I want to use seeds for next year

[Nrcheek]

Hey all. Im sure you all know this , but buying plants gets expensive !
So next year is like to use seeds from this year's garden , and start from them in the spring .

How do you go about this ?
Mainly I'd like to keep my squash seeds, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons

 

[Rajesh Sethi]

3nd gen production may suffer, if they get hybridized.

Wait for others, this an interesting thread.

 

[Nrcheek]

That was a main concern for.me

 

[Chuck]

Hey all. Im sure you all know this , but buying plants gets expensive !
So next year is like to use seeds from this year's garden , and start from them in the spring .

How do you go about this ?
Mainly I'd like to keep my squash seeds, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons

It is easy to harvest seeds. The problem is that most plants you buy are hybrids and hybrid seeds do not, in most cases, come true. In other words, if you plant seeds from hybrids you will not get the same plant. It could be close to the same or it might be really different. And yes, buying plants is expensive but there are many many seed companies out there and purchasing seeds is a LOT cheaper than buying plants.
To collect your seeds you collect seeds from a mature fruit. And by mature I mean either nearly completely ripe or in the best circumstance totally, even over ripe and close to falling off of the plant. There are many ways to cleaning and saving seeds. Just google saving seeds and there will be a ton of information.

 

[Tech]

I save seeds whenever I can, hard part can be designating space for the plants you want to save seed from. Saving seed is different for each plant, I suggest googling each. Also it's true hybrids don't come true to seed, but the resulting strain can be just as good as the hybrid. With that said, I try to avoid hybrid seeds whenever possible though, merely because they aren't proven producers like some of the heirlooms that have been around for a lot longer and I find the yields are generally poorer.

 

[headfullofbees]

This is some of best seed-saving information I've come across, & it gives advice on how to avoid accidental hybridisation of open-pollinated varieties.

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedsavinginfo.html