Learning how to save your heirloom seeds from your ARK Seed Kit may help you increase your self-sufficiency and grow healthier, more productive plants year after year. Each of our kits comes with a Seed Guide that outlines how to save seeds from your crops.
Continue to follow our blog throughout the fall to learn more about our upcoming seed saving tutorials. Before we get there, there are some things you should know in order to prepare.
Why Spend the time?
1. Self-sufficiency. By saving seeds, you’ll be able to produce your own crops year after year.
2. Successful Harvest. You will save the seeds from your healthiest, most productive plants and replanting them year after year means you will create your own strain of heirloom seeds that are specially adapted and optimized for your home environment; this tends to mean higher germination rates, bigger harvests and less disease.
3. Legacy. By handing down heirloom seeds, you’ll be passing on a legacy and gifting future generations with the gift of self-sufficiency and bountiful harvests.
Save from mature crops.
To harvest seeds, wait until the fruit is ripe and the seeds are mature. Most vegetables are enjoyed before they are fully ripe but for seed saving, we like to let the fruit or vegetable ripen (or maybe even over ripen) on the plant before saving the seeds. For example, we eat cucumbers when they are green, but to harvest seeds, let them get large turn yellow. Some fervent gardeners will plant an area specifically for harvesting and canning while reserving a separate area to let their fruits and vegetables ripen to save. While this isn’t possible in all garden spaces, planning and reserving from your productive plants will yield better saved heirloom seeds.
As you are wrapping up your summer garden, stay tuned for more at ARK Seeds.