A Personal Path to Seed Saving

I was a gardener for well over a decade before I started saving seeds from my garden. At first, I didn’t see the need. There always seemed to be so many varieties of veggie and flower seeds to buy that I didn’t think I’d ever run out of new ones to try. And to be honest, the seed tin I keep in our hall cupboard was overflowing with packets – a haphazard combination of planned purchases and impulse buys – that I could easily plan out several years’ worth of seasonal crops using just the seeds I already had.

But working on the sidelines of the seed industry gave me something of a wake-up call. While Australia has some fabulous local seed producers, there simply aren’t enough of them producing the variety and quality of seeds at scale to meet even our small domestic market.¹ Australia has an annual trade deficit of approximately AUD$80 million for vegetable seeds. Most of our flower seeds are also imported.²A lack of country-of-origin labelling means it’s hard to know where the seeds we buy were grown.

Many imported seeds come from developing countries where reliable information about working conditions and chemical use is hard to find. Though all major suppliers have anti-slavery statements, some questions remain.³ Additionally, seed treatments like fungicide coatings are common and their ingredients are often hidden behind patents. With climate change potentially disrupting supply chains, learning to save seeds became more pressing.

The Importance of Seed Saving

Seed saving is often overlooked by gardeners. Maybe that’s because gardening instructions assume you’ve purchased seed. Or maybe it’s because seed saving is seen as a difficult skill that only experienced gardeners can master. Either way, saving seeds isn’t that hard to learn, and it completes a virtuous cycle in your garden and perhaps your community.

The production of seeds is an essential part of a plants’ lifecycle, and learning to save those seeds has some powerful benefits. Saving your own seeds helps to maintain plant diversity, preserve heirloom varieties, reduce the costs of gardening and growing food, and makes a contribution to sustainability by reducing transport and packaging emissions. Maybe more importantly, on a personal level seed saving is hugely rewarding.

In my own garden, the plants grown from saved seeds are the ones I put the most thought into. For instance, a variety of climbing beans I’m growing this summer was brought to Australia by an Italian immigrant in 1963 and has been passed down through generations of Melbourne gardeners. I love that my garden is connected to that history. I gave a lot of thought to where and when I would plant those seeds, and the vigorous plants that grew from them are a source of joy and promise. I’m excited to not only keep some of these seeds to plant next season, but also to share them through a local seed library.

While saving seeds can be as simple or complex as you want to make it, there are a few things that can help to make the process a success. Here are five things I’ve learnt on my path to seed saving:

1. Generic is Sometimes OK

While it’s important to prevent cross-pollination between varieties—especially for specific cultivars (‘Queensland Blue’ pumpkins or ‘Cupcake White’ cosmos)—not every plant requires such attention. Many herbs, like dill, fennel and coriander, don’t have named varieties, so you can save their seeds without worrying about cross-pollination.

2. Choose Healthy Parent Plants

To grow healthy plants from your saved seeds, start with healthy, vigorous parent plants. Don’t just look at the plants; also taste the fruit. There’s no point in saving seeds from plants that produce bitter or bland fruit. Saving seeds from more than one plant – three to 10 is a good rule of thumb – will improve the genetic resilience of your saved seeds. It’s tempting to wait until the end of the season to select parent plants, but early croppers are often a better choice. Just harvest what you need from each plant, leaving a couple of fruit or seed pods to mature for seed saving.

3. Don’t Harvest Too Much

It’s easy to get carried away when harvesting seeds, but remember that many plants produce seeds abundantly. For instance, a single tomato can contain up to 300 seeds, and one sunflower head can produce 500 to 1,000 seeds. Compare this to the number of seeds in a typical seed packet, which may only contain 20 to 50 seeds. Unless you’re planning to sell seeds, you don’t need to harvest many fruits or flowers.

4. Dry Seeds Thoroughly

One of the most important steps in seed saving is drying the seeds properly. If you skip this step, your seeds could become mouldy in storage. After harvesting, make sure to let your seeds dry completely. You can perform a simple test to check their dryness: gently squeeze the seeds with your fingernail (they shouldn’t dent too much) or place them in a sealed glass jar overnight to make sure condensation does not form. If they’re still soft, give them more time to dry. Storing seeds with a silica pouch or some rice is good insurance against mould.

5. Labelling is Everything

This is a lesson I learned the hard way. Keeping track of the variety and harvest date of seeds is needed when it comes to planting them. I use reusable plastic labels for each variety. The label stays with the seed throughout planting, harvest and drying, and eventually ends up on or in the seed envelope. On the envelope, I include not just the variety and harvest date, but also a brief plant description, like ‘climbing green bean (needs 2m trellis)’ or ‘bush borlotti bean for drying.’ This information is useful when it comes to planting the seeds next season and will be appreciated by the future grower if your seeds are destined for a seed library or swap.

Seed saving is a simple yet powerful way to take control of your garden’s future. With a little planning, you can close the loop for at least some of the flowers and vegetables you grow.