Buying planting material for a summer residence is now very easy: you can make this purchase in an online store, a regular garden shop, or even join joint purchases on the forums, so it is certainly profitable to invest your money. But sometimes you have to resort to the old "grandfather" methods. We will tell you and show how to collect the seeds of cucumbers at home correctly.
And why bother to harvest vegetable seeds?
- Among the seed producers, there are sometimes unscrupulous ones: instead of high-quality planting material, they “slip” the marriage. In the best case, hybrids or not at all promised plant varieties grow from defective seeds, and in the worst they do not germinate at all. If you systematically fall for the “hook” of just such traders - it is better to harvest seeds not only from cucumbers, but also from other vegetables yourself.
- Sometimes it happens that you liked a purchased variety, but you already threw away a bag of seeds, but did not remember the names of the producer. In general, you risk not finding exactly the same quality seeds of this variety. There is a solution: collect the seeds of the most successful fruit, and you are guaranteed to get the seeds of this plant!
Take a look photo and description of varieties of cucumbers for open ground.
- In some gardening cooperatives, the exchange of “home” seeds is akin to tradition. It’s like treating yourself to preservation or giving your friends handmade knitted socks. So, if your neighbors in the country can spend hours talking about seedlings and watering for hours on end, give them a present - prepare the seeds of the cucumbers and solemnly hand them in!
What cucumbers are suitable for harvesting seeds?
In ordinary green cucumbers, the seeds are still not of that hardness to harvest them for the next season. Therefore, only ripe brown vegetables with cracked skin are suitable. It is these people who are sometimes “forgotten” on the beds, and then they don’t know where to apply them.
The number of seeds in one cucumber depends on its variety. However, if you want to prepare seeds for your use or in order to share them with a neighbor in the country, one or two fruits will be enough.
How to collect cucumber seeds at home
1. At the very beginning, take care of the stand or table cover: cucumbers are watery vegetables, so you run the risk of pouring liquid onto the work surface. So, above a kitchen board or table covered with paper, cut in half a ripe brown cucumber.
2. Take a teaspoon out of both halves of the cucumber its seeds and put in a bowl.
3. Then transfer the seeds to a piece of paper, being careful not to scoop up excess moisture. Spread the seeds evenly throughout the leaf: let the seeds dry faster. Place the seed paper in a dry place for a day. A hot battery or oven is not suitable for this purpose: the seeds should not be fried, but dry.
4. In a day you will receive dried cucumber seeds.
5. Now they need to be rejected - manually sorted to determine which ones are suitable for planting and which are not. Everything is simple here: the "pot-bellied" seeds are suitable for further use, but they will have to be discarded completely flat. After selecting the seeds, they should be placed in a dry container - a jar, a matchbox or a home-made "pocket" made of paper.
Harvesting cucumber seeds is easy enough! At the same time, you get a lot of planting material for the next season, save money and, of course, you can “treat” your favorite neighbors with this planting material!
By the way, the seeds of zucchini, squash, melons and watermelons are harvested on the same principle.
Well, of course, you need to know how to germinate cucumber seeds before planting.
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