Re: Drying seeds
- Subject: Re: Drying seeds
- From: P* L* <p*@clearwire.net>
- Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:56:26 -0500
Jim wrote:
What is the best way to prepare seeds from the pumpkin for next years use?
Indoor dry, on plate or wax paper. Outdoors, too many
critters have access to them unless you build a special
drying cage, which is more work than it's worth to me.
Clean seeds fairly well, and if there is mildew, a VERY mild
bleach solution may be desirable. If you must use a
dehydrator, make sure it has a low setting that is under
100F and use that. I don't, but I live in a dry area. If I
still lived with my house half in a hill in a place that got
40 inches of rain a year I would use a dehydrator.
When seeds are throughly dry, they may be stored in whatever
manner you desire. How you store your seeds is a subject of
much debate. ;-) I put mine in paper envelope and then in a
plastic snack zip lock which is then put in a bigger freezer
ziplock which holds all my winter squash seeds so I can find
them in the freezer easily. Summer squash have their own big
bag, as do all other categories (tomatoes, peppers, etc). If
you only have one set of seeds, and you always keep it in
one place, you won't need a "red flag" to find them the way
I do.
Seeds that are properly dried and stored in the freezer will
be viable for more years than ones stored on the shelf - as
a general rule. However, if you sell them all quickly, give
most of them away, or whatever, they're quite viable on most
shelves for 2-5 years.
Morgan
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