Do you want to try propagating your own vegetables and flowers?
During a recent edition of Gardentalk on KTOO’s Morning Edition, master gardener Ed Buyarski used his favorite perennial, the primrose, as an example of how the ordinary gardener can collect and prepare seeds for next year.
Some varieties of primrose bloomed as early as May in Juneau while others flowered as late as July and August. Buyarski said he usually collects the seed pods in separated containers. After the seeds drop out of the dried seed pods, they can be separated from the pods and chaff. Buyarski then saves the seeds in labeled jars and old film canisters.
“Normally, it will take a year from next spring before we get first flowering,” he said.
Buyarski notes that he sometimes starts the seeds indoors in trays and accelerates their growth with lights before planting outdoors.
“Otherwise, they’re pretty slow,” Buyarski said. “They wouldn’t be as big if they were just out in nature’s conditions to grow.”
Listen to the Sept. 17 edition of Gardentalk about collecting, sorting and preparing seeds for seedling starts next spring:
