However, no two fruits or vegetables are alike, so when it comes to saving seeds, each varietal is different. Tomatoes, peppers, beans and peas are good choices for seed saving. When cross-pollination occurs, know that the old wives’ tale is simply not true. 4. 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. (By comparison, a cucumber or zucchini must go long past ripeness, ... Mr. Greene advised, save its seed, in case supply is short. To save seed is to participate in the process of natural selection. Remember you should only save seeds from open-pollinated (OP) tomatoes. Follow on Instagram and sign up for their newsletter for more inspirations on living a sustainable life. 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. Label and store your saved cucumber seeds in an envelope, breathable cotton bag or a glass jar in a cool, dry place. Introducing "One Thing": A New Video Series. Remove the good seed and spread them on a screen or on paper towels to dry thoroughly. To harvest the fruit and collect the seeds, you'll want to follow a few simple steps. Saving melon seeds from this year’s crop to plant in next year’s garden requires planning and attention to detail. Cucumber seeds are relatively easy to save for planting next year. If you save seeds from a hybrid, the next generation reverts to the various parents. Bring it inside, then cut it lengthwise to reveal its inner seeds. Use the scissors, knife or bamboo sticks from your collecting kit to harvest the ripe seeds. 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. Set the bowl aside and leave it in a warm space – to allow fermentation to begin. This can take anywhere from 1 to 3 days, and will smell like a gently fermenting cucumber salad. Once dry, store the seeds in an air-tight storage bag or a Mason jar and label them for next year's sowing. Once a day, stir the mixture thoroughly. To harvest a cucumber for seeds, means that it will no longer be small and green. Once properly dried, seeds can also be sealed in airtight containers and stored in … They will enlarge and turn yellow. 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. It is extremely rewarding to plant them year after year, with the same delicious results. Some seeds are easier to save than others. If you save seed only from the biggest tomato of the bunch and replant them year after year, you’ll eventually end up with seeds that produce plants on which all the tomatoes are bigger. Place the seeds in a bowl, or jar, and cover the seeds with water. Colleen Vanderlinden is a freelance writer and the author of Edible Gardening for the Midwest. To complicate things even further, cucumbers cross-pollinate easily with other cucumber varieties, which can impact the success of future harvests. This puts you at risk of spreading the virus to next year’s plants through this year’s seeds. After the coating is removed, rinse seeds and spread them out on wax paper. Rinse the good seeds a few more times, then strain them and place them on paper towels to dry. Keep the Seeds Dry Using a Silica Gel Packet or Raw Rice It's essential that the seeds remain dry while being stored. 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. Stir the contents at least once a day. The same holds true for almost any other trait. While you're harvesting cucumbers to use in your kitchen, set aside a few specifically for harvesting seeds. Once you have mastered the act of saving your cucumber seeds, why not move onto tomatoes. They are considered wet seeds. Read More. All of your seed saving expertise will be in vain if you try to save hybrid seeds. 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. If you save seeds from a hybrid variety and replant them, you likely won't get any cucumbers. To pollinate the flowers you'll harvest for seeds, first use a small brush to collect the pollen from a bagged male cucumber flower. 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. Also, be aware that some seeds can transmit disease. Some cucumber seed packages come with up to 10 seeds in them – an entire cucumber could have as many as 100 seeds! That includes all the heirlooms. It all started at a young age with a love for the outdoors, followed by a keen interest in goats, which turned into a love for raising ducks and mangalica pigs on the Plains of Hungary. 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. 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. 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