How to save your own seeds with tips on storing them

Homesaved seed can be stronger growing, from being adapted to your locality and soil. Your own seeds often germinate very strongly too, partly from being super fresh.
There are some key things to know, and I show you the easier vegetables to save seed from. Plus you see some of my results.
Also how to store seed.

00:00 Introduction
00:24 How I saved seed from salad rocket this year - SORRY somehow wrong caption to this because salad rocket is Eruca sativa, while Synapsis alba features later, is the mustard at 18:01
00:54 Comparing results of the homesaved rocket seed with bought seed
01:10 Age of seed – homeasved and bought
01:42 Different needs of different veg for sowing seed, I list the easy ones, then go on to talk about the more difficult ones
02:34 A look at three types of plant being grown for seed, and I explain the process
03:23 For some vegetables you need lots of plants for cross pollination
04:40 Saving seed from onions…
06:26 …beetroot,
07:47 …and carrots, the most difficult of the three because of cross pollination with wild carrot (cow parsley)
08:59 Homesaved potato seed
09:40 Homesaved garlic seed
10:31 I show examples of seed I have saved, and talk about how to store them:
10:40 Lettuce - Grenoble Red and Maravilla de Verano
11:43 Peas - Hurst Greenshaft, Starlight, Tall Sugar and Alderman
12:15 French beans, soybean, Borlotti bean
12:45 Dwarf French bean - Orinoco
13:09 Broad beans - Aquadulce Claudia
13:56 How I dry the seed
14:06 Tomatoes - the difference between F1 hybrid and open pollinated, and the reason not to save seed from hybrid varieties
15:08 Saving seed from flowers
15:27 Melon - Minnesota Midget
16:19 Spinach
16:51 Coriander
17:18 Lambs Lettuce
18:01 Brassica mustard
18:52 Salad rocket
19:44 June the following year, and a look at the beetroot grown from my homesaved seed

Thumb photo Emma Kane.

A good book is Back Garden Seed Saving by Sue Stickland 2009, Eco-Logic books

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[Im-just-Stardust]

That's the cool thing about gardening, there are so many things to do, even off season. I struggle a lot in public so its very motivating for me to save seeds, do my own compost, and be as self sufficient as possible. Thanks Charles for another great video !

[jeshurunfarm]

Nice uncle Charles. Respect from Africa 🇿🇦

[ml.]

I think seed saving is one of the most amazing and important things a gardener can do. I started shy with only lettuce, arugula and beets and now I save legumes, brassicas, potatoes, greens, alliums, etc. It is so rewarding and the whole learning process is wonderful. I even trade and sell seeds with great germination rate. A must try.

[briannadoff]

Thank you Charles, what wonderful work you do. You remind me very much of my Dad, who passed away a year before my little girl was born, now she is 1.5yo. He was an organic farmer of garlic and ginger (and anything he was inspired by) I thought my daughter would miss out on the connection I had with growing things - but with your help I have started growing my own garden! and it’s a joy to see my daughter eat snow peas in the garden and feel like my Dad would have loved to be with us. So thank you 💛

[simplifygardening]

Great video Charles. More people should learn to save their own seed. So much better than buying them

[itsmewende]

I find saving seeds to give away is just as much fun as gardening. It's sometimes amazing how many seeds you get from some things. This was a great one Charles. I actually don't mind giving the crosses a try, as Forrest Gump's mom said, "it's like a box of chocolates". Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

[hp-csmx]

Best fun in letting some veg go to seed is the birds it brings in to the garden, such entertainment.

[robertling]

Thank you Charles for another beautiful and interesting video. By harvesting seeds ourselves, we keep costs low and preserve species for the future.

[nickhammersonrocks]

LAST YEAR THIS VIDEO WOULD HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY WORTHLESS TO US BUT THANK GOD WE ACTUALLY GREW SOMETHING THIS YEAR SO WE'RE FINDING IT QUITE HELPFUL

[pamclark]

Walking around the garden wondering what Charles is planting right now. Always an inspiration to me thanks to you and your gardeners.

[jimcrelm]

The DIYSeeds channel has an excellent series of videos covering most commonly grown vegetables. They cover taxonomy, pollination, risk of crossing, overwintering where applicable, gene pool requirements and harvesting methods for each plant. I think they complement this channel very nicely actually - an overview of the topic, some inspiration and a visualisation of the process, then more of a reference type resource for a specific crop.

[chaddamp]

I've saved elephant garlic and have grown a fantastic crop this year, thanks for teaching me so much Charles ! An old friend of mine told me to save brocolli seed, we didn't know the variety so we called it Brians brocolli after him.We sowed some seed that was 4 years old and it germinated within 4 days !!

[smas]

Reading the comments here. In in zone 6b. The seeds I saved from bell peppers all past the test. Germinated between paper towels then into plastic bag. Saved purple basil too need the test.
Doing baby steps learning. Afraid of failure
Great teacher and so encouraging. Don't even want to say the $$'s we spent a few weeks ago for seeds. Yes it is worth it to try others.

[ajb.]

Love this video ! On potatoes, now that you mention it, I remember I've heard or read that, but I grew up with us & my grandma up the road all typically planting the majority of our potatoes, from our own we still had leftover at that point. My grandma raised 8 kids, they had a big bin ( boxed in corner with it's front being boards you could remove as contents lowered) in their basement storage room which they filled with potatoes in fall. Potatoes were my favorite food as a kid, too.

[myrrhidian]

I'm so grateful that you've shared how many plants you need for genetic diversity in saving seeds, as I plan to save seeds next year from some of the more difficult veggies you mentioned: onions, beets and carrots. It can be frustrating to sow store bought seeds and end up with really poor germination. I sowed 300 onion seeds (packed for 2024) hoping for 240 plants, but ended up with 180. I ended up having to order a bundle of 60 plants, because it's now too late in the season to start more onion seeds. All of my onions are open-pollinated though, so I'm definitely going to try and save seeds next year, to be sown in 2026.

[stevenbp]

Hi Charles, This is the video I’ve been waiting for. Thanks, hey I bought one of your calendars for this year back in January and let me tell you when I got to July I was amazed at how beautiful your garden is from July’s picture. God bless y’all. (Old guy from Arkansas)🇺🇸

[efyHealth]

Thanks so much for the details and making me aware of cross pollination and hybrid plants. I like the details around seed saving and keeping them to dry before storage.

[frankbarnwell____]

Thanks. Possibly the best straight forward explanation of hybrid tomato seed saving results on yt.

[sashak-r]

Thank you, perfect timing, I was just today saying to my husband maybe we should stop saving seed because it takes up so much space our high tunnels feel overwhelming (even though I never feel good pulling plants before they've had a change to make seed), so it was really good to see your germination comparison, and your more organized way of growing out for seed

[victoriajohnson]

Seed saving is so interesting. Please do more videos on this topic