Collecting seeds: harvesting and storing effectively

Collecting Seeds: Harvesting & Storing Effectively

Now we'll look in more depth at when and how to collect our own seed, and how to store it to ensure it keeps for as long as possible.

Leave seeds to ripen on the plant for as long as you can. The pods may start to split open, but so long as the plant is still upright, there will still be seeds inside.

• This is the perfect time to harvest before the plant collapses.

How to Collect Seed:

1. Cut the stem and shake over a holeless tray such as a seed tray lid.

• If the seedhead is small, you can shake the seeds into a paper bag and leave the seedhead in there for any more seed to fall out naturally, leaving in a dry place

1. Pick out any chaff that falls among the seed.

• Impurities like this can introduce moisture.

1. Label your paper bag or seed packet that you're using to store the seed.

• It can be harder to write on it once there's seed inside.

1. Put the seed into the bag or packet and store somewhere cool and dry.

Collecting Seed from Large Seedheads Such as Dill

Florist's dill seedheads are really architectural, so I leave some up over winter to provide interest and food for birds.

The seedhead is huge, so I use a different method.

1. Cut off a few 'branches' from the seedhead
2. Turn these upside down in a bag and shake
3. Gently pull off any seeds that don't fall off on their own.

Collecting Tiny Seeds Such as Foxglove

For some plants, such as Digitalis parviflora with its tiny seeds, I have a different approach again.

1. Take a bag with you into the garden, snip off the seedhead in sections and put these straight into a paper bag, upside down.
2. Leave in a dry place in a greenhouse or shed for 2-3 weeks to dry out even more.
3. When you take out the seedhead, lots of tiny seeds will have fallen out into the bag. A gentle shake over the bag may release even more.

Digitalis parviflora is an example of one of the perennials you can collect and sow seed from and it will usually come back true.

Appreciating the Cycle of Nature

Seeds are so diverse and beautiful that harvesting them focuses the mind and takes you back to the therapeutic value of growing plants from seed, completing that cycle and being in wonder at nature.

Storing Your Seed

• The best way to store seed and help it stay viable for a long time is to keep it in the fridge, but it needs to be kept very dry – ideally in a sealed container with silica gel packet in it.
• However, I keep quite a lot of my seed in the greenhouse over winter and it's still ok.
• Some annuals that are hardy can be sown straight away in autumn, e.g. Ammi majus, which I've sown in a seed tray to allow me to slot it into borders next year.

Plant Directory

Ammi majus

False bishop's weed

Hardy annual

Apiaceae

Anethum graveolens 'Mariska'

Florist's dill

Hardy annual or biennial

Apiaceae

Consolida ajacis 'Misty Lavender'

Giant larkspur 'Misty Lavender'

Hardy annual

Ranunculaceae

Digitalis parviflora

Small-flowered foxglove

Hardy perennial

Plantaginaceae

Tropaeolum 'Ladybird Rose'

Nasturtium 'Ladybird Rose'

Half-hardy annual

Tropaeolaceae