Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Pour the rest of the good seeds into a strainer and rinse them clean. When just the seeds are left in
the strainer, place them onto a saucer or small plate to dry. Again, be sure you keep the seeds from
each variety separate and marked.
These tomato seeds have just finished the fermentation process and are ready to dry and store for next
year's growing season.
(Photo courtesy of Baker Creek Seeds)
Let the seeds dry in a place where they are out of direct sunlight and high heat, and be sure to stir
them up a bit each day to prevent molding or clumping. When they are completely dry you can
store them in a cool, dry, and airtight location where they will remain viable for 5 to 10 years.
Here's a great tip from Jodi of prepperkitchen.com: When drying small seeds like tomato seeds, lay
them on a paper towel over a screen to finish drying. They will dry and stick to the paper towel,
making it easy to roll up the paper and store the seeds when they are completely dry. The next
spring you can easily plant the seeds by ripping off pieces of the paper towel with the seeds stuck
to it, which makes it easy to space the seeds without overcrowding them. The paper towel simply
decomposes while the seed grows into the new plant. Brilliant!
Dry processing involves allowing the seeds to dry directly on the plant, usually inside a pod
of some kind. After the plant and seeds are dry, they can be harvested and threshed from the
plant. With plants like sunflowers, I cut the entire flower head and hang it upside down in the
laundry room to finish drying. With other plants, like beans, or the purple-hulled peas we grow
at the ranch, the pods are allowed to dry on the plant. Then the pods are harvested and the seeds
removed from inside the pod.
