Hi and welcome to our organic garden, today I will show you how to save cucumber seeds. We grow only pickling cucumbers, because we love making pickles, and they taste great raw, just like a regular cuke.
You start with over ripe cucumbers. With the jungle I have going in our big greenhouse, I've sadly been finding too many of these...wait...sad? No, I should be happy because I'll be able to save hundreds of organic seeds for our gardens next year, as well as giving to friends and family who need free seeds.
Next, cut your cucumber in half.
Now there's a seedy fellow if I've ever seen one...
Put a small amount of warm water in a cup.
You guessed it! Scoop the cucumber insides into the water.
You leave this water/seed/pulp mixture to sit and ferment for about 4 days. You can stir it once in a while to get the pulp and the seeds separated faster, or like me, just leave it and let mother nature do her thing. I usually cover my top with a coffee filter, securing it on with an elastic, just to keep the fruit flies away from it.
What's this I have here in the above photo? Those are cucumber seeds I saved last week. You will know they are healthy seeds if they sink to the bottom. See how the pulp has dissolved? This makes it so easy.
Sieve the seeds.
Lastly, let them dry out on a paper towel. Once they are dry, store them for next year! There seems to be a lot of rules out there on the web for storing seeds. I have a little secret to tell you...last year I didn't store a single seed in a plastic bag. I actually just put my dry paper towel (with seed stuck to it), into a paper bag, and put that paper bag into a large dark bag with the rest of my saved seeds. Everything I saved from last year worked hahahaha!! I was pretty happy about that. Seems like life just wants to grow. Seeds are extremely resilient I have found. I'll tell you another secret too, I was so lazy with my tomatoes this year, I didn't even take the seeds off of the paper towel. I planted the whole paper towel hahahaaa!! Omg call me the lazy gardener. It works.