seed saving help - please

[chicken4]

Is it just if theres F1 on the seed packet that you can't save the seed?

I grew bortotto beans and bush bean creso both from the taste of Italy range. Has anyone one had success in saving the beans for planting the following year.

...and can I save peas for the following year i usually grow kelvedon wonder, canoe and greensage.

[richard p]

just leave some pods on the plants to fully ripen, the pods will go hard and dry with the seeds inside .when they are fully ripe harvest and put somewhere to dry out properly then remove the pods and keep the seeds, i put them in an envelope in a box on the back porch window sil. Any non f1 should breed true. except some brassicas can cross with another nearby variety to give something unexpected. You can save seed from f1 varieties but its pot luck what will grow next year.

[chicken4]

Thanks Richard,
You sound like you save a lot of seed so i just wanted to ask do you find the quality is reduced each year.
I few poeple on my site tell me not to save seed and but one older couple who have a stunning plot claim to have always saved peas and beans.

[alan refail]

Hi c4

The quality of subsequent crops depends on you. If you select the best plants for seed you will probably improve the quality.
There are probably some people on your site who claim the earth is flat, but you wouldn't listen to them. If you want to save seed then go ahead. You'll soon prove them wrong.

Here are some useful guidelines about seed saving from Real Seeds

[Johnboy]

Hi Chicken 4,
I think that with peas and beans there really isn't good and bad plants only good and bad peas and beans on the plants. With peas it is best to leave whole plants unpicked and as the haulm dies down pull the whole plant and take them in to somewhere where they can thoroughly dry out. The same with Dwarf and Broad Beans but with Runner and French Climbing Beans it is more difficult as they are twisted round a pole. The way I approach this is to leave those that have obviously missed picking when young and tender and they have grown quite large. Tie a tag of some sort so that you do not pick by mistake and when the pods have begins to dry, having gone brown, then pick the pods and leave to thoroughly dry out. At this stage the pods generally begin to open naturally.
All stored seeds must be really thoroughly dry before you attempt to store them.
As you put them into store you should visually grade your seed and inspect for soundness be quite ruthless in the grading so allow a lot more than you anticipate saving. When you get a mass of seed it will become obvious which ones are worth saving.
I never save Potatoes and buy fresh certified stock each year. The chances of picking up a disease or virus is too great.
I feel that there are very few other vegetables worth saving with the exception of Tomatoes, Peppers and Chilli's which to me are greenhouse jobbies.
JB.

[PLUMPUDDING]

If you save seed from an F1 hybrid, you will most likely not get a plant that is the same as the parent plant as it is a cross, but you will still get something worth eating, just different.

[richard p]

the theory is you should seed from your ideal fruit (pea bean whatever) eg if you allways save seed from the biggest and earliest over years you will tend to get bigger earlier crops. if you want tomatoes at christmas try continually saving seed from the end of the cropping period. whatever you are aiming at eventually you will end up with plants that are that tiny bit different from other peoples and suited to your growing conditions and methods.

[chicken4]

Thanks all for the info

bit confused on the following -

the theory is you should seed from your ideal fruit (pea bean whatever) eg if you allways save seed from the biggest and earliest over years you will tend to get bigger earlier crops.

richard are you saying that i could over time encourage my beans to give me an early crop. The reason i ask is that i was given some bush bean plants ealier this year, planted them way too early but by chance had my first crop in the second week in may. so if i had saved the seed from those plants would i then have an ealry producing crop.

Sorry if the questions appear to be rather simple but reading your posts i'm really keen to start saving the seed and understanding the plants a bit more.