Broccoli Seeds When to Harvest & How to Store #gardening #allotment #broccoli #seedsaving #harvest, by Happy Acres Gardening with Chris on YouTube. 1 min 37 s.
- Video length
- 1 min 37 s
- Time to do it
- 20 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 8
What you need
Steps
Pick two or three healthy broccoli plants and leave them in the ground when you harvest the heads. Let them send up tall flower stalks with yellow flowers.
Wait while the flowers fade and long thin pods form along the stems. The pods start green and slowly swell with seed.
Check the pods every few days once they turn from green to yellow-brown. The seed is ripe when the pods are dry and papery and rattle slightly.
Cut the whole stalk off at the base with secateurs before the pods split and drop seed. Do this on a dry morning, not after rain.
Hold the stalks upside down over a paper bag or tray and rub the pods between your fingers. The dry pods split and release small round brown seeds.
Pick out the bigger pieces of pod and stem by hand. Then tip the seed between two bowls outdoors or over a sieve so the breeze blows the chaff away.
Spread the cleaned seed on a tray in a warm, dry room for a week. It must be bone dry before it goes into storage or it will go mouldy.
Write the variety and the year on a paper envelope or small jar, add the seed and seal it. Store in a cool, dark, dry place such as a cupboard or tin.
Tips and common mistakes
Broccoli crosses easily with other brassicas like cabbage and kale, so grow only one flowering variety for seed or keep them well apart.
Never store seed in a warm kitchen drawer or a damp shed, as both shorten how long it will germinate.
Sow a few saved seeds on damp kitchen paper first to check germination before you give up a whole bed to them.
Pick pods before they are completely brown and splitting, or you will lose most of the seed onto the soil.
Questions
How long do saved broccoli seeds stay good?
Kept dry and cool in a sealed envelope or jar, they usually germinate well for about three to five years. Label the year so you know how old they are.
Can I save seed from the broccoli I ate?
No. Once you cut the head there is nothing left to flower. Leave a separate plant or two unharvested so they can run to flower and form pods.
Do I need to dry the seeds in the sun?
A warm, airy room is safer than direct sun. Spread them thinly on a tray or paper plate and leave them for about a week, turning them once or twice.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
