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St Louis MO 63126
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Seed Collecting

One of my fun fall activities is to collect seeds from my various plants. It's a simple as waiting until the seed heads have dried and then snipping them off and putting them in a paper bag. For many seeds I use a plain brown lunch bag, which I label with a pencil or marker.

For larger seeds and milkweed I use the standard size grocery paper bags. Paper bags allow the seeds to keep drying out.

Only collect seeds from plants which did well in your garden. You want to collect the winners, not the losers. If a particular plant had lots of flowers and was vigorous, make sure you collect lots of these seeds. If another plant seemed to struggle and had few flowers, then don't collect those seeds.

There are many ways to separate the seeds from their seed pods.
You can use your hands, your feet, a blender - whatever works for you.

The other interesting part of seed collecting is that you can collect seeds from unusual plant variations in your garden. While I have quite a few of the "standard" Purple Coneflower, I've found two varieties which are slightly different. One is taller with more separated petals and another type has a reddish center. I'm collecting these just for the variety they add to the garden.

I keep the seeds in the garage which gets cold, but does not freeze. This system seems to work well with most seeds.

Cold Stratification
Some seeds are harder to germinate and need what is called "cold stratification." This means they need winter-like conditions to germinate well. I've tried keeping seeds in the refrigerator and even the freezer, but with limited success.

Here's more information about cold stratification.(click here)

 

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