Seed Saving: Radishes and Spinach

I find the big business of selling seeds and garden supplies remarkable. Each season we gardeners visit the store, get our plants, seeds, other outdoor sundries, and soon enough we have a garden! But this dependence is sometimes difficult to swallow. After all, the seeds come from the land, but we get them from the store. Why can’t we get the seeds from the land too? Why not save seeds?

Radish seed pods and their long tendriled flowery stalks

One of the nice things about saving seeds is that the plants do most of the work themselves. After all, the plants’ goal is propagation, and all we have to do is collect the seeds at the right time. When the weather warms, spinach and radishes (two cool weather plants) bolt. “Bolting” refers to how the plant spurs on growth, in particular its flowers, seeds, and stalks. Typically lush and leafy plants turn into tall spires (spinach). Others become long tendriled flowery stalks and vines (radish). When they are in this state, they are going to seed. This can be observed easily; the seed pods are obvious if you know what to look for.

At this stage plants do not really produce much else except the seeds and flowers. I try to stop watering once they have developed full seed pods. Since this often occurs with a corresponding increase in hot weather, the plants dry out quickly, and so do the seeds. 

Once the seed pods are dried they can be harvested. It is that simple. Spinach is fairly easy; you can just pull your hand up the main stem, catching the seeds in your palm. Some dried flowers and leaves (chaff) come off with the seeds. It is just a process of just winnowing the chaff from the seeds, which can be done by dropping the seeds from one palm to another while blowing on them softly. 

A nice pile of spinach seed, with some chaff for good measure

 Radishes are a bit more difficult, although not by much. Take the dried seed pods, break them apart, and pick out the seeds aside. Crushing the seed pods and winnowing the chaff may work too, but the seeds tend to really try to stick to the gauzy fiber inside the pods, so I choose to pull them out more carefully.

Radish seeds, still in the pod

Amazingly enough, just a few plants can produce enough seed for the whole garden. Three plants produced more than five times the amount of seed I used to plant all my spinach last winter. While radishes seem to produce less, each pod can contain up to nine or more seeds, which while small, add up quickly.

Since the harvest I am storing the seeds in a cool, dry, dark place. I am actually re-using some of the seed packets for this purpose (those that are able to fit this bounty of seeds, of course). Soon enough they will see light, and hopefully provide more seeds to extend their line. 

Dried radish seed pods and harvested seeds

A note: I attempt to use only heirloom varieties whenever I can in order to keep the chances of seeds becoming hybridized as low as possible. Saving seeds from heirloom varieties increases the chances of a similar plant (especially with some precautions), whereas hybrid plants produce seeds with a lottery of possible outcomes and plants (with aspects from any of its genetic forebears). When planning to save seeds, I suggest to start with heirloom plants, unless you’re looking for some surprises along the way.