Today we cover how to save seeds the easy way! David's books: amzn.to/3L5JHQu Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth: amzn.to/421pzoI Landrace Gardening by Joseph Lofthouse: amzn.to/3l8G6X7 Free Plants for Everyone: amzn.to/3Yu9xRe COMPOST YOUR ENEMIES and CHAINSAW T-shirts: www.aardvarktees.com/collections/vendors?q=The%20Survival%20Gardener You've probably seen a survival seed collection for sale. There are great big survival seed vault offers, with everything from sweet corn to beets, all packed in a way to make seeds last longer than you might expect. However, you can save seeds in the fridge by putting them in mason jars with silica gel packets and they'll keep for a REALLY long time. You can also save seeds from the garden if you know a few tips and tricks. Thank you for watching.
🍀🍀🍀🍀 Foraging for wild edibles, is the other life saving skill that needs to be learned in great detail. Starting with very common plants such as dandilions, purslane, plantain both varieties, clover, pig weed, wild grapes, bullrushes. All very commonly found and rather easy to identify. Each can be found in great detail in numerous video tutorials. For free and anytime, as long as we all have internet. There also are great books on the subject.
There's an experiment that was started in 1879 by William. J Beal about the viability of weed seeds that are buried in glass jars packed with sand at Michigan state university. They germinated seeds from the last bottle they dug up. It would be interesting to see if this would work for vegetables.
Cereal seeds were found in royal burials, in the pyramids. Kamut, and several other types of grain, oh just a few thousand years old. All sprouted just fine, and today are known as ancient grains. Google it. 🙂
I have a couple of old gallon pickle jars that I keep in the back of my fridge full of seeds I've collected over the years. I planted some last year from 2002 and everything had an over 90% germination rate except for some lettuce.
@@darla123 Very interesting, thank you for sharing that with us. Indeed, I heard lettuce and carrot seeds are one of the worst for germinating over time.
@@darla123 My lettuce seeds from last season only had about a 25% germination rate this year, so I guess lettuce seed is one thing that doesn't store well.
My go to is plastic Talenti brand ice cream jars found at Walmart. They are also full of ice cream when purchased. Alaska has earthquakes on a regular basis and the Talentis just bounce scatter like cats when the ground shakes.
From a fellow gardener that’s been doing this organically mostly, heirloom seed saving for over 25 years I really appreciate what you and your wife are doing love the artistic ending by the way! 💚 I do a little finger picking as well love the strings …acoustically that is
ok now jelly, listen to me and calmly hold the yoke, now you are looking for the throttle. wind it back slowly as you are going to land a plane today....." & on a brighter note your tomatoes & cress have germinated. & D.T.G. has already prepped your lasagna beds for a soft landing.
Very cool combination of interests! Remember that forests absorb heat! This is important for both practicing your emergency landings and deciding where to plant your lettuce patches. :)
David I hope you will show the radish seed pods and let people know they are not only edible but delicious. I only discovered that last year. From one plant you can get one radish or hundreds of delicious pods. Spread the word!
@@Firevine I had read (and then forgotten) that the pods were edible. I just let some go to seed last year to save seeds and remembered and tried one. Then ate many more. They make a huge number of pods and I was growing a mix of varieties so some did have long tails.
6 years ago (when I was not a serious gardener), I took all my vegetable seed packets that I had not used that were over 15 years old, poured them all in a bag, dug up a 10X10 area and scattered and raked them in. Threw some grass clippings on top and watered once. According to Google, none of them should have grown. It was a bountiful harvest in that little area!😂
This makes me feel better about my seed hoarding haha I got into gardening about 5 almost 6 years ago (I only just started becoming a less lazy gardener THIS year lol) and got a little too excited about plants. I bought a lot of seeds I never ended up using but didn't want to get rid of because there's always that chance they could still have some life left. It's a comfort to know that some seeds just refuse to die :)
It is surprising how long seeds last! I have some that are years and years old and they still work perfectly! I was very shocked! I never throw away any seeds.
I am still planting seeds I bought in 2013. I vacuum seal ours in 1/2 pint and pint jars and put them on my basement cantry shelf. No problems with germination as of yet.
Gardening for 15 yrs I have been addicted to saving seeds. They are in cool spot but I have not put them in jars, just paper. I have soooo many seeds, guess I should compost a bunch and start using jars. Thx for great info!
You always make things so easy to learn. Thank you for another great video. I like the idea of scattering a bunch of seeds and keeping those that grow well right in your own backyard. When they grow, how do you know which variety it is?
Most gardeners who land-race garden generally probably not concerned too much about this. Varieties are more concerned for very commericalized applications because when you go to Home Depot, Walmart, Lowes, etc they feels as they gotta tell you EXACTLY what you are buying. Or you aren't gonna buy it. That why I try to buy when possible and make sense to me from Experiential Farm Network or similar so I know what I am getting but at the same time I don't. As well as GENERALLY know what to do with them. :)
You don't know but it doesn't matter. You know that these are plants that grow well in your specific area. If knowing the variety matters to you then this is probably not a good method of seed saving.
We do this with greens, garlic, potatoes, and to some degree onions. We tried it with squash and there were some odd results. We got 3 micro-sized mutant squash so we won't do that again. There are a couple peppers we really like & a specific carrot so we're careful to keep those separate and select for their best traits.
I keep mine in a cooler in a dark cool room in the house, so far my 4 to 5 yr old seeds have had pretty good germination. I've had winter squash coming up in odd places where they weren't ever planted but had compost dumped on it. I don't think you can kill the seeds of certain winter squash like the Seminoles and butternut squash.
Exactly even intensive vermicomposting tomatoes, dates, even avacodoes don't seems to at least germinate! I might even get a pair of date saplings underway from this!!
This year I planted 4 burpie super sweet 100 seeds out of an open pack from 2015 that were never stored in any special way and got 100 percent germination.
Brilliant! Those "doomsday" packs of any emergency supplies, tools, meals, etc. not just seeds, are so expensive and some are outright rip-offs with criminals preying on the worried and vulnerable. Thank you for a much more effective solution for the average person, presented in your direct and clear way. Gotta clear room in my refrigerator for my seed hoard....I don't suppose buying my seed hoard its own refrigerator would be very eco conscious and sustainable?
It's not a bug, it's a feature of capitalism. Preying on the concerned and those who can make it work to yet do it again. However in moderation capitalism is not "bad" as most make it out to be. Just businesses who actually does are very few in between.
we have a vacuum sealer. We buy the packets that we want to work with and then we clip the end so that any air in the packet itself can be sucked out without sucking out the seeds.
Awesome video David my little brother started watching you So happy he wants to start gardening gonna hook him up this year with starts n seeds n help teach him . Told him to benge watch you God bless your gardens n family Your a blessing to all of us 🇺🇸❤ 🙏 🌿 🥔 🍅 🌽
Perhaps someone mentioned. My first rec is if you have any Dried Beans on hand for cooking, try to germinate a few of those. Its good practice and knowledge.
Before you do, get them soaking in warm water beforehand, take out once they begins to swell. This is like giving the seeds a HEAVY rain showever. Espeically like HARD seeds like this, soaking well like this DRASTICALLY increases germination and successes.
I'm breeding pumkins for shelf stability but it's difficult when it takes over a year for them to start going bad. I have to skip a whole year of growing just to see which ones are best. And have tons of pumkins taking up space for a whole year.
In my experience, wipeing a bit of Bleach on the pumkin really does extend storability. I'll try wipeing them down with various naturaly brewed vinegars next time.
That's amazing. I grow zinnias myself. Heirloom annuals; over 40 years now. Plus they feed my honeybees, butterflies, even hummingbirds. Tell me more about your pumpkins. I'll subscribe to Robert Cronos.
Chickens Dave:- How do people in countries where they cant get purina feed their chickens? What about legumes? Can you grow/dry enough of those ? DEFINITELY nut trees. The worm bin etc I’d have more if there’s room. Fish? Or other water born life - Can you grow any - in a pond/water source? The predators that one in - cant you trap and process them? Using lots of sources and variety perhaps.
I have bean, pea and radish seeds I saved 31 years ago and all I ever did was make sure they were completely dry and then stored them in a tin container at room temperature. Those seeds are still viable today and the oldest seed I have. I saved seeds from white onions I grew and couldn't get any of them to germinate the following spring. No surprise I guess as onion has been one of those plants I struggle to gain yearly success with.
PS: will the silica still help in hot climates? Topics... 90 degrees on average year round. My goal isn't to save my seeds forever but a good 5 years would be useful. :)
Hi David I have a strange request. The Bible verse you show on the end of the video, could you please keep it there for quite a bit longer. I am dyslexic and read slowly and always only get to the half of the verse. Maybe there are more people like me and I really enjoy the part I can read. I am 72 and haven't done vegetable gardens, only flowers, but you are converting me. I need a raised bed for the old back. God bless you and your lovely family, from an icy UK
I read some interesting research once that had a graph showing frozen seeds would stay viable much longer than refrigerated seeds but the catch was that the moisture content of the seeds had to be below a certain level before the seeds could be frozen or else the freezing process would destroy the seeds
Oh geez ...lol. Well for some reason I've been buying seeds for the future since early summer, w/ thoughts of growing strong mixed stock & seed .. bcz what is showing up in grocery is Absolute Junk. Cool & Dry. Got cha. 🎯☢️🌱🍒
slightly off topic, as you mentioned silica gel. My mind wandered to what happens if you actually eat the do not eat sachet. I love the internet - Q - What does silica gel taste like? A- With regard to taste descriptors, 'supertasters' within the panel of 22 volunteers ascribed a 'chalky' taste to silica in water and 'metallic taste' to bulk silicon. Their taste descriptors for oxidized porous silicon were 'no metallic taste' or 'no off-taste'.20 Jul 2012 DO NOT EAT obviously, (he thought)
Thanks for the encouragement, it is still about freezing here, but I did some winter sowing, and have rearranged my seed vault a few times! Great cabbages you have there, just in time for the corned beef holiday!
Me, too. As I enter my fourth season, I just harvested my first successful carrots this week. A lot didn't make it through the Arctic blast, but those that did are pretty nice! Just harvested my first rutabaga today, and made a match with butter and some salt. Pretty tasty! I learned a ton this winter about what I should have done, and I have an excellent plan for next winter. I'm in Texas, so even with an Arctic freeze I should be able to have a prolific garden all four seasons!
@@gardenercarl1197 That's extremely impressive that you managed to get carrrots from such a hostile environmental change like that. Acclimatizing seeds, plants, transplants, etc are more of importance than most realizes.
@@rickytorres9089 I'm wondering if they'll go to seed if I leave a few in the ground since they went through the winter... I have been saving seeds like mad since the beginning, you are right, it sounds like plants get used to their environment improving in just a small number of generations
Exactly what I want to hear someone tell me... Just go buy a bunch of seeds. Yes. Yes. I will... Thank you for enabling my habit. Usually I hear... Don't you think you have enough seeds? Like that's a lot... Silly city people, it's never, ever "enough". 🤣😂💯🌻🌾🦅🌿🕊️🌿🌻❣️
I wouldn't worry about it, we already advanced so much in quite aggressively hitting them out of harm ways. A prediction of 22 seconds off course caused a off coursing of 27 MINUTES instead. :)
Your garden looks amazing DTG! Thanks for the helpful seed storing/saving ideas. We are actually letting some of our daikon radishes go to seed in order to get a better radish next season. The daikons we planted didn't get anywhere near the size that yours got. Wishing you continued fruitful harvests.
Yea 'Don't eat the pizza box' -- so they can say that they told you so I've been saving seeds for the past 3 years -- beets & radishes bolted so I've saved the seeds. I've experimented with popcorn, bean and flax etc to see if they'll grow Store bought squash etc ... I save the seeds. Thank you David!!!
The silica bags only absorb moisture. Use bentonite (aka Kittylitter) with a good jar instead with a moisture label on the inside of the jar so you can see it. If you need to you can remove the bentonite and put it in the oven for 60 minutes to dry it out. The bentonite lasts forever so just reuse.
@@BatmansGirlfriend I would place it at the bottom of the jar and cover with a porous material that would allow moisture to pass but not the powder. Then store seeds in a paper sleeve and place them on top.
@@mrdobalina3451 why thank you so much for your reply. I was kind of thinking that. Since I sew, I think use some cotton scraps or perhaps use some in coffee filters about tea bag size. 🙏🏽
I'm not to new to gardening overall but a newbie to starting with seeds. So far I'm having about 80% success rate. Maybe it's the seeds? Gosh. Like the idea of storing seeds. The older seeds are best anyway. Jensen Beach FL here
Great video. Thanks for sharing this info ☺️ I'm growing different beans and saving the seeds and made a video of it. The beans grew fast. I have lots of silica packets and I will try your method. Have a great day and happy gardening 🌿🌱😊🤗
Ecc 11:6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. (But the 12yo boy inside me really likes the idea of a bell pepper with the heat of a Trinidad Scorpion.)
Thank you David, great info as always. I guess the jar you are holding are seeds from you garden. You say 'get some packages and store in a jar' do I need to take the seeds out of the packages?
David, Thank you! I have been looking for credible information on this for years! I mean yes, everyone has got an *idea*, but nobody could really speak about it from knowledgeable firsthand experience! I am sure that you have saved many lives and many harvests with this great and much-needed video!
WAIT A MINUTE! I have to know how to garden?? [reconsiders life choices...] I just put in an order with Johnny's, before seeing this video. I got 4 varieties of carrot, because I ran out last year. This is so I can start my own landrace. Speaking of landraces, I am so happy to see my red onion seeds sprouted, this is their third year. They flowered last year surrounded by yellow onions, so I'm excited to see what I get. I also planted some new-to-us yellow onion seeds, so this year we will make more crosses. This is the first year of our kale seeds, crossed last year. Lofthouse rocks.
If your seed saving addiction expands beyond what Mason jars can contain, I suggest both 5 gallon buckets with gamma lids, and military ammo cans. They both have gaskets, are rodent proof, and are easy to work out of.
If you use a silica desiccant to dry seeds, is it possible to dry them to the point of damaging them? When they are dry, can they safely be kept in a freezer? I have about one hundred packets of this years seeds and the same of last years seeds that have been in a cool, dark place. Now in two containers, each with about a half cup of Dry and Dry, Blue indicator silica jel. I plan on doing yearly germination tests to check on the seeds' viability.
Excellent video. My father would save pepper and tomato seeds every year. They would be kept in the shed over winter in envelopes. Sometimes the mice would find them and that would be it. He would go back to the previous years' seeds and plant them. Then re-stock the wintering seeds for the next year. Do you have a video on saving the seeds from root vegetables because the harvesting of root vegetable seeds of different. Thanks again
BTW, the radish greens make great (somewhat bitter) cooked greens if you don't have critters to eat them for you. The daikon leaves can be a bit much, though if you let them get too big.
Looks like I am set for the zombie apocalypse. All it took was me being cheap (or at least frugal)! I save seed from almost everything I grow. In reality I am retired and there isnt a lot of extra money to waste. I do buy seeds of new things to try. Those I like I save the seeds so I dont have to buy them again. That lets me be able to buy other things for my garden. Last year it was tposts and conduit to make trellises.
How do you get radishes to not be hot? Here in northern Illinois I plant them as soon as the ground can be worked usually sometime in April. They take 30 days and during that time we will get a hot spell as one of the six different stages of spring we have and they will be hot. I plant them for fall and I get soil critters that eat them.
I have to laugh at all the people with their 90-day, 5-gallon buckets of beans and rice. Ready for the apocalypse but not next spring. So easy to put that jar in the 'fridge or toss a couple seed packets in the bottom of those 5-gals.
Thanks! I've always just stored my seed in plastic bags in the house, but never refrigerated it. Question, let's say you lose power for a long time. Will condensation happen inside the seed jar?
Just started this video. I'm hoping this is what I've been looking for. I live in the tropics where seeds outside the fridge don't last as long. Taking up the fridge space drives my wife nuts. Haha 😂🤣😂🤣😂
Great video! Does anyone recall if Lofthouse's book about Landrace Gardening talks about how to keep hybrid vigor going within your landrace of vegetable? I read the book a couple of years ago (loved it), but I don't recall if he mentions that specifically. I was just thinking that maybe the best of both worlds is to just keep introducing new genetic material each year into your established landrace to continue to get hybrid vigor in next year's crops, but then that sort of defeats (at least a little bit of) the genetics that made the landrace successful? Any thoughts on that topic would be welcome.
I think his solution is to separate by distance your experimental beds where you are adding new genetics from your stable landraces so if it doesn’t work out your landrace is still there. As long as it doesn’t become vulnerable. He described having gardens on different properties, but you could do it on one property. I don’t recall him talking about stability over time as in how many seasons you can expect stability without adding diversity. It would vary a lot by plant I think. The prospect of it taking years favors the patient , curious, & observant. I tend to forget that the cross doesn’t happen in the first mixed-seed generation but in the second after planting the seeds gleaned from the cross. If I’m understanding it right, that is. It’s always experimental. But as long as you glean, the genetics should tend toward stability for your conditions.
I see brassicas going to seed. How did your Tithonia Diversifolia do? I put the five I got from the Etsy store in the ground, after establishing them in pots the season before, last Spring. Still waiting to see if they come back from the roots. Fortunately, I made 15 more cuttings and overwintered them just in case. The Malanga I bought from Publix on the way back from the first homesteading meet, has multiplied and I'm excited about that. Wish my fall garden had done better but it was pretty much a total loss, due to planting a bit too late.
i love the way that you work barefoot in your vegetable garden , i do the exact same thing. I started last year with a combination of Hügelkultur and raised beds . This year there will be 2 more beds
unrelated comment: I was accused of putting meat/bones in the 'collective' compost and then accused of being your friend in the same breath. I don't think we've met... and i'd never 'contaminate' someones else's compost. otherwise thank you from holding me back from the abyss and buying one of those survival packets, just in case. Excited to try some of this okra we saved from last year and maybe some of the chinese red noodle beans... definitely not going to try to plant any of the corn that i dried out and is sitting in a box on the back porch since november
