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I am very new to seed saving, so this is meant to be enough info to get you interested in this fascinating pursuit, but it is not at all an expert tutorial.

This is a great way to protect genetic diversity and food heritage. Home ventures don't always work out due to the way different plants are pollinated, but I wanted to learn a bit about it and give it a try since it's not hard, it's fun, and if all goes well, it's a way to save some money in the garden. After all, it's nice not to have to buy annual seeds or plants year after year.

It is recommended that you only save seeds from open-pollinated or heirloom varieties, not hybrids.

Select varieties that are excellent specimens- that you appreciate for their superior characteristics, such as size, color, taste, etc. For the best results, you must leave them to grow to full maturity; this is past the time when you would pick the plant to eat. It is pretty easy to do this with plants that have "straightforward" seeds, such as eggplants, peppers, and many flowers. All you do is cut open your flower seed pod/fruit/vegetable and remove the seeds, then spread them out somewhere to dry completely (a paper plate placed somewhere out of the way, like on top of the refrigerator or on a shelf in your garage or potting shed, if you have one, works well).

It is very important that your seeds are completely dry before you store them- otherwise they won't be viable. You will know when they are dry enough because they will break when you attempt to bend them. If they bend, they aren't dry enough.

Tomatoes are a little different because the seeds are encapsulated in that "slimy" coating, so they need to be soaked before you can save them. To do this, scoop your seeds out of your desired tomato and put them in a glass jar covered with water (see above). Put a layer of plastic wrap pierced with a fork on top (or use cheesecloth) to allow for air circulation but to keep bugs out, and then place in a warm location. I did this on top of my refrigerator. Then wait.

When the jar has developed a yucky smelling film on top of the water (see photo below), your seeds are ready. Most sources say this will happen in 2-4 days, (but it took over a week for this to happen at my house). Next time I won't soak the seeds in water- I'll use the juice from the tomatoes instead- this should help to speed the fermentation. Pour out the "fermented yuck" the seeds that are floating (they are no good) and, using a fine strainer, rinse off the seeds that are at the bottom of the jar . Dump these good seeds onto a paper towel or paper plate and allow them to thoroughly dry before packaging them up- this will take a few weeks, so again, choose an out of the way spot.

You can use small paper or plastic bags to save your seeds (or small glass jars like baby food jars). Again, make sure they are completely dry, label them, and store in a cool, dark place. You can store them in the freezer if you don't plan to use them for a long time.

So far I have tried to save the seeds of heirloom varieties of cucumber, red and yellow peppers, and tomatoes. I also tried it with some annual flowers such as cleome and passionflower. I won't know until next year if my seed saving "worked", though, so I'll have to update this page to reflect the outcome at that time.

Good luck with your own seed saving adventures...I'd love to know how they turn out. For more information, this is a great seed saving guide.