Demystifying SEED SAVING Concerns (Cross Pollination, Hybrids & How To Save SEEDS Anyway) 

"Save seeds recklessly" should be on a t-shirt!

Everything I do in the garden follows the “(do this) recklessly” mindset it seems 😆. Reckless planting. Reckless organization. Reckless seed saving. Reckless seed starting. Reckless seed purchasing. It’s all chaos. But it’s always productive!

I'm over here "amen"ing you like we're in the greenhouse church! 😆 "We are so much more capable than we think we are" ❤️

My husband and I moved to our dream property this year. Before we left our last house, I saved whatever I could so I could bring the past with us into the future

I don’t think ANYONE could do a better job explaining this, Jess, and as we all know, repetition is very useful. Keep preaching❣️

my cantaloupe cross pollinated with my watermelon last year. I thought I was going crazy when I noticed a cantaloupe growing on my watermelon vine!

Saving your own seeds also lets you practice what they call Selection. You can Select for whatever traits you value, whether that's color, flavor, size, early/late fruiting, etc. by saving seeds from plants that likely have traits you like. This also means that if you live in a short growing season zone, you can through selection eventually get a plant that fruits quickly for your short season. That's a huge idea, really, that gardeners don't often consider, but should. You can have a seed supply that's perfect for your land.

"Save seeds recklessly and without abandon!" Next months shirt! And or sticker!

Last year was my very first garden. I squeezed the seeds out of some cherry tomatoes from the store that I loved! I ended up with 12 plants that produced way more than I was ready for!!

Right now, I'm growing 4 squash and 1 melon with seeds I saved from grocery store produce that I ate last year.

Another good tip: Get some fruits and veggies from your local farmer's market and save the seeds. I know quite a few vendors in our area who have been saving seeds and growing what they have saved. The logic here is you're getting seeds from a climate you live in, so they'll likely have traits that help the plant survive in your climate. I live in the desert of Washington and have gotten some plants that I don't worry about because I know previous generations have grown here before mine.

My newly minted 14 year old (her birthday is today) is pulling dandelions and clover to dry and research to see if she can make them into tea or something else medicinal etc and is listening to this while I watch.... she stops and goes “mom! Can we try to make a hybrid seed/plant this year?!!” 😂 so now on her bucket list after blacksmithing so she can make a sword she now wants to figure out how to make hybrid seeds 🤪🙌🏻🎉

My bf brought home a jalepeno pepper from a grocery store. He says to me...Can we grow these? And i was like.. Well, i think i need to dry the seeds first to try to grow them but what the heck, let's throw a few in seed starting mix and try. And guess what? I have 6 healthy plants growing:)

I grow so many plants from seeds saved from store bought fruit and veg. Tomato, peppers, avocado, melon, apple, comquat, pomegranate, physalis, date, butternut squash. The strangest of all I have a coconut palm in a pot grown from a store bought coconut here in the uk.

My mother saved seeds from 3 different cayenne plants. And the next year grew at least 8 different types. It was so beautiful! Lots of variations in color. Leaf and fruit. And some fruits stood up above the leaves of the plant and some hung below. Every plant was different.

I work for a seed company and this is the best advice I could have ever received. We actually watched some of you videos in training when I started and I'm always going back to watch your videos to give advice for myself and customers.

Happy Easter! HE IS RISEN...INDEED!!!🙌🙌🙏🌷

When I saw you measuring the mesh bag with your fingers, I thought... How many dad's is that Jess?? 😆😍

The best part of seed saving is seed sharing! 💗 Happy accidents are awesome, that’s how you get new varieties!

Right at the beginning of my gardening adventure, I had just planted some generic tomato seeds from storebought packets. But, in the interim of waiting for the fruits from those plants, I bought some cherry tomatoes from the grocery store. They were absolutely DELICIOUS - the best tomatoes I'd ever eaten. Sweet, juicy, just pure tomato heaven, amazing for snacking. I wanted to grow them. So, after just some basic research, I sliced up one of the tomatoes and tossed the rounds of sliced tomatoes into a gardening pot with some gardening soil, lightly dusted the whole thing with more soil, and waited to see what happened. Sure enough, I got tons of little seedlings, of which, I kept just one (I garden indoors, and have limited space). I ended up growing that tomato plant hydroponically since I wanted to go away from having soil in my home, along with the pests that come from soil. The fruits that came off it were not quite what I remembered from the original package, but what they turned out to be were some deliciously sweet and tangy cherry tomatoes, and the plant itself got huge and sprawling. Took up the entire bay of one of my grow shelves. And it stayed alive and pumping out tasty fruit for 3 years, non-stop. I took cuttings from it and sent them to my husband's coworkers who wanted clones of their own after tasting the tasty fruits, and THEIR plants got huge, sprawling, and pumping out tons of tasty fruits. I eventually ended up having to move, and lost that tomato plant, but I still have fond memories of it. And it all started from a grocery store tomato. I do have seeds saved from it - I will eventually plant them to see what they turn out to be.

I use a vibrating toothbrush to shake my tomato blossoms. It hasn't failed me yet. 😁

One year my husband bought 2 verities of sweet corn. When we picked it he said he was excited to try this oriental corn, I thought that sounds different and wanted to try it. When we peeled the husk off to boil the corn many of them were weirdly colored. I knew right away what he had done and he was so confused. I asked him if he still had the package, he said see oriental corn, I looked and said it says “ornamental “ corn! I had a good laugh while he was a bit embarrassed, he laughs about it now!

I heard that grocery store poppy seeds won't grow. You should just see the crazy germination I got, the number of poppy flowers I'm going to have is insane.

Saved some seed heads off of a couple zinnias... Two years ago. My two year old daughter found the jar they were in and I let her take the seed heads apart and sprinkle them over a flat of potting soil. It looked like it was mostly chaff, and I thought not many seeds were in there. That was three weeks ago... Today I'm transplanting all these little sprouts because the flat is jam packed 😂 let's hope they grow. No idea what the flowers will look like. They were off a seed head I didn't isolate, planted with a lot of other colorful zinnias, and I don't even remember what color they were. Haha!

It would be great to show is examples of the bag trick in your own garden throughout this year.

Every time I get overwhelmed by all I need to learn as a new gardener I listen to your posts and feel better. Thank you for blessing us!

You opened my eyes a while back to the "The worst that can happen is you end up with a cool hybrid" mindset and I'm so glad... I ended up with one of those beautiful basil's also that were purple with green splotches!

I do seed saving the reckless way, and my happy accident last year was a cross between cantaloupe and honeydew melon that when cut looked like rainbow sherbet with alternating layers of green and orange. It was very good! I get some odd looking squash now and then, but they taste fine!

It’s like the telephone game. The first person says “store bought produce seeds might not grow true to type.” The uneducated ear hears “store bought produce seeds won’t grow” and then spreads that to everyone with whom they speak.

Happy Easter Sowers family! HE is Risen!!!!!!

Thank you so much for making the whole "Seed Saga" completely clear!

God Bless all of you on this beautiful Easter!

The one thing seed saving doesn’t do is preventing the reckless purchase of seeds anyplace that sells them!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣💚🌱i cannot help myself. 🤣

I've learnt more from your videos than I ever could scouring the internet. You're like the 94 year old grandma that we all want to sit beside and absorb all of your wise wisdom from. I am so greatful, thank you

I think potato’s and ginger are where that rumor started because they do spray those to stop them from sprouting but if you get organic then it will work but you will get smaller ones than what you planted.

I clicked the link you shared the other day for the square foot gardening book, it came today already

I also find the "it's been sprayed so it can't grow" rumor to be widely untrue, I mean my cheap-walmart-non-organic garlic cloves all grew into full heads, just one ring of cloves cuz we planted it as a short season garlic, but still sizeable and useable. Thank you so much for taking so many of these rumors and misconceptions and throwing them out the window for new gardeners, it blows my mind that some people think its bad to save hybrid seeds when that's as natural of a product as you can get in a way lol

Hi Jess! It’s my birthday today and I was opening presents and one of them was your book. I nearly started crying I was so happy and excited!! :))

Last year I got a cross between cucumber and cantaloupe. It was so good.

I use an electric toothbrush against the trunk of the plants. Due to the vibration, the electric toothbrush can fertilize almost all flowers before they are fully open.

Thank you for addressing the hot/sweet pepper thing! I was actually wanting to know if that was true! Sometimes I think the doubts are formed by rumor seed companies start haha. I mean they need us to need them so makes sense for them to not want people saving seeds :)

Lettuce varieties usually bloom at different times, so they don't usually cross, but if they do, that's ok, too

If you eat food that you didn't grow yourself 100% of the time, you're eating GMO products and it's fine. Stressing about GMO seeds or cross pollination is a waste of time and energy. Grow what you have and enjoy the process and the food!!

I got some seeds from the dollar store 4/$1 today. Many people told me that they were junk I they woken perfectly fine before

I sowed seeds during the first lockdown as a little project with my toddler, we did 3 different tomatoes and peppers from seeds/veg bought from Aldi. They did really well! 😁

I was out to lunch with the family once and saved and grew seeds from a slice of lemon in my drink. Gardeners what a wonderful funny bunch we are. And I was very proud of my little lemon trees.

I always take seeds from grocery veggies and grow them. No issues. You are so right when you say to just try. I buy seeds too. Again, just try b

One of my favorite cherry tomato varieties actually came from seeds I saved from a delicious type of cherry tomato I found in pack of mixed heirloom cherry tomatoes I got at Walmart, definitely do not be afraid to save seeds, even if they are from a supermarket pepper or tomato. Even if seeds you save out of your garden do end up being cross pollinated then who knows, maybe you’ll end up with something awesome!

The way you explain how it works with the hot peppers and sweet peppers is really great... the poodle and the labrador have made it very clear 😂😊

Jess you are too much. "You probably have a phone in your pocket." What makes you think I am not in my garden everytime I watch? Already on my phone sweet thing XD

The bags are genius! I was reading a book on it and their suggestion on how to do it sounded so cumbersome. Also, the fact that you've tested all of this at home and you're comfortable collecting seed from all veggies is really nice. Because it remained stuck in my head that you'll end up with inedible vegetables if you let them cross pollinate. I mean if it happens once or twice I wouldn't care, I just wouldn't want to end up not eating squash one year because all my squashes are bitter. So thanks for clarifying!

I grow seeds from store bought veggies all the time, plant them fresh don't dry them out.

You were the first person that allowed me to become a reckless seed saver! Thank you for giving me this gift. I love saving seeds. So much fun to me!

I’ve been saving tomato seeds for years. I spent many years trying to keep them separate so the seeds stayed true. Last year I gave up on that. I figured at this point with seeds hard to find (and space requirements) so last year I saved seeds regardless of being to close to each other. This year I am planting those seeds. I figure either way I’ll get tomatoes...It will be interesting to see what I get...example: Opalka grown next to Dr Wyche Yellow... Will I get yellow opalka or giant dr wyche’s?? 😂😂

So many people will start saving seeds from watching this video. It's so easy to understand! Thank you Jess for doing all that you do!

I already know all of this! I learned it from you♡ I think I've seen every vidio at least twice! Especially the ones from your heart !!!

When you go to the grocery store and swipe all the sprouting garlic and potatoes 🙃 going to try breeding my own melons and tomatoes for our climate. Wish me luck!

This video solved ALLLLL my seed saving problems!!!!! I love seed saving, but was getting caught up on the 100 yard spacing thing😂 Thank you so very much for putting this video out!

I have an unknown grocery store plum tomato plant in my garden. I did what your aunt did. It's determinate and has produced 38 large, beautiful, delicious tomatoes. Not including the blossoms I pruned off. I'll grow it every year here in Florida were it'll be too hot for tomatoes soon.

My husband and I loooove spicy foods! We’re intentionally growing the jalapeños and habaneros around our green and red peppers so that we can save seeds and get some funky hybrids next year. We may like them, we may not but it’ll be fun to see what we get. 😂

We had a volunteer that ended up being a honeydew melon crossed with a butternut pumpkin! It looked super weird, just tasted like a bland melon. Not a tasty hybrid but it still grew a plant and food. We have our own Springfield variety of cherry tomatoes that volunteer every year and they're so much better suited to our weather than the tomato we initially planted. Save seeds recklessly ❤️

This will be my first year growing hot peppers. I’ve grown bell peppers, but we’re building new beds to allow for more varieties of peppers this summer since we’ve all realized we love them more. Thank you for seed saving information. We’re growing a few seeds from last year as an experiment

I did a test last year. Bought organic potatoes and just plain old supermarket potatoes. Let them sprout, cut up and planted them. I got potatoes from both.

Bravo !!! Absolutely brilliant ! I am so glad to have a myth busting, intelligent yet simple, incredibly motivating video available to direct others to !

I started a lemon tree from a seed I got from a lemon this spring. 🤷‍♀️ I like lemons so I tried. It worked.

We have been recklessly saving seeds for 25 years and only once when sungold was an F1 hybrid did we end up with a different tomato. It was double the size of sungold, red and so tasty we still grow them along with true sungold from Baker Creek that we saved the seeds from in 2017. A few favorite varieties we have learned to "bag". Even for us this video is so informative and helpful as is your book. Our garden will remain a classroom forever. Thank you Jess. Have an awesome Resurrection Sunday. God Bless you.

I watched your seed saving series a couple years ago. I was just really getting into gardening and it felt so overwhelming. That year I decided that saving flower seeds was a safe place to start. Last year I saved seeds from EVERYTHING I grew! It really is easier than I thought it would be. I can’t tell you how excited I’ve been seeing seedlings sprout from seeds I’ve saved! Thanks for the ongoing encouragement you provide!

Wow. That colour green of your top looks amazing on you.

Yes! How do we think villagers get their particular varieties? -- by saving seeds from the plants they grow and like! I absolutely love every word you say on this subject, Jess! As a former member of Seed Saver's Exchange & a self-imposed rigid worrier over variety -- I LOVE this breath of fresh air.

I have an obscene amount of seeds lol. I’ve bought so many, plus participate in our local seed library through donation and getting seeds. My biggest reasons for seed saving is sustainability and regional adaptability. I love that the genetics of my seed can change to fit my area and that I can then provide those seeds to others to have a better/earlier yield that is especially encouraging to new gardeners!

You just changed everything for me!!! I have been so overwhelmed by seed saving that I couldn't even let myself research it! But this was possibly the most helpful video I could have watched on the topic!! The internet is such a helpful place to learn, but it can also contain so much information and opinions that it is paralyzing! I Always value content creators who make things approachable and truly as simplified as possible!! THANK YOU!!!

Oh. I was providing free seedlings to far off, miles away gardeners, in exchange for a few fruits for seed saving. I became obsessive/compulsive and bought so many kinds of melons and squash! Praise the Lord for His abundance and this lesson!

This is my first year with a full blown seed starting setup. Last year was my first garden. I currently have seedlings growing of a pepper variety that I saved seeds from a plant I bought at the end of the season from the clearance section that was simply labeled “ornamental pepper”. When I tasted the peppers that tiny beautiful purple plant produced I was blown away by the complex smoky flavor! Which is what encouraged me to save the seeds. I am extremely excited and inspired by growing the seeds of these peppers! I also saved seeds of my favorite store-bought tomato plant from last year and didn’t do anything specific to prevent cross-pollination. It will be a very fun experiment to see what is produced! Btw the tomato is called “Mr. Stripey”!

Happy Easter from "Genesis 1:29 Homestead" up here in Maine! ❤️ Thanks for all the great info and love your book!

Also make sure and select the best fruit and waiting to harvest seeds when the fruit is very mature, almost past the eating stage. Otherwise it will look like you have seeds, but they won't germinate. Thanks for the great explanation! Blessings!!

Now I understand why it was so exciting that your beans cross-pollinated this year!

Here I am with 8 million more seeds than I need that have all just arrived after ur 40 min tomato video a couple weeks ago , and I still had a TON of seeds that left over & or harvested from 2020 & 2019 from ur recommendations ... I’m holding on ALL MY SEEDS ❤️ I love living on the “reckless” side of life... that’s the side that keeps letting u know your alive! ❤️

"Save seeds recklessly" LOVE this idea! 💚

This is the best explanation I’ve ever seen

Great information. One squash exception is Butternut squash. It's in a class of It's own and will not cross pollinate. I've been saving butternut squash seeds for years and it has never crossed with any other squash.

I love you and your attitude and what you’re about so much! I didn’t realize till just now that you had a book, but I just bought it because I want to support you. You and people like you are what’s great about this country. Hard working, willing to learn, try and take risks, giving back more than you use/take, and helping everyone around you the courage, inspiration and incentives to try to stand up for themselves, too, on their own two feet, proudly doing something great and contributing what only they can. 😘 Thanks for all you do!

LOVED this video!! My only problem is I will save them and forget to label them. =/ I had a pickling cucumber cross with a sugar baby watermelon once. It looked like a sugar baby but, tasted more like a cucumber.

Just need to say...missing your "fireside chats" on Sunday evening! 😢 Great info but I loved hearing the interaction between you and Jeremiah and occasionally other family members as well as with your viewers. 😊

You are a lifesaver! This is the best video about seed saving ever.

Happy Easter to all of you! Another great video....I try to save any and all seeds...my family thinks I'm out of my mind. Come spring my house becomes a cornucopia of seeds and a green house! starts galore!

I found melons on a run I went on last summer. They looked like tiny watermelons! I was so excited! I did some research and found out they are common in the desert and are toxic to humans. Coyotes here eat them. Also, it said they are super bitter! Just like you said!

I feel like the whole “Toxic Squash” problem is kind of like quicksand. In the media it’s super hyped up as an issue but in actuality you don’t see it often in real life😂😂

I've never seen anyone else using these bags. We've been using them for years! We also put them on our fruit trees ad soon as the flower drops to ensure bugs don't get into the apples.

My mom saves seeds from store bought tomatoes, peppers, melons all the time and they are fine. Now we been having so many problems with the bugs that killed our tomatoes and the rest but that's it. We planted potatoes ane yumms bought from the store and had a harvest.

Generally, seeds want to grow! Give yourself permission to play with seeds now when your food isn’t on the line. Then you’ll have a degree of knowledge and comfort if times get tough. This was very helpful and encouraging, Jess. Thank you.

The dog analogy is great because YEP that would be weird 😂😂

Thank you for saying that about gmo seeds not being available to the public I get so tired of seeing all the posts telling people how horrible they are for buying certain seeds because their guaranteed to be GMO! They just don't want to listen they've heard it so it's gospel it was on the Internet!

Oh, I’m a very reckless seed saver..Lol 😂 I have literally a couple pounds of reckless seeds from last year’s garden! Haha 🪴 Great video, Jess!! Happy Easter!! 🐰🌷🐣🌼🐇🙏🏼

You encouraged me to grow things that i would of never thought of growing ❤️❤️

I planted mustard seed from a store bought spice tin- and it has sprouted. I remembered what you said about trying new things! The plants are dark green like conifers. 🌱

Thank you for your advise! It's good for the seed companies to let us believe it's not "safe" to use the seeds we save from our plants. Thanks for giving us this information. But I have a question concerning the bags you use: can you use them again or do you have to throw them away after you used them? Or do you wash them before you use them again? Thank you for the advise concerning this.

Jess, you made this information easy to understand. Thank you again. We need to hear this again and again. SAVE SEEDS

I use those little party favour bags too. Such a great way to ensure you’re saving true to type seeds. I also like a little surprise every now and again, so I save seeds from fruit not bagged 🥰

You couldn't have explained it any better than this lady! Thanks for the info, I knew some of it already from your previous videos and thought "do I need to watch this right now?", but repetition is so good and I definitely still learned some new things. Thank you!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! All the seed saving guides indeed give those spacing requirements. It's so discouraging. You have given me seed saving freedom!