How To Store Fruits & Vegetable Seeds In Summer To Grow Them In Winter? 10 Tips

Several urban gardeners opt to save seeds as it allows them to cultivate fruits and vegetables of consistent quality in the next season and of course, save money and become self-reliant.

Surat-based home gardener Anupama Desai says, “Sometimes it becomes very difficult for us to know the quality, age, or if there is any kind of chemical coating on seeds available in the market. Once purchased, you cannot return them. So it is better to store seeds from your garden, as there is no compromise on their health.”

For the past 14 years, she has been growing seasonal vegetables and has been collecting seeds of most of the produce grown at home. “Believe me, storing seeds at home makes your gardening work very easy. It does not require a lot of effort,” adds the 56-year-old gardener.

In conversation with The Better India, Anupama shares 10 easy tips to store seeds in summer to be able to sow them in the next season.

• You can store seeds of watermelon, muskmelon, galka (sponge gourd), pumpkin, valor papdi (field beans), and kakdi (Armenian cucumber), etc in this season (May-end).
• Both watermelon and muskmelon are fruit plants and can easily be grown on terraces. After cleaning the seeds, let them dry on tissue paper.
• Let the vegetables like cucumber, ridge gourd, bottle gourd, okra, and different types of beans dry on the plant instead of plucking them.

After scooping out seeds, keep them in a clean and airtight plastic or glass container.

• Wait until vegetables dry up and change their colour to brown. You can scoop out the seeds at that stage.
• Avoid storing seeds from the vegetables bought in the market as farmers harvest pre-mature produce. “Even if you want to store seeds from the market vegetables, make sure that the vegetables are completely ripened. For instance, a ripened karela (bitter gourd) is red in colour and its seed can be used to store.”
• After scooping out seeds, keep them in a clean and airtight plastic or glass container.
• Store seeds in the refrigerator at a constant temperature. Do not deep freeze them. You can also store them in a matka (earthen pot) as well.
• Add charcoal powder inside the container to protect seeds from insect attacks.
• You can store seeds for a year. “There is a particular age till the seeds are fertile, similar to human beings. After a year, its gene will become weak and lead to low fruiting or no plant growth at all,” she says.
• In the case of watermelon and muskmelon, sow the stored seeds in the first week of December to get fruits in March. Sow other summer crops like kakdi in winter. Vegetables like karela can be harvested during May and sown 45 days prior to monsoon to get fruiting.

Edited by Pranita Bhat. All photos: Anupama Desai.