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How do you save sunflower seeds for next year


How to Harvest & Save Sunflower Seeds: It's Deceptively Easy

To Save Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds would be one of the easiest seeds to save, except that they’re so enticingly delectable to so many other animals, humans included. Nonetheless, we’ve saved many millions of them, so you can, too.

One of the most challenging aspects of saving sunflower seed is this: You must not harvest the most spectacular heads for bouquets! Expect seed about 6 weeks after flower. This is our Lemon Queen, by the way.

To Harvest Sunflower Seeds

First, wait for the birds to confirm the seed is fully ripe.

Though many flower seeds are released with ease once ripe, sunflowers tend to hold them in their heads, making it more challenging to know exactly when they’re ripe. Many flower heads also indicate their seeds are ripe once the stalk beneath is brown and dry, though with sunflowers, that is generally way too late and you’ll rarely find a single seed left.

So yes — this is playing with fire — but if you simply observe when the first birds begin to breakfast in your sunflowers, you’ll know exactly when to harvest them. Don’t dally : )

The head on the left has already been enjoyed by birds; the middle head has been somewhat enjoyed but still has plenty of seed; the head on the right has a couple weeks to go, indicated by the color still present in its still-clinging petals.

Second, remove the head from the stalk.

To Dry Sunflower Seeds

Third, place your sunflower head(s) to dry on a screen in a warm place with lots of airflow, ideally with a fan or two, for at least a week. Sunflowers have a lot of moisture both in the seed and in the head, so it takes longer to dry than you might expect. Especially with the autumn night chill, don’t mess around: keep them warm (above 70 and below 95 F) and the air flowing and you’ll have seeds instead of mold. Chipmunks, mice, squirrels and who knows who else will be tempted to munch your drying seeds if you let them, so don’t! The easiest way to protect your seeds from predation is to lay another screen on top or otherwise prevent ravenous rodents while still encouraging airflow.

Next, remove the seeds from the head, separating the seed from the chaff. Fans make it easy, not to mention fun : )

This is Standfast, Will Bonsall’s sunflower with massive seeds for snacking! Once harvested, we place it in our greenhouse protected from chipmunks with fans blowing incessantly to dry for at least one week.

To Truly Save Sunflower Seeds

You must thwart the sunflower weevil!

I told you, saving sunflower seed is deceptively simple : )

These clever little creatures lay their eggs in the sunflower head, so if you aren’t careful (ie, don’t freeze them to death) they’ll eat a significant percentage of your seeds before spring.

To Freeze Sunflower Seeds

Once you’ve cleaned your seed and dried it as best you can, close the seeds as well as desiccant packets in a plastic bag. Dry them further for 3 days before tossing the bag in the freezer. This ensures the moisture in your seeds is low enough so freezing will only preserve rather than kill them. The weevils have no such luck: They will die as freezing water slashes their cell walls.

Voila: Your sunflower seeds will remain beautifully viable ’til the following season, and likely many more to come!

Desiccant packs are great tools for keeping your seeds dry and extending their storage life years. We share the ones we love here!

While not difficult, saving sunflower seeds is not as simple as it may seem. It’s taken us many years on many farms beyond our own to finally have strategies that keep it simple, consistent and extraordinarily successful.

One final detail…

To Save Pure-Line Sunflower Seeds

Sunflowers are outcrossing and will pollinate each other up to one mile, so if you’re growing multiple varieties of sunflower — or your neighbor is — it’s more than likely you’ll be saving the seed of a brand new variety the world has never seen before.

Hooray!

Let us know what you find : )

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

& the whole Fruition crew

Evening Colors is my favorite sunflower, often 15 feet tall with long, strong stems perfect for bouquets.

How to save sunflower seeds?

Saving sunflower seeds is a wonderful gardening project for beginners and experienced gardeners alike.

To save sunflower seeds, cut the flower heads off the plants when the outer petals fall off. Dry the whole heads by hanging them upside down or placing them on a flat surface for a couple of weeks. Harvest sunflower seeds by hand, by rubbing one head against another, or with a bucket topped with hardware cloth. Dry the individual seeds in a single layer on a screen or another dry surface before storing them.

Read on to learn all about how to save sunflower seeds!

Introduction to saving sunflower seeds

Planting sunflowers for seed saving

Choose an open-pollinated variety

Companion planting for seed saving

Growing sunflowers for seed saving

Isolating one variety

Choosing sunflowers to harvest seeds from

How to save seeds from sunflower plants?

Storing sunflower seeds

Introduction to saving sunflower seeds

Sunflower seeds are easy to collect and store for planting next year. Just let the flowers go to seed, then harvest the seeds and keep them in a cool, dry place.

Saving sunflower seeds is a great way to get free seeds for your garden, and it’s also a fun project for kids. If you have a sunflower patch in your garden, you can save money by harvesting your sunflower seeds.

Sunflowers are in the Asteraceae family (Aster family), which also includes lettuce, zinnias, and many other favorites. Sunflowers of one variety easily cross with those of other sunflower varieties.

Planting sunflowers for seed saving

To ensure a large quantity of viable seed that is genetically diverse, plant at least 12 sunflowers of one variety.

Sunflowers are outcrossers and some are obligate crossers. Different varieties of these outbreeding plants readily cross to create new child varieties. If you do want to cross two varieties, they can be planted next to each other. You can develop your own backyard sunflower varieties this way!

Isolating a single variety by distance requires a minimum of 1000 feet (300 m), and is unreasonable in most home gardens. It is not uncommon for commercial seed producers to isolate varieties by 10,000 feet (3,000 m). A good solution for home gardeners is to bag the sunflower heads and hand-pollinate the flowers to prevent cross-pollination.

Choose an open-pollinated variety

Make certain the sunflower breed you choose is open-pollinated. These types are usually self-incompatible and are pollinated by insects. Even if you were to isolate seeds from hybrids (F1 crosses), they would not be true to type.

Here are some great open-pollinated sunflower varieties:

Most types of sunflowers (except florist sunflowers) are perfect for saving seeds and home seed production. If you’re growing more than one variety, you can put large bags over the flower heads to minimize the chances of cross-pollination.

Companion planting for seed saving

Sunflowers are excellent companions for many garden vegetables. Some good crops to plant alongside sunflower include:

Sunflowers are also great for providing shade and windbreaks in the garden. They can be used to protect more delicate plants like lettuce from the harsh afternoon sun. Here is a big list of companion plants for sunflowers.

Growing sunflowers for seed saving

To grow sunflowers plants for seed saving, start with high-quality seeds. Make sure to buy them from a reputable seed company.

Plant sunflower seeds in well-draining soil after all danger of frost has passed. Sunflowers do best in full sun, but they will tolerate partial shade.

Try to plant lots of sunflowers. You’ll want to save seeds from a minimum of 6 plants, but hopefully more like 12-20 plants in a home setting. Seed savers working to preserve genetic diversity may wish to harvest sunflower seeds from 100+ different plants.

Water sunflower plants regularly, especially during periods of drought. Mulch around the plants to help keep the roots cool and moist.

Fertilize sunflowers in the spring and summer with a balanced organic fertilizer. Be careful not to over-fertilize with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer, as this can encourage leaf growth at the expense of flower development.

To encourage large, healthy sunflower plants, thin out the seedlings so that they are spaced 12 to 18 inches (30-45 cm) apart. You can transplant the seedlings to other areas of the garden or give them away to friends.

Isolating one variety

If you will be isolating a variety by covering each head with a bag, be sure to cover each flower bud before it opens to prevent pollinating insects from reaching the flowers. You can use a fabric bag or a piece of insect netting tied around the stem with twine. Tuck a cotton ball or some batting around the stem to block any entrance pathways for insects.

Each sunflower head is actually made up of thousands of small individual flowers. The flowers around the outside bloom first and the flowers in the very center of the sunflower heads bloom last. Each flower is open for only a couple of days, but it can take 1-3 weeks for all the flowers to bloom.

Hand-pollinate the flowers daily while they are blooming. Carefully remove the covers off of two adjacent flower heads and rub the flower heads against each other. Try to do this at a time of day when there aren’t many pollinators around to sneak in and pollinate while you do your hand pollination. You may have to do this daily for 10-14 days until they are ready to harvest.

Choosing sunflowers to harvest seeds from

Choose sunflowers that are healthy to save seeds from. The plants should be strong and stable and the flowers beautiful or rich in sunflower seeds for the birds.

Try to save seeds from 10-15 of the best flowers. For branching sunflower varieties that have multiple heads, save seeds from the first (usually largest) head. Harvesting sunflower seeds is usually most successful if you save the best seeds from multiple plants rather than all the seeds from a single head.

“Different varieties may have black, striped, mottled, potted, white, or gray seeds, and some wild varieties have small, hairy seeds.”


The Manual of Seed Saving: Harvesting, Storing, and Sowing Techniques for Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits, by Andrea Heistinger

How to save seeds from sunflower plants?

Here’s how to save sunflower seeds:

1. Let the flowers bloom and go to seed. They are not ready to harvest until all of the flowers in the central disk have bloomed.

2. Cut the heads off the stalks when the outer petals fall off. Put a mesh bag or old pantyhose over the flower if you intend to let it dry a bit on the stalk.

3. Dry the heads by hanging them upside down or placing them with the seeds up on a flat surface. Be sure to choose a spot with good air circulation (and protected from birds, mice, and other hungry critters). If you must hang them somewhere critters might access them, put a paper bag over the head before hanging it. Drying the heads usually takes about 2-3 weeks.

4. When the seeds are dry and not at all soft, harvest sunflower seeds from the flower head. You can use your hands (with gloves) to break up the flower head and free the seeds, or rub one head against the other. If you’re collecting lots of seeds, you can rub the heads over a bucket topped with half-inch hardware cloth.

5. Continue drying the seeds once they have been removed from the flower head. Spread them out in a single layer on a screen or dry flat surface in an area with good air circulation. Ideal temperatures for drying sunflower seeds are 75°F-85°F (25°C-30°C). It usually takes a minimum of a week for sunflower seeds to dry.

6. Collect sunflower seeds that are the biggest, most plump seeds for planting next spring. The remaining seeds can be put in bird feeders or used to make yummy roasted sunflower seeds. You can even make your own sunflower oil with a blender (see video below):

Storing sunflower seeds

Wait until the loose seeds are completely dry before storing them. The classic sunflower seed “dryness test” is that the seeds should crack and break when bent.

Store sunflower seeds in a labeled package like a brown paper bag. Make sure to include not only the cultivar name but also the date that the seed was harvested.

The sunflower seeds should then be placed in an airtight container (glass jar, plastic bag) for the longest storage life. Here are some suitable containers for storing small amounts of dry sunflower seeds:

Source: Seed Processing and Storage: Principles and Practices of Seed Harvesting, Processing, and Storage, by J. H. McCormack

Properly stored sunflower seeds can remain viable for 5+ years. To extend storage life, store sunflower seeds in the refrigerator. I use a Ziploc freezer bag with some rice inside placed in the crisper drawer. If storing for more than two years, a sealed glass jar is a better option.

when to collect, how to choose the fruit for the testis

Author: Elena N. https://floristics.info/en/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=19 Category: Garden plants Reissued: Last edited:

Contents0011 Each crop has its own seed collection time

  • All seeds should be stored in a cool, dry place
  • Literature
  • Comments

    • Surely you have experienced disappointment in seeds purchased in a store or market. Moreover, the most annoying thing is that the poor quality of the seed material becomes apparent already when precious time is lost: you wait for seedlings for a week, another, and they all do not appear . ..

    To eliminate such annoying moments, learn to collect seeds from ripe fruits, and you will there will be no more cause for concern and irritation.

    How to get seeds from fruits for further sowing

    Some general rules for collecting seeds How to make watermelons large and sweet - simple tricks!

    What is the advantage of self-collected seed compared to store-bought seed? First, you have no doubts about what variety of seeds you are collecting. Secondly, you know exactly when the seeds were collected and how they were stored before sowing.

    It is pointless to collect seeds of varieties marked F1: hybrid plants bring a good harvest of quality fruits directly in the first year of planting, but in the second season the plants will be frail, sickly and produce tasteless fruits.

    How to choose fruit for seed collection

    For seed collection, you need to choose the best of the earliest fruits.

    Attention! It will not be possible to plant melon seeds the next year after harvest, since they will only produce male ovaries. To obtain a good harvest, melon seeds must be stored for at least 3-4 years before sowing.

    Each crop has its own terms of harvesting seeds

    Basically, seeds are harvested in autumn, before frost. Strawberries ripen earlier, therefore, harvesting must be done earlier. The main guidelines for the timing of seed collection are fruit ripening. In the northern regions, where frosts come earlier, you can ripen the fruits left on the seeds at home, for example, on the windowsill.

    See the following video for other crop seeds you can collect yourself:

    Keep in mind that each crop has its own subtleties in the preparation of seed material. For example, pepper and eggplant seeds do not need to be soaked in preparation for storage. They are easy enough to wash and dry. The tomatoes are cut into seed lobes, the seeds are collected together with the pulp in a glass container and left to ferment for 3-4 days, after which they are washed well, dried with a napkin and left to dry, laid out on a plate.

    In the photo: Removing cucumber seeds

    The first 2–3 cm of the fruit left on the seeds is cut off and discarded, because the seeds contained in it will later produce bitter or tasteless greens. The rest is cut in half lengthwise, the seeds are removed from the halves, placed in a glass container, filled with water and left for 2-3 days, then water is added, the floating seeds are collected and discarded, and those that have sunk to the bottom are washed under running water and dry.

    All seeds should be stored in a cool, dry place

    Seeds should be well dried before storage, especially if you do not plan to sow them next season. If you store seed in a refrigerator where conditions are similar to natural overwintering, you won't need to specifically stratify the seed before sowing. For long-term storage, the seeds are placed in the freezer. Some seeds do not require keeping at low temperatures, it is enough to keep them in a dark, cool place. The best storage container is closed glassware, which must have a label indicating the variety and year of collection.

    In the photo: Storage of planting material

    As you can see, following simple rules, you can collect seed material from any vegetable and horticultural crops. This will help you save not only money, but nerves.

    Literature

    1. Read related topics on Wikipedia


    How to sow sprouted cucumber seeds for seedlings in cups
    How to collect tomato seeds

    Sections: Fruit

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    When and how to properly store seed, storage location

    Author: Elena N. https://floristics.info/en/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=19 Category: Garden plants Reissued: Last edited:

    Contents

    Collecting seeds and then growing plants from them is one of the oldest human activities since they moved from a nomadic to a settled way of life. The ancient Egyptians, Native Americans, and European settlers in the Americas collected seeds from cultivated and wild plants for the development of agriculture. These people planned their future, and in some cases, perhaps, some events forced them to flee their native country, therefore, taking seeds with them, they reliably provided themselves with food resources.

    Despite the fact that today everyone has free access to nurseries and catalogs, collecting seeds from your own plants has not lost popularity among gardeners.

    When to collect seeds

    Most gardeners collect and store seeds of flowers, vegetables, herbs and rare plant species. But if everything is more or less clear with the collection and storage of seed material of cultivated plants, then the harvesting of seeds of wild plants may raise questions. In any case, seeds of each species should be kept separate from others and labeled with information about the plant.

    In the photo: Collecting seeds

    Only take seeds from healthy specimens that have shown good growth and development. This will help to preserve the best characteristics of the species in subsequent generations. Seeds are extracted from fully ripened fruits, that is, after their biological, and not technical, maturation: in the seeds of unripe fruits, the embryos are underdeveloped. But at the same time, do not wait too long, because overripe fruits are easily affected by diseases and pests, and seeds from them are not the best material for propagation.

    How to collect seeds and prepare them for storage

    Separating a pea from a bean or shaking out the dark penstemon seeds from the capsule should be done with ease. Ripe beans may even split open on their own. Seeds are poured onto newspaper and kept in a well-ventilated area until they dry to flow. You will need to move them and turn them over from time to time. Difficulties arise when working with fleshy fruits, such as cucumber or pumpkin: their seeds require longer drying. The seeds shaken out of the boxes and peeled out of the flower heads also need drying.

    Seeds of herbaceous plants are not difficult to collect, but they must be stored in such a way as not to be confused with seeds of other herbs, although the seeds of plants such as dill and basil are quite easy to identify.

    Storage location

    Seed germination depends on the type of plant. One day, during an archaeological dig, researchers discovered sealed clay pots from the Anasazi civilization containing bean seeds, and despite being over 1,000 years old, some of the seeds did germinate.

    The 1,000-year lifespan of a seed is certainly impressive, but in reality, seed material, depending on how it is contained, retains the ability to sprout from 3 to 10 years.

    Thick-shelled seeds last longer than thin-skinned seeds, and germination rates tend to decrease over time for all seeds.

    It is not always possible to control the humidity and temperature in the room where the seeds are stored, so put each type in a paper or parchment envelope, sign each one or put seed information labels on the envelopes and put them in a pot with a lid or a cardboard box. If you use plastic sandwich bags for storage, be sure to leave a gap in them for air circulation.

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