It never fails that each year something doesn’t go to plan. This past grow season, many growers across the US complained that what came up in their gardens was not the seeds that they bought.
What I found interesting was that it wasn’t one seed supplier that had a seed mishap, but a handful of large seed companies. It wasn’t one seed type, but several.
Across social platforms some growers tried to pacify upset growers by saying that mistakes happen. And the response often was that this doesn’t happen on the large scale that it did happen.
Truly, it was a weird moment, especially when so many people long for a time of no more surprises and life as normal as possible.
The problem is that if you’re not self sufficient in management of your seeds, you are vulnerable to the surprises that happen to other growers that you are dependent on. None of my seeds were packaged wrong. However I did order garlic over the summer. Shortly before delivery time I received an email telling me that one of the varieties that I ordered had a bad grow season so there were heads that were going to be sold this year.
No problem, I shifted my order to another variety. And this inconvenience probably worked out in my favor. My replacement order is a variety that will do much better with the winter that’s projected.
These are just a couple examples of what can happen when our seeds come from other growers. And as much as it feels unfair and out of our control, it serves as a good reminder that there is a skill we can all learn… Seed saving.
There are many benefits for saving your own seeds for next year’s garden. Provided that nothing happens to your crop, you are guaranteed seeds. These seeds have a memory that is specific for your microclimate. And if you have a surplus of seeds, you can trade them with neighbors.
One thing that I love about learning how to seed save is that I learn the whole life cycle of the plants that I grow.
Here are a few seeds that I collected this year.
Parsley
I kind of laughed when I saw my Parsley. The weather has been so weird lately that I had three different stages of seed production all at the same time. As you look at the pictures below you’ll see the progression from the tail end of the flower stage, into the green seed stage, and finally the mature seed stage.
Just with these three pictures, it’s easy to see why you have to have patience when you are waiting for your seeds to mature. And this is the reason why I wanted to share this information with you is because schools don’t teach you how to look for mature seeds. In a botany class you’ll see diagrams of the seed stage. But it is experience that shows you when it’s the right time to collect.
If you are unaware of what to look for, you can see seeds and make the mistake of collecting the seeds at that moment in time and you’re completely unaware that you saved seeds that are immature and will more than likely never sprout in the spring when you try to germinate them. Mature seeds are what you want to re-grow plants successfully.
TIP: If you’re unsure if you have mature seeds yet, take a small section of seeds now and leave the majority on the plant. If the seeds are green, the next time you go out and see a change in the seeds you will then know that what you first collected was immature seeds. Discard those seeds. If you think that you now have mature seeds, take a small section and save those seeds and leave a large number on the plant to further mature. If the seeds on the plant change, then you collected immature seeds. Discard those seeds. Once mature seeds have arrived they are only on the plant for a couple of days before they fall to the ground for self seeding.
Another benefit that this parsley gave me is that it gives you a place examination of seeing different stages. When first saving seeds, none of us know what to look for. We learn through trial and error or from someone who knows the life cycle of the plant and tells you specifically what to look for when gathering seeds. Going back to Parsley above, this particular plant shows that the seeds are ready when the seeds have turned black.
Sometimes flowering seeds are not as easy to recognize.
Catnip
This is my second year with Catnip, even though I sowed seeds for it 3 years ago. This is the first year that the plant actually bloomed for me, and it was only this one stalk of flowers that you see here.
When I look closely at this stalk, it seems like I have captured a few different seed stages as well. There’s an obvious white blossom section still present. There’s one section that looks like it might be green seeds, it looks like a head of wheat berries. And then there is also one section (in the tallest branch) where I see a black seed and what looks like empty pods where seeds have dropped out.
The problem is that I tried looking up seed stages from this plant and I haven’t yet been able to find any source that helps me identify what mature seeds look like.
Because I grew this plant from seed, and I still have seeds left over, I can go back to the original seeds and see what those mature seeds look like.
But if you don’t have the benefit of mature seeds to compare with, there is this process of trial and error that you need to go through to learn the life cycle of seed growth to figure out what it is that you’re looking for. (See the TIP above.)
What I did want to draw your attention to is that even with flowering plants/herbs, the seeds are not all going to present themselves the same. Catnip and Parsley are both herbs. Parsley exposes it seed before it falls. Catnip looks like there is a pod covering, something akin to how seeds are presented in the Brassica vegetable family. The seed is grown inside a pod and once the seeds are mature, the pods open and the seeds drop.
I suspect that Catnip holds seeds in a single pod because when I look closely there is a transparent skin like “flower” that is empty. Now the flowers of catnip are not transparent. They are a very opaque white (at least on my catnip) flower that has shown itself to be hardy. (If you zoom in on the middle two branches you can see the remnants of these flowers on the decline. It’s very different in appearance to what you see in the tallest branch/section.) These transparent skins are mostly in this tallest branch/section. And when you look closely there, you see a single black seed. These black seeds are the mature seeds. (I pulled out my packet of catnip seeds that I had originally purchased. The seeds are black and small. So I can confirm this seed.)
Oregano
Most people never see the seeds from Oregano or other herbs (like Basil) because everyone is warned to prune off the flowers in order to promote a longer leaf grow season. And once the flowers develop, we’re told that the leaf changes its flavor. At the best it’s just a flavor change. At worst, the leaves become unpalatable. Because of this, most growers prune off the flowers as they start to grow at the end of the season.
If you want to have seeds, you have to leave the flowers on the plant and show patients. Pollinators have to go to work on these blossoms. When they are pollinatedyou have to wait even longer for the seeds to develop and grow.
I wasn’t planning on growing seeds on my oregano that I’ve grown in a basket and overwintered in a greenhouse. (I’ve noticed that some growers discourage overwintering oregano because the flavor becomes less desirable when you treat it like a perennial. However I’ve noticed no real change in leaf flavor. This was the first year that it bloomed on me, so I’ll have to wait until next year and try the leaves after being overwintered again.)
What I wanted to show with Oregano is that the seeds grow a little different. It’s similar to what I showed with Parsley, where the seeds are presented in a very obvious way. But instead of being a single seed spaced out in a firework cluster formation, the seeds of Oregano have a gathered cluster head.
The seeds here are a little more obvious to identify. But I wanted to talk about herbs like Oregano because as growers we are so accustomed to prevent seeding in favor of harvesting. I want to suggest that if it’s your desire to save as many seeds from the plants that you grow in the event that you have a surety of preserving what you use for food and medicine, it might be time to make a conscious decision to let the blossoms grow and go to seed so that you can collect. This is particularly a good idea if you haven’t learned how to clone that particular plant and you want to share with loved ones what you have been having success with.
Stevia
Stevia is a new to me plant. This past year I had found this start at a local shop and wanted to give it a go for growing. I’ve never seen what the seeds look like for this plant. And truly I know nothing about this plant other than the leaves are sweet and a viable alternative for sugar, if you’re looking for self sustaining options for providing for your family.
Where I am at now with this plant is not much further than where I was when I started. However, I’ve come to learn that the plant that I purchased grows in stalks instead of bushes. The longest stalk is about 3 feet tall. Currently it’s “dying” off for the season very similar to my Lemon Balm. The leaves became mottled (black and green). Unfortunately the latest wind storm caused my planter to fall and split the main stalk. (I’ll try to triage this stalk and see if I can bring it back. The break looks clean and free from disease. And to give it the best chance to over winter I’ll put it in a flowerbed that’s a bit more protected from the weather.)
I didn’t set out to find how stevia propagated. Originally I thought it might be a perennial bush that spread instead of going to seed. However, one day out taking care of fall tasks, I found that the stevia had gone to seed. And that is what you see above. I have no idea what stage these seeds are at. I did snip this from the top of a stalk and left the other three stalks as they were (also seed bearing). That was two weeks ago and all the seeds are now gone.
The walk away lesson is that seeds take forever to grow. And then they are gone before you think about it.
Gladiolus
While talking about flowering seeds, I wanted to show one last example of how flowers can produce seeds. A Gladiola is officially a bulb flower, but it produces seeds.
As you can see here, at the bulb of the gladiola, the seeds form underground.
If you’ve grown gladiolus, you know that they don’t produce seeds from their flowers. But if you’ve also grown bulb flowers you are also aware that bulbs (daffodil, tulip, chrysanthemum to name a few) duplicate themselves with a single additional bulb. So when you look at this picture and see all these seeds, you start to question everything you thought you knew.
The people who owned our home before us grew gladiolus out front. When I was ready to pursue gardening, gladioli were not on my list. For several years I kept pulling the stalks of each new gladiola and wondered what was going on. It didn’t matter if I pulled in the spring or fall, They just kept coming back. And If I left one because life was just too busy, the next season a half dozen would pop up. And that’s the short story about how I learned that gladiolus had seeds.
One year I pulled one up, like you see in the picture, and saw all the seeds forming on the bulb. And everything suddenly made sense. If I pulled the bulb after the seeds had formed (and subsequently stayed in the ground) of course a new garden of gladiolus would spring up next year.
This is one seed that if you do a search, you will find pictures of seeds and even a couple articles that talk about them.
Other seeds you will also find talked about online are seeds that are collected from the petals of flowers (marigolds and bachelor buttons to name a few).
As you can see, just by talking about seeds that come by flowers there is a whole world that opens up. And all of it because not all seeds look the same or are produced the same.
Seed Memory
Each spring packets of seeds are always on sale in brick and mortar stores. Starts are readily available at farmer’s markets, local growing communities, and certain stores. But as we saw with online seed sales, mistakes happen. What you think you purchased can turn out to be something different. It doesn’t matter if it was a true accident or something that was designed to happen. The walking away point that we can all move forward with is that the only seeds that are in your control are the ones that you save yourself.
I started saving seeds from my vegetable garden as a way of saving money when purchasing seeds and starts. “Free” seeds frees up your resources for other areas in your life. And if you know what to look for, you can read the signs for when your seeds are finished and ready to harvest.
In the future, I’ll share more about other seeds that I save (fruits, vegetables, herbs, etc.). I see the benefit in sharing because they may look different than what you anticipate. Or maybe you want to grow something new and have no idea what to look for. And when you go to search online, you don’t have any valuable information. And let’s face it, sometimes a picture is all we need to make the dots connect and understanding comes. And pictures are usually the thing that I find lacking.
But even more important than all this is what the seeds contain!
When you grow a plant, it passes on its knowledge through seeds. There’s no school that plants send their seedlings to so they can figure out how to live and survive. All of that is passed on in the DNA of the seed. When people talk about this, they say it’s Seed Memory.
Seed memory is so important because that is how plants produce young so that it will succeed in its environment. And this is the absolute reason why you want to save seeds.
When you buy seeds from online, you are purchasing seeds that are grown in one micro climate. While the grow zone number can be the same, there is a world of difference in the actual living conditions. For example, my US grow zone in the Pacific Northwest is the same number as certain places in the Deep South. And if you’ve been to both regions you will know that while there is similarities, but there are a lot of differences to the micro climates as well. In fact, one of my favorite online shops to buy from is located in the Midwest which has even more different microclimate than the Pacific Northwest and the Deep South. And that doesn’t even touch the differences between the microclimates in the Pacific Northwest region. In fact, the grow season is differential enough between my city and certain areas in the city next to me. Not to mention between my county and the next.
The plants that you grow from seeds that are purchased are plants that are grown in a different microclimate. This can be affected by how much humidity they expect to face, the amount of natural rain fall, frost dates, seasonal average weather, and so much more. The plant that I grow from seed expects my garden to be exactly like the garden that its parent plant grew in. And when that seedling starts to grow, it finds that it’s a different world out there. This can affect growth patterns, when fruit forms, and how and when seeds set.
If you start off with seeds that were saved from your own garden, the seedlings from those seeds do not have to readjust to a foreign world. They already have the seed memory for the microclimate that you are in. They know when spring hits, when the weather starts to warm up, when summer starts, when fall will start to bring the cooler weather, and when frost should happen. The seedlings get to focus their energy more on growth and will always outpace seeds that are from other regions.
That doesn’t mean that purchased seeds will fail. It just means that there is more going against those seeds that they have to overcome.
You will always have better success with seeds that you can save from your own garden.
Another thing about seed memory is that all the adversities that your garden faces, it will pass on in seed memory for future seedlings. For example, two years ago my garden had two winter seasons that jumped straight into a summer season.
Because I planted those seeds in my garden this past spring, those seedlings were ready for uncharacteristically cold spring. Those seedlings thrived and grew well from the get go, because they were not thrown off by a cool spring (which was still warmer than the spring of the parent plant).
What my garden struggled with this year was a decent spring that went into a cool summer (10-20°F cooler than the historic average). The seeds that I save this year (for my next growing season) now have the memory of a cool spring (from its “grandparents”) and a cool summer (from its “parents”).
While I don’t anticipate my garden producing super plants with all this seed memory. I DO anticipate that my starts will grow strong (even if it’s a cold spring) and will bear fruit according to growth/produce dates (even if it’s a cool summer) because the seed memory tells those seedlings to anticipate this obstacles to the grow season.
I have yet to find a study that talks about how far back seed memory goes. It is reasonable for seeds to remember two generations back. However it is not unreasonable for the seed memory to be uncalculatable. After all, as growers we are told that seeds are only viable for 3-5 years with germination rates declining with each and every year. However a palm tree was planted from a seed 2000 years old. Much of seed viability is dependent on the maturity of seeds, how they were harvested, how they were stored, and how they are sown.
As I’ve told many people this past grow season…
If you had a bad grow season, or things didn’t grow for you at all, chances are that you are not to blame.
The last 2 years of traceable weather obstacles that played a bigger part in your garden’s health than your affinity to growing plants. The memory of the seeds that you used had more to say about your harvest than the things that you did or did not do during the grow season.
What is in your control is how you pivot as a grower based off of the signs and calculatable information that you respond to during a grow season.
For example, one lady was surprised when I told her that since the beginning of 2023 and until Fall rains came, our microclimate was recorded to have had drought like conditions. In the winter we were in the tenth of an inch of rain on days we should have been having 3-5 inches of rain. Spring was the same way. Summer was summer as usual as far as historic rain levels hold.
She asked me, “Even though we had timed water irrigation.”
Yes, even timed water irrigation. Even though we as growers set our watering schedule as a means to remember to water, maximize our watering efforts, and conserve water… we are only adding to what normally falls as rain during each of our seasons.
Our gardens use the following math:
x rain volume + y additional water from grower = total growth water
Y can remain a constant through many many years, depending on when you started your timed irrigation.
X fluctuates depending on what falls naturally. (And this is a subject all of its own, depending on the circles of conversations you have.)
Plants depend (through seed memory) on the total growth water. If the water you provide is the same that you’ve always done in the past, but the rain volume has changed, there is going to be a difference in how your plants grow.
When growers talk about how a certain crop needs only 1″ (for example) of water a week, that is under the assumption that your garden is receiving regular rain water for the rest of the week. A plant does not depend on water from grower as their only source of water.
So if your garden struggled, it is entirely because there was a growth need in the seed memory that was not met during the grow season.
And that is what our job as growers is all about.
We need to recognize the signs. Know the history of our seeds. Work in connection with our plants to bring out the necessities and health that our plants need to produce for us and our families.
How I Can Do That 
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