How to Save Seeds for Next Year: 4 Steps

When you learn how to save seeds for next year, that doesn’t just mean that you get to save money on buying new seeds each year.

Seed saving means that you can reliably keep growing your favorite, hard-to-find vegetables year after year. It means that over time, the plants that you grow will become more adapted to your climate, your neighborhood, and even your specific soil! You can be a part of preserving rare, heirloom varieties, or develop your very own brand new ones!

How to Save Seeds for Next Year

Beginning with your garden plan, this article will take you through the basics of how to save seeds for next year in just 4 easy steps!

How to Save Seeds for Next Year Step 1: Plan

If you have not yet planted your garden, take a few minutes to sit down and plan which plants you would like to save seeds from.

Be aware of which plants can cross

Some garden vegetables can cross with other varieties or related plants growing nearby. For example, zucchini, yellow squash, crookneck squash, pumpkins, acorn squash and many gourds can all cross with each other. If you want to save seeds from your zucchini and you are also growing one of these other crops, you’ll have to use hand pollination to keep from getting “pumpkizinni” or “crookneck acorn” seeds.

Another example of different types of plants that can cross with each other is the Brassica, or cabbage, family. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi are the same species and can all cross with each other!

Most garden veggies will not cross with other types of vegetables, but can cross with different varieties of the same vegetable. For example, hot peppers can cross with sweet peppers growing nearby. Sweet corn is pollinated by wind and can cross with field corn or popcorn growing as far as two miles or more away! Onions will cross with different types of onions, but not with leeks or chives. Carrots can cross with different carrot varieties, and even with wild carrots!

Don’t forget to consider what your neighbors might be growing and whether their plants could cross with yours. If you are willing to use hand pollination, you can still grow these crops near each other.

Save Seed from Self Pollinating Crops if You Don’t Want to Worry about Cross Pollination

On the other hand, if you would like to keep it simple and not worry about crossing or hand pollination, the following self-pollinating crops will be the easiest to save seeds from. Self pollinating crops are not pollinated by insects or wind, and rarely cross with other varieties.

Self Pollinating Vegetables (easiest to save seeds from!):

• Pole Beans
• Bush Beans
• Snow, Snap and Shelling Peas
• Tomatoes (exception: potato-leaf types such as Brandywine. These have a more open flower that can be cross-pollinated by insects)
• Lettuce

Decide whether you would like to save seed from biennials

Biennial plants usually do not produce seeds until their second year. Biennials include onions, leeks, carrots, beets, celery, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and kale, among others.

Sometimes these crops can be started extra early and tricked into producing seeds their first year, but normally saving seeds from biennials means you have to go to the extra step of keeping them alive through winter.

If you live in a mild climate, these crops may be able to stay out in the garden through the winter and will produce seeds the following spring. In colder climates, they will need to be overwintered somewhere a little warmer.

Overwintering Biennial Root Crops

Root crops such as carrots, onions and beets can be stored how you normally would and simply replanted in the spring. Kale can stay in the garden with some mulch and will survive the winter down to zone 5 or lower.

Overwintering Leafy Biennials

Large plants such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and celery are the hardest biennials to overwinter in cool climates. Depending on your climate, they can be placed in a cold frame, greenhouse, or even brought inside your home in pots for the winter!

So what does that look like? I currently live in zone 5a. My kale survives the winter in the garden under some mulch. My leeks usually make it in a cold frame. I store carrots and beets in the refrigerator for winter, replanting them in the spring. The celery comes in my house in pots until it is warm enough to put the plants back in the garden. I don’t have a good place to keep large cabbage family plants alive over winter right now, so instead start them extra early each year to trick them into going to seed (if you have space you can even start these plants from seed in November or December and plant them out as soon as it is warm enough!).

Picking open pollinated seeds

It is best to save seeds from open pollinated (“OP”) plants. Why? Hybrid (or “F1”) seeds are a cross between two different varieties.

When you save seeds from a hybrid, there is no telling what you might get. Some plants might look like the parents, others might look like one grandparent and still more like another grandparent. You could get plants that look like nothing you have ever seen before!

Heirloom Seeds

How to Save Seeds for Next Year Step #2: How Many Plants do you Need?

Some plants can easily become inbred if you save seeds from too few plants. Here is a general guide to how many plants you’ll need:

Self Pollinating Plants

These vegetables rarely become inbred, and you can usually save seeds from as little as one plant, although more is better!

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Lettuce
• Peas
• Beans

Outbreeding Plants

Most vegetables are outbreeding plants, meaning they are pollinated by insects or wind and need to be pollinated by other plants to produce seeds. You’ll want a minimum of 5 plants for adequate pollination to get a seed harvest, 20 plants or more is better!

• Spinach
• Carrots
• Beets
• Onions
• Leeks
• Radishes
• Swiss Chard
• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Brussels sprouts
• Celery
• Sunflowers

Squash, Cukes and Melons

Squash, including summer squash, winter squash, pumpkins, gourds and zucchini, are also outbreeding plants, as are cucumbers and melons.

While they do need to be pollinated, these vegetables rarely become inbred, so you can save seeds from as few as 2 plants.

What about Corn?

Corn is in a category of its own. It is an outbreeding plant pollinated by wind. Corn can very easily become inbred and stunted, so it’s best to save seeds from at least 100 corn plants.

That sounds like a lot of plants! Yes, the numbers of plants can sound overwhelming, and if you have just have a patio or a small garden space, you might need to stick to the self pollinating category so you can save seeds from as little as one plant.

You don’t, however, have to save seeds from every vegetable, every year, though! Most seeds last 3-12 years or more with good storage, and much longer if properly frozen!

You can save ten years worth of cucumber seeds, once every ten years!

You find a chart listing how long seeds last, as well as seed storage tips right here!

How to Save Seeds for Next Year Step 3: Don’t Eat Everything!

Once you have your garden planted, you’ll want to be sure not to accidentally eat all of your seed crops!

Pick out your nicest, healthiest plants and mark them to save for seed. Many plants, such as lettuce, spinach, chard, celery and many broccoli types, can be harvested for the kitchen at least once before letting them grow again and go to seed.

With plants that produce multiple pods, such as beans and peas, you can pick out a few pods from each plant to let mature for seed and eat the rest.

Many fruits can be used in the kitchen at the same time that you are harvesting the seeds, for example, winter squash, melons, tomatoes and peppers.

Cucumbers and summer squash are typically harvested in their young, immature state for the kitchen. To get seeds from these plants, you’ll need to leave some fruit on the plant until it gets large and hard like a winter squash.

There are few plants that will have to be sacrificed for seeds, meaning you don’t get to eat any of your seed crop because the whole plant is needed for seed production. These plants include onions, leeks, carrots, beets, radishes, cabbage and cauliflower.

Always save your best for seed. This will ensure that your vegetable varieties get stronger and better year after year, not weaker!

Tip 4: Harvesting, Processing and Storing Seeds

Finally, when your seeds are ready, you can harvest and store them for next year!

Some seeds are dry harvested. That means that the seeds are left out in the garden until they are mostly dry. Then the seeds are picked and the pods or chaff removed. The seeds should not be washed, but are simply left in a dry, well ventilated place to finish drying before storage.

Dry harvested seeds include:

• Beans
• Peas
• Corn
• Lettuce
• Spinach
• Onions
• Leeks
• Carrots
• Beets
• Swiss Chard
• Radishes
• Broccoli
• Kale
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Kohlrabi
• Brussels Sprouts
• Sunflowers

On the other hand, seeds that are inside of a moist fruit are already wet and can be washed with water or mild soap before drying them quickly and thoroughly.

Seeds that are harvested wet include:

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Eggplant
• Winter Squash/Pumpkins
• Summer Squash/Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Melons
• Gourds

Of this list, the seeds of two vegetables need to be fermented: tomatoes and cucumbers. Fermenting simply involves leaving the seeds in a dish on the counter, often with a little added water, for 2-3 days. This removes the jelly-like coating around the seeds that prevented them from sprouting inside the moist fruit.

You can read more about fermenting seeds here.

Once the seeds are dry, they can be packaged and stored for next year! You can find free printable seed packets here.

Once you learn how to save seeds for next year, you’ll have free seeds from your favorite varieties every year!

Store your seeds in a cool, dry place to plant in your garden next year!

Simplifying Seed Saving

Are you overwhelmed by everything you need to know about saving seeds? Don’t worry, that’s completely normal, and we can help!

There is so much to learn about how to save seeds for next year, and the information can get so confusing!

But we have created a simple online seed saving course that takes you through everything you need to know to save seeds from your garden. The course is organized into a simple, visual and easy to follow format that can be completed in as little as an afternoon!

Along with the course, you’ll get downloadable reference charts for more than 20 garden vegetables to make it easy to remember what you learn! You’ll also get access to our private Facebook group where you can post pictures and ask questions!

Who is this course for? Anyone who wants to learn how to save seeds for next year?

Who is the course not for? All those now experienced seed savers who wasted years of time and effort figuring it out on their own.

Check out the course here!

I hope you enjoyed “How to Save Seeds for Next Year”, and happy seed saving!

-Kait