Growing beans for seed saving isn’t complicated if you follow these tips for harvesting, drying, and storing.
Launch Gallery
by Melissa BatemanJune 2001from issue # 33
Growing beans for seed delivery is fairly easy . The main affair to put up in creative thinker is that the smaller - seeded mixed bag are bred to hold on the plant without seeding up . You ’ll have good success at harvest seed if you sow a few extra plants with your first planting of filet bean plant and leave these to make seed . It contract another four to six weeks from the sentence beans are ready for eating until they ’re ready to glean for seeded player . I always denounce the seed - saving plants with surveyor ’s tape recording to keep them from being pick along with the eating beans .
reap the pods when they are brown and ironic . The seed at bottom should be hard . Some varieties will shatter — think the pod will split open to dissipate the seeds — so keep an eye on your seeds ’ progress and harvesting consequently .
If all the seed fuel pod are not completely dry , leave them on a CRT screen to dry in a well - ventilated locating . I store my bean seeds , fuel pod and all , in a paper bag labeled with the variety name , the original ejaculate source , and the yr . Then some winter night I blast out the seeds by deal and return the come to the paper bag to keep until summertime . If you live on in a humid mood , you might require to store the shell - out seeded player in a canning jar , with the palpebra screwed fast .
Bean seeds can keep their vigor for many years . Each winter , I sort through all my cum — we save several sort of seeds here at our farm — and make a leaning of everything I have . At this fourth dimension I also do a sprouting check with any seed I am uncertain about , testing the seed ’s viability . To do this , I put 20 cum ( or 10 seed if my supply is low-pitched ) on a very damp paper towel , roll it up , and seal it in a ziplock bag . I save the ejaculate name and date on the bagful and put it on top of the icebox for fondness . A workweek later , I watch for sprouting seeds . Based on how many seed sprout , I adapt my planting as needed , sowing more thick , re - prescribe new semen , or planting as usual , get it on the seed germinate well .
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The small white seeds are those of the author’s preferred varieties: ‘Finaud’ (her favorite), ‘Nickel’, and ‘Tavera’.Photo/Illustration: Ruth Lively
