How to collect radish seeds for planting next season?

Harvesting planting material at home allows you to save money, avoid re-grading and the purchase of low-quality seeds. The process of collecting and preparing for storage has many subtleties: it is necessary to collect radish seeds for planting from a varietal plant, because hybrids do not transmit their own characteristics to the next generations. Previously, the bush selected for seed production must be isolated so that cross-pollination does not occur. And for long-term storage, the harvested seeds must be properly prepared.

How to Grow Great Seeds?

It is possible to grow radishes in order to obtain seeds from it by direct and transplant methods. In the first case, selected specimens are left to grow in the same place, carefully caring for them. The mothers should be large, well-developed plants of the desired variety.

With the transplant method, it will be possible to get seeds a month earlier, but this technology is more troublesome. The selected plants will need to be transplanted into a separate garden bed. The process will look like this:

1. In the specimens of radish selected as mother plants with ripe root crops, the tops are cut off, leaving hemp 4 cm high, and the root is shortened to 3–4 cm.
2. Plants are transplanted to a new location and watered abundantly. The distance between them should be at least 40 cm. In the process of development, the mother liquors build up lush tops.
3. Root crops are regularly watered, after moistening the soil, weeding and loosening are carried out.
4. In mid-June, queen cells are fed with a solution of chicken manure. The concentrate is preliminarily prepared by filling the bucket with droppings halfway and pouring the remaining volume with clean water. After 5–6 days, the fertilizer can be applied after diluting with water in a ratio of 1:10.
5. Pests must not be allowed to damage the culture. If aphids or a cruciferous flea appear on the bushes, you should immediately apply insecticides (Fastag, Tsunami, Arrivo, Inta-Vir, Tabu, Aktara, Fitoverm, Aktellik are suitable) ...
6. Soon arrows will appear on the queen cells, and then flowering and subsequent seed formation will begin. Bushes during this period can reach a height of 1.5 m, they will need support.

When the pods turn yellow, it's time to harvest. Ripe beans come in a variety of shades, from beige to rich straw. An average of 15–2 g of seeds is obtained from one plant.

In order to provide yourself with a sufficient number of root crops, it is enough to allocate from 10 to 15 mother bushes for reproduction. When growing radishes for sale, the number of mother plants is increased. You can get seeds at home from any variety you like.

Collection and extraction of seeds

It will be possible to harvest radish seeds in 65–70 days from the moment of flowering. Typically, the harvest period is early or mid September. The works are carried out on a clear dry day.

The beans are cut with pruners, leaving part of the stem, tied in bunches and hung to dry in a dry ventilated room. It can be a barn, an attic, a glazed balcony.

You can tell if the pods are dry by the fact that they begin to crumble easily if you squeeze them in your hand.

The dried pods are placed in a container of a suitable volume (saucepan, bowl) and pounded until all the seeds are free from the shell. Then the contents of the container are poured with water. Empty seeds and leftover pods will float to the surface.

Quality seeds will remain at the bottom.They are rinsed in clean water several times and laid out on a paper towel to dry. Dried seeds need to be blown out in order to get rid of small debris. It is convenient to do this with a fan or a special winder.

Seed storage rules

Dried and peeled seeds are packed in a cloth bag made of natural material or in a paper bag. The seeds should lie there freely. The container is supplied with a label indicating the type of radish and the date of collection of the planting material. You can write with a pen directly on the package.

At low air humidity and room temperature, radish seeds can be stored for 7 years. Periodically, the seed is sorted out and, if detected, dried, moldy seeds are removed.

Knowing the peculiarities of harvesting radish seeds, you can independently obtain high quality planting material. Before planting, it is advisable to pickle the seeds in order to get rid of pathogenic microflora and soak them in growth stimulants. In this case, unpleasant surprises when growing radishes will be excluded.