By George Boyhan
University of Georgia

Collecting seeds and breeding your own vegetable plants can add
greatly to your gardening rewards. It may sound like a challenge
but is really quite simple.

Vegetable varieties come in two basic types: those that breed
true-to-type and those that don’t.

Varieties that do breed true-to-type are often called
open-pollinated. Those that don’t are often referred to as F1
hybrids or hybrids.

Hybrid varieties are developed in a special way that results in
plants that are very uniform in performance and vigor. They will
often yield much better than open-pollinated varieties. But if
you save the seeds, the resulting plants won’t perform as their
parents did.

Keepers

Seeds from open-pollinated varieties, on the other hand, will
perform just like their parents.

If you come across an open-pollinated variety that you
particularly like, you can save the seeds and keep that variety
forever.

Be careful, though. Some seeds are patented, which means you
aren’t allowed to save the seed for propagation. These seeds will
often have “PVP” on the seed packet. This stands for Plant
Variety Protection and indicates it’s a patented variety.

The real fun

The real fun comes in with F1 hybrids. By the way, the “F” stands
for “Filial,” which just means the offspring. Seeds saved from
such varieties won’t be the same as the parents, and this is
the fun part.

You can then select the best characteristics you like in these
offspring and save only those seeds. And you’re on your way to
developing your own vegetable variety.

With some vegetables, such as lettuce and collards, we don’t eat
the fruit but the leaves. So if you want to save seeds, you’ll
have to wait and let some plants flower and go to seed.

Saving seeds

With other vegetables, such as tomatoes and watermelon, we do eat
the fruit. With these, you want to let the fruit become as mature
as possible before harvesting, so the seeds have completely
developed.

Some plants, such as lettuce or collards, produce small, dry
seeds. With these, you may want to cover the flowers with a paper
bag before the seeds have completely matured. Flowers of such
plants are prone to shattering, dispersing the seeds shortly
after they mature.

You can harvest the seeds of fruits such as tomato or watermelon
by scooping out the flesh and seeds into a container and allowing
the flesh to rot. You may want to do this outside. It’s going to
smell.

Floaters

After a few days, the pulp and floating seeds can be carefully
poured off the top. The good seeds will be at the bottom. Add
water and continue to pour off the top until the water is clear.
Don’t pour out your good seeds at the bottom. These seeds can
then be spread out on newspaper and allowed to dry.

Pack your saved seeds in paper envelopes, bags or sealed Mason
jars. Then store them in the refrigerator. In fact, the seeds’
germination will improve after storage in the fridge for several
months.

Once you get into breeding your own vegetable varieties, you’ll
have something to keep you busy for the rest of your life.

(George Boyhan is a Cooperative Extension horticulturist with
the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.)