[How To] Seed Collecting Tip

[Sherie0001]

I thought that some of you who are new to collecting seeds might find this useful.

I have some plants that I have trouble knowing when to collect the seeds. I like to leave seed pods on the plants as long as possible until they are ready to open naturally, but many times I would go to check on them to find they had already opened and the seeds were mostly gone, fallen and scattered already. I found that if I used a mesh bag to contain the pods, they would continue to get sunshine and water and I could let them mature fully on the plant without worrying about losing any of the seeds.

I have some zipper mesh bags (like for filtering big aquariums) that I've been using on my datura seeds pods this year. They work really well, but cost me about a dollar a bag. I will use them over and over for years, but there's a less expensive option that works just as well. I also have some bags I made myself out of tulle. You could probably get a yard of tulle for just a few dollars and make many bags out of it. You can use these over and over also and make them any size you want. I just used twist ties to tie these on the plants.

Here are pics of the two types I've used, they both have been great seed collectors!

Nylon Mesh Aquarium Pond Filter Media Bag with zipper
These Datura (double purple) pods seem to ripen and crumble open overnight. If you aren't checking daily, you could easily
miss them. This is actually the only pod I've ever seen opening on my bushes that still has the seeds in it.


Tulle
These Red Powderpuff bush beans/seed pods will 'spring' open when ready, flinging the seeds everywhere.

[fearadyn]

Excellent information! Thank you

[reita28]

I use the mesh wedding favor bags with the pull string. They work great and you get 4 for $1 at Dollar Tree. I haven't checked Dollar General or Walmart for a price comparison yet. Thanks for the tip on the tulle. I didn't even think about that. Very easy and cheap to make!

[Sherie0001]

Thanks for the nice comments fearadyn and reita! Thanks also reita for letting us know about the dollar tree bags, a quarter a bag is a pretty good deal, especially if you don't want to spend time sewing up tulle bags.