay more attention to each plant and get to know them better as individuals. I mark those from which I plan to save seeds, knowing full well that the next generation of my red hollyhock may produce pink flowers, due to open pollination by bees. I delight in the surprise element as much as the hope eternal aspect of starting something from seeds.

Los Alamos Community Seed Library’s annual seed drive continues to accept seeds from patrons through the end of February 2025. I’m hosting a weekly seed-processing tea party at my home every Wednesday (except the 1^st of the month) where we gather for tea, cookies, and conversation while our hands are busy folding origami envelops from recycled paper, cleaning seeds, packaging them, and labelling them for our seed libraries. Email me (kokheong@comcast.net) for more information.