Save seeds to cut down the costs of gardening

You can cut the cost of growing a garden if you gather and save seeds. The time to start is late in the growing season when many kinds of seeds are mature.

Seeds can be saved by two methods. One is wet and the other is dry.

The wet method is used for tomato, squash, cucumber and melon, plus a few flowers such as rose. You basically scoop the seeds out of the fruit and place them in a jar with a small amount of warm water.

Stir it daily and let it ferment for a few days before pouring off the pulp, water and floating seeds. The good seeds sink to the bottom of the jar and they are spread out on a paper towel or screen to dry.

Seeds are mature and ready for saving when tomatoes and melons are at the right stage for eating. However, cucumbers and squashes are different, as they need to remain on the vine until the fruits are tough and over-ripe.

Most flowers, herbs and quite a few vegetables are saved by the dry method. It is particularly recommended for plants such as marigold, zinnia, bean, carrot and corn.

You allow the seeds to stay on the plant as long as possible and turn dry in this process. After removing ripe seeds from the plants, spread them out in a ventilated area protected from rain and let them dry completely.

The seeds of onion, carrot and lettuce plants develop on tall stalks. You cut them when mature and dry and place them in paper bags where their tiny seeds will fall out and be contained.

A similar approach will work for flowers such as cockscomb, poppy and columbine, and herbs such as basil, cilantro and dill.

The seeds of zinnia, marigold and purple coneflower occur in dense seed heads, which you must break apart with your fingers.

Be sure all your seed is very dry before putting it into storage. The alternative is mold and poor germination.

For best results, store your seeds in air-tight containers, in a cool, dark place. Your refrigerator or freezer is ideal.

Rather than trust your memory, put a label on the seed containers you are storing. Write down the name of the plant, the variety and the date.

Saving seeds is preferred for open-pollinated and heirloom vegetables instead of hybrids. These plants come true from seed, while hybrids do not. There is no problem saving and replanting seeds you collect from hybrid plants, as long as you are not expecting the seedlings to be just like their parents.

Cross-pollination yields some unusual results in the cucurbit family. Seeds saved from acorn squashes growing close to a pumpkin patch could lead to a crop of squmpkins next year.

Cucumbers growing next to melons are no problem. They never cross-pollinate.