Complete Your Gardening Cycle: Growing Seeds
(Page 3 of 7)
August/September 1993
By Andy Van Hevelingen
Cleaning
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Seed is cleaned by separating it from the plant material (chaff) that was harvested with it. By the time I get around to cleaning my seed, much of it has already separated from the plant in handling and is lying on the bottom of the bag. In other cases, vigorously shaking the dried flower spike will separate the seeds from the plant. Sometimes it may be necessary to “milk” the seeds out with a gentle squeeze at the base of the pod. However, experience has taught me not to try to collect every single seed, just the ones that separate easily from the plant. Those that have been injured or have not fully developed may not separate easily and should be thrown away; the wound that occurs when an underdeveloped seed separates from the plant can be the first point of entry for fungal infection during storage.
Freeing large seeds from the chaff is easy enough; I just pick them out with a knife or tweezers. I pluck really large seeds, such as those from lovage, angelica, and sweet cicely, directly off the seed heads individually and avoid the issue of cleaning altogether.
For small seed, such as that of summer savory, winnowing is the easiest method for separating the chaff from the seed. There are many ways of doing this and a lot of room for creativity. Each year, we dedicate a board meeting of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon to seed cleaning for our seed exchange. Members bring an amazing array of aluminum pie plates, knives, clippers, wooden bowls, colanders, cookie sheets, homemade screens, and magnifying glasses, and use them in many clever ways to extract the seed from the chaff. Some folks scoop small amounts of round seeds (basil and clary sage) with their chaff onto a tilted cookie sheet; the seeds roll down, and the chaff stays put. Screens can also be helpful in cleaning. Start with a mesh size just large enough to allow the seeds to fall through when they are brushed lightly across the screen, then use a slightly smaller mesh that will hold the seeds but allow smaller material to be brushed through.
No matter what ingenuity you bring to the process, though, seed cleaning can sometimes be tedious. I have no special tools for the job, just a pair of tweezers, lots of patience, and perhaps a captivating television show. I spread newspapers on a table, dump out small amounts of seed, and manually pick out the seeds, throwing the chaff into a bag beside me.
Storage
The container you choose for storing the cleaned seed should be relatively airtight. Baby food jars or other small, lidded jars are good for seed storage. I use plastic margarine tubs, and I write the name of the herb and the year on a piece of paper taped to the lid. I leave the lids off for a few days to ensure that any excess moisture is gone, and then I snap the lid on tight.
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