Since most home growers don't operate large-scale farms with that much available space, isolation for cucumber seed collection requires a few nuanced measures, following by pollination and finally harvesting. Once completely dry, your seeds can be stored in envelopes or a glass jar with a clear label specifying the date and variety. How to collect and save vegetable seeds: Beans, peas and corn: remove husks and allow seeds to dry out – this may take a couple of weeks, then remove casings and store. There are seeds inside, ready to be saved. Furthermore, it is useful to know that cucumbers are both wind and insect pollinated and it just so happens that cucumbers can be hand pollinated when necessary, just like squash and pumpkins. Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary Use the scissors, knife or bamboo sticks from your collecting kit to harvest the ripe seeds. Store dry seeds in a cool garage that is frost-free. Shake seeds into … Ground vines should be planted about three feet apart. The first step is to choose your best-looking tomatoes. Hybrid plants are created by cross-breeding select “parent plants” with desirable characteristics. They have flowers that are self-pollinating and seeds that require little or no special treatment before storage. Once a day, stir the mixture thoroughly. To save cucumber seeds, the fruits must be allowed to mature far past the stage they're usually eaten – until they're ripe and have turned orange or yellow. If you have done your research on open-pollinated varieties and heirlooms well ahead of planting time, you’ll know that hybrids are to be avoided if you would like to save any sort of seeds for the following garden season. Scoop the pulp contents into a small bowl or mason jar, then add enough room-temperature water to cover the pulp and seeds, which will help remove their gel coating. Melons are members of the cucumber family, and they are open Some cucumber seed packages come with up to 10 seeds in them – an entire cucumber could have as many as 100 seeds! By using The Spruce, you accept our, How to Save Lettuce Seeds From Your Garden, Growing Cucumbers of All Shapes and Sizes, How to Save Tomato Seeds to Grow Next Year, How to Save Beans to Plant in Next Year's Garden, Seed Saving - Quick Tips for Saving Your Garden Favorites. Herein, lies the difference. However, some people use this method every year so they don’t have to save seeds or plant a garden. Rinse the good seeds a few more times, then strain them and place them on paper towels to dry. To pollinate the flowers you'll harvest for seeds, first use a small brush to collect the pollen from a bagged male cucumber flower. The population size for maintaining a variety is a recommended range that seed savers should use when routinely growing a crop to save seeds. A Couple Points to Consider. That being said, some so-called hybrid seed is not really hybrid, or at least from parents that are not that different, and the offspring of these will be very like the parents. Cheryl Magyar is a sustainable life designer and environmental freelance writer with more than twenty years experience of living a simple life close to nature. Currently she is homesteading in northern Romania, amidst charming haystacks, with her husband and homeschooled daughter. It's important to keep an eye on the cucumbers you'll be harvesting throughout the season to ensure they don't look like they're diseased in any way. Once all (or at least the majority of) your seeds have sunk, add additional water to the container to clean them. Slice your cucumber in half long ways, and scoop out the seeds. This can take anywhere from 1 to 3 days, and will smell like a gently fermenting cucumber salad. Once you have your garden planted, you’ll want to be sure not to accidentally eat all of your seed crops! There are many methods you can use to ensure a prosperous garden each year, and saving seeds from heirloom or open-pollinated varietals is a wonderful way to almost always guarantee a plant's vitality. Never save seeds from a diseased plant. After the coating is removed, rinse seeds and spread them out on wax paper. You can use this same process to save seeds from tomatoes and cucumbers as well. If you save seeds from a hybrid, the next generation reverts to the various parents. If stored properly, your cucumber seeds will remain viable for 10 years. To soak up any moisture, place a silica gel packet in your glass jar and replace it every six months. Place seeds on a paper towel or screen until they are thoroughly dry. Saving seed from one year to plant the next is an age-old tradition. Step 6 – Place seeds on a paper towel or screen until they are thoroughly dry. Harvesting unripe seed doesn’t work, and immature seeds never germinate. If you’re dealing with plants that have tiny seed-producing flowers such as basil, snip the entire stalk to let the seeds fall naturally into an envelope or container. Introducing "One Thing": A New Video Series. Allow the seeds to completely dry out for a week or longer depending on size. Put the quarters into a bowl of tepid water, and rub the seeds out with your fingers. Then, gently place the pollen onto the stigma in the center of the female flower. Stir the mixture daily. Cucumbers and zucchini/summer squashes also have to be left a little longer, and you’re going to want to choose just one variety if you want next year’s plants to be similar to this year’s. Read More. Add enough water to equal the volume of the seed mass, and put the container in a warm spot out of direct sunlight. Allowing the cucumber to then sit for about 2 more weeks before harvesting its seeds will greatly increase the seeds viability. Keep the Seeds Dry Using a Silica Gel Packet or Raw Rice It's essential that the seeds remain dry while being stored. To remove the seed, cut into quarters lengthwise, avoiding the core, and pull apart. You have to wait out the year to see, and even save from year to year, and not many people have the time or space to do this. Step 7 – Label and store your saved cucumber seeds in an envelope, breathable cotton bag or a glass jar in a cool, dry place. Step 3 – Place the seeds in a bowl, or jar, and cover the seeds with water. Sources of open-pollinated vegetables seeds include Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Seeds of Change, Seed Savers Exchange, and Territorial Seed Company. If stored properly, your cucumber seeds will remain viable for 10 years. Here's how. Place a tiny bit of warm water in a bucket, then place all of the seeds in there as well. It would be nice if it was as simple as scooping them out, washing and drying them off. This post may contain affiliate links. If you save seeds from a hybrid variety and replant them, you likely won't get any cucumbers. Typically made using a wood or PVC frame that's been covered in a spun polyester screen, the DIY device also works great to keep pollinators out. Saving vegetable seeds can help preserve the particular variety you are growing (for example if you are growing an heirloom variety). At this point you can safely remove the bags from all your cucumber plantsâjust make sure you keep the female fruit tagged so you remember to harvest it for seed and it doesn't end up in a salad by mistake. Once you've identified the female blossoms, you can bag them individually in spun polyester or cotton bags, which will prevent insects from pollinatingâand therefore crossingâthem. Some seeds are easier to save than others. Save Seeds from the Best Plants. Even if next year’s crop emerges and turns into a similar looking cucumber, it will not be exactly the same – the original characteristics will have morphed. Step 4 – Set the bowl aside and leave it in a warm space – to allow fermentation to begin. The seeds are enclosed in a slippery jelly like sack to keep them from sprouting inside the moist fruit. But you won't know this from the seed package. Allow the seeds and pulp to mold for a few days, and then wash off and dry the seeds like above. The same holds true for almost any other trait. Here’s our tutorial for saving tomato seeds so you can try it for yourself. To harvest a cucumber for seeds, means that it will no longer be small and green. As the seeds ferment, the pulp separates from the viable seeds. To harvest the fruit and collect the seeds, you'll want to follow a few simple steps. To complicate things even further, cucumbers cross-pollinate easily with other cucumber varieties, which can impact the success of future harvests. Seeds from biennial crops such as carrots or beets are harder to save since the plants need two growing seasons to set seed. The good news is, a monster zucchini full of mature seeds can still be eaten, cored and stuffed. Once you have mastered the act of saving your cucumber seeds, why not move onto tomatoes. Label and store your saved cucumber seeds in an envelope, breathable cotton bag or a glass jar in a cool, dry place. Only harvest mature seeds from the healthiest plants. (See : How To Save Heirloom Tomato Seeds) And once all of your vegetable seeds are saved and stored, you will be armed and ready for planting your garden next year – with zero expense! Colleen Vanderlinden is a freelance writer and the author of Edible Gardening for the Midwest. This may make for a lovely green, uniform, well formed cucumber, but it comes with a caveat: seeds saved from hybrids are often sterile. Rinse the good seeds a few more times, then strain them and place them on paper towels to dry. You find a chart listing how long seeds last, as well as seed storage tips right here! Once dry, store the seeds in an air-tight storage bag or a Mason jar and label them for next year's sowing. Stir the contents at least once a day. If you only knew how! Pumpkins and melons: seeds need to be washed and set aside to dry for a week or so before storage. Once the fruit is done, melon and watermelon seeds simply need to be washed, dried and stored for next year. 5. Since its my first year saving these seeds I will test the unfermented seed to see how it compares with the cleaned seed. Leave them in the water until the pulp separates from each individual seed. Non-viable seeds will float to the top, the rest will sink. Before saving cucumber seeds, you'll first need to make sure you are dealing with an open-pollinated or non-hybrid variety, otherwise known as an heirloom. Place the container in the freezer for two days to kill any residual pests and then store in a cool, dry place such as the refrigerator. Cucumber seeds take a little more effort. You want to save seed from the finest fruit, so that next year's plant will have good genes. Mark 1 or 2 early good fruits on each plant to leave for seed, and then pick and eat later fruits. Every gardener and homesteader knows, or will quickly find out, that cost tops the list of reasons to save their own garden seeds. 6. Read on for tips about collecting seeds from melons. You can save ten years worth of cucumber seeds, once every ten years! Though squashes and squashes can. Wet seeds, such as tomato and cucumber seeds, often need to be fermented to remove pulp and germination-inhibiting substances. The Spruce uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. You don't want bees pollinating the cucumber plants you'll be saving seeds from, so this is the part where you play Mother Nature yourself. Similar to saving tomato seeds, you'll want to set the container aside (uncovered) in a warm spot that ideally maintains a temperature between 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The cucumber must also stay on the vine until it is past an edible stage. For example: arugula, cilantro, and lettuce seeds are easy to save because you just let the plant form flowers and go to seed, wait until the seed heads dry, and then harvest the seeds. Set the bowl aside and leave it in a warm space – to allow fermentation to begin. Any cucumbers being cultivated for seed must be grown to full maturity and remain on the vine past the point where they're no longer edible. For vertical vines, plant seeds one foot apart. Remove the seeds and let them ferment in a pail for three days the same as tomato seeds to remove the gel around them. Saving melon seeds from this year’s crop to plant in next year’s garden requires planning and attention to detail. Larger populations will increase the chance that a variety will maintain a higher level of genetic diversity, which is more important for long term seed saving and/or when growers regenerate their seeds often (say every 1-3 years). The first step to saving cucumber seeds is to isolate your plant before it fruits. Non-viable seeds will float to the top, the rest will sink. You can save 100+ seeds from a single cucumber ready to grow again next year. Cucumber seeds will last up to 5 years in proper storage – to be safe, plant them and save seeds again as often as possible! If you are looking to expand your garden next year, saving seeds is the most cost-effective action you can take. 4. Turns out, it is a bit more complicated than that, luckily not by much. You can also keep seeds dry using rice kernels. Any debris or unviable seeds will again float to the top, making them easy to skim off and discard. It is extremely rewarding to plant them year after year, with the same delicious results. 7. This means that cross pollination can be an issue in a smaller garden, and definitely within an allotment or community garden. However, no two fruits or vegetables are alike, so when it comes to saving seeds, each varietal is different. It’s actually a pretty cool idea. While you're harvesting cucumbers to use in your kitchen, set aside a few specifically for harvesting seeds. For successful seed saving, you must assure seed purity. In order to save seeds from cucumbers, you must let them thoroughly ripen on the vine. Collecting Seeds from Melons. How to Save Seeds for Next Year Step 3: Don’t Eat Everything! The reason you’ll do this is to remove the gel coating that surrounds these types of seeds. Put the harvested seeds into a large bowl, and add an equal amount of water. Once dry, store the seeds in an air-tight storage bag or a Mason jar and label them for next year's sowing. She is an avid organic gardener who can often be found eating nourishing “weeds” and making herbal infusions, just as she can be seen planting native trees to help others around the world to lower their carbon footprints. They will enlarge and turn yellow. Strain the seeds, helping to remove any remaining viscous seed cover. Remove the good seed and spread them on a screen or on paper towels to dry thoroughly. To save seed is to participate in the process of natural selection. All of your seed saving expertise will be in vain if you try to save hybrid seeds. Remember you should only save seeds from open-pollinated (OP) tomatoes. The time to save cucumber seeds is when the fruit on the plant is ripe. Follow on Instagram and sign up for their newsletter for more inspirations on living a sustainable life. If you suspect that your pepper plant was infected with a disease, whether it be viral or bacterial, don’t save those seeds. Learn tips for creating your most beautiful (and bountiful) garden ever. This is a good indication that fermentation is occurring, which further rids the seeds of their gel coating and separates poor seeds (the floating seeds) from the viable ones (the sunken seeds). Seeds are happiest when they are stored in a cool, dark, and dry place. Step 5 – Strain the seeds, helping to remove any remaining viscous seed cover. Once approximately three days have passed, you'll notice that some of the seeds have begun to sink to the bottom of the container. Also, be aware that some seeds can transmit disease. Another (more in-depth) way to isolate your cucumber plant involves building a cage to enclose the entire plant. They need to be pollinated by insects or the wind (or hand-pollinated by the gardener) in order to set fruit. When you happen upon a cucumber, yellowing and past its prime, take it as a learning opportunity. 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