How Home Gardeners Can Start Saving Seeds This Season

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Organic seed farmer Bill Braun, co-founder of the Freed Seed Federation in Massachusetts, explains that late summer and early fall is an ideal time for gardeners to collect seeds from tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, dry beans, winter squash, lettuce, and even bolting arugula. The key rule for beginners: save seed only from open-pollinated varieties, not hybrids, because hybrids won't reliably reproduce the parent plant. Braun recommends starting with self-pollinating crops (lettuce and beans are good examples) and growing just one variety of a species to avoid cross-pollination. He notes that even a single bolting lettuce plant or a few dried bean pods is enough to start — varietal purity over many generations requires more care, but a first attempt at saving carries very little risk and could yield seed better adapted to your local soil and climate over time.