Today I pulled the last of the spinach stalks that I had left in the ground with the seeds drying. I am saving spinach seeds for the first time and thought I would elaborate on what I learned about saving the seed. I did notice an interest in the picture of the Drying Seeds on my Veggie Blog and since that’s a photo blog there is no explanation. I know that when I first decided to save the seed I searched the internet and didn’t find too much detailed information. What had me confused was the first stalks to go to seed were small, very small and I remembered when I planted the spinach the seeds were much larger and dark. So I searched and watched and waited. I know one explanation I had read mentioned a female seed stalk and a male seed – so even though this made no sense I thought I would see what happened and sure enough … I did notice two totally different seeds developing on separate stalks.
Here is the explanation I offer from my observations (I could be way off but at least this makes sense to me!) The first stalks to go to seed were male and contained the pollen and this I did notice … ALOT of yellow dust when the stalks were moved. The male seed was doing it’s job of spreading the pollen and when it reached the female stalk, seeds developed which were much larger and this is the seed I knew to be the one to plant in the future. The drying of the seed I concluded has to take place while the stalks are still in the ground so they can complete their process. I did pull a stalk and let it air dry in the house and it never turned dark like the others that remained in the ground. I pulled many stalks today that had not finished the final drying but the cucumber vines needed the space and I have PLENTY of spinach seeds to plant. Here are some pictures to help clarify what the seeds look like and I regret not having one of the male seed stalks which were present earlier in the season (hm, where did they go?) I will have to watch them closer next year now that I think I know how the process works!! If anyone has further knowledge on this subject of saving spinach seed, please comment. It would be much appreciated! Now to see if the saved seeds actually Grow … stay tuned
Next is the spinach seed I air dryed in the house and it remained green
[...] am Very Happy to report that the spinach seed I saved earlier in the season has sprouted! I planted a few rows just recently for a fall crop and they are [...]
Hi,
Thanks for posting this. I am new to seed saving and have been confused by what I am seeing…two different types of plants. Some more fluffy at the top with tiny green balls. As these stalks are giving way to gravity, I see no seeds at all. Then there are others that have larger clusters of green balls right on the stems near junctures. These I now know are the female plants and the ones I want! Thank you so much!
I assume I need to leave the male plants around to pollinate the female???
Hope to hear from you and so glad your seed sprouted!
Gena
Hi ! Thank you so much for your info on collecting spinach seeds! I, too, did not find much info on the internet about it until I put the search to images in google – I put “spinach seeds on plant” and your picture popped up! I read your experience with the male and female seeds and this has really helped.
Thanks so much!
Sara
Just what I was looking for. Thanks alot. Take care.
read this page if you want to save your own spinash seed:
http://www.seedalliance.org/uploads/pdf/SpinachSeedManual.pdf
Hi, there
This is my second year planting in my life and I don’t know much about seeds.
Thank you so much for the spinach information. Now I found what I was looking for. I had been looking at other websites to find information but they didn’t help.
The pictures helped me alot because I did not know how find my spinach seeds. But now with your help, I know how to find them!
Thank you,
Gloria
Thank you so much for your work and information this will really help me to save my spinich seeds. I was trying to save the male seeds. knowledge is power. I am trying to learn about saving seeds. I just found out that you do not plant hybrid seeds in your garden if you want too save seeds, due to cross polination. I am learning slowly thanks to people like you. Next year I will try to get it right!
Hi, everyone!! Well, the planting season is here and we are ready to learn new things. I just find out about Carrots seeds, if someone is interested how to harvest the carrots seeds please let me know and I will reply with the plant with flower and seeds pictures when they are ready to harvest.
Gloria
I would be interested is saving carrot seeds. I am brand new to this whole thing but I would love to learn.
Hi Gloria! This is our second year of trial and error saving seeds. The spinach is the only plant so far we have saved seeds from, but this year we are trying lettuce and tomato seeds as well. We have had our first success with carrots in our raised beds this year and I would love some info on how to harvest the seeds from them also! Thanks for the information =)
Thanks — just what I was looking for. Love amateur botany, especially when I can watch it unfold in my balcony garden. Hope your saved stock did you well!
Thanks for the great info. I just pulled my stalks this morning. I have a mix of black, brown and green seeds. I’m setting them out to dry now. It will be interesting to see what happens next year.
Hi, everyone
For those how are saving any type of seeds remember to place the dry seeds into a paper envelope. It will keep the seeds dry.
hi, this post is very useful to me. I planted Spinach before I had to move, and I preserved a pot with a plant. I cared for it as if it was an ornamental plant, I didn’t harvest the leaves or the plant (something a bit stupid at first). Like an observation project. “She” survived cold winter (frost, snow, wind) and lately I observed something (what I know now are the male seeds). As they looked too green I decided to leave them and continue to study what happens next. Now that I ‘ve read your post I’m glad I did so. It’s not hot weather around here, it’s Spring time and I wonder if there is coming a hot summer or not. Very windy, for sure. Well, I’ll keep waiting for the big female seeds. If you like, I can send you some photos of the male seeds by now. greetings,vir
This is very good info, The author of this post was right in pulling the spinach a little green as well as waiting for them to naturally die out. Either way is acceptable when harvesting seeds from leafy plants.
If the male plant has pollinated the female plant and the seeds have developed well enough you can pull them when they are just starting to “yellow” and air dry in your home.
Sometimes this is preferable in hotter climates as the hotter temperatures can sometimes damage your seed. Just because it is only 85 degrees outside, doesn’t mean that’s what the seeds temps are. Sometimes temps in darker seeds can be way higher than the ambient air temperature outside.If temps of the seed reach 95 you can have a lot of seeds that are not viable.
With seeds you harvest from lettuce,spinach,corriander etc… Almost any seed taken from leafy veggies or plants simply waiting for the plant to start to turn yellow is enough. Hang them inside and harvest theeds after a couple of weeks.
If you are harvesting seeds from plants that produce fruit, it is best to put them through a fermentation process to aid in the prevention of disease to the seed then washing and drying them out.
Great article,
thanks for sharing
I just pulled my spinach stalks and seed and wanted to double check I did it correctly. I’m glad I found this post with the pictures. I too noticed the yellow pollen and the larger seeds. Now I know which clusters to keep and replant. Thank you.
Would love to have carrot seed info. Thanks for the great info on spinach. Love reading the comments also!
Hi Nancy! We’ve been collecting quite a few seeds since I posted my last comment here. Carrot seeds usually take some time. They are usually in the ground for a year until they go to seed, though I have had some start this season. There are also lots of wild carrots (did you know that Queen Anne’s Lace is a wild carrot?) that easily cross with them. So they look like the tops of QAL when they go to seed. Good luck!
Thanks for posting this info. I found it useful and successfully harvested and planted spinach seed last year and got a really good yield. Currently waiting for the seeds from that to fully form and see how second generation seeds do.
It helped me! Good Job!
Oh… now I am confused. By any chance were the male seeds angular? I have spinach, gone to seed, but the seeds look more like spiky little stars, than the round bead-like seeds you are collecting. Your post is a good one, but unfortunately I’ve managed to have the exception to the rule… maybe a different spinach variety? I’ll keep searching… thank you.
Thanks- just what I needed to know…now waiting until the seeds brown up
Mine are spiky too! What does that mean?
You genuinely have a point there, I have never thought about it
like it like that before. You make it sound so compelling.
I am going to have to experiment with this more!