Hi all, I have saved and reused seeds for several years with mixed results. My question is re cucumber seeds and zinnia seeds. I had less success with my (saved) zinnias than I did last year. Do the seeds need to have a period of cold for them to grow well? Same ? about the cukes. The seeds I saved looked great but did not grow at all. I bought seeds and used these instead. But I want to try again and want to know what I did wrong, or will self saved seeds not produce? Thanks as always for any information.

No both zinnias and cukes are strictly warm weather plants. Those are some that do not accept cold much at all. Zinnias in particular need to be started after it has warmed up a lot.

zinnia flower seeds should be collected after the flower has died on the plant. maybe you already know this? just thought I'd throw that out there in case you didn't.
on your cukes, I'm wondering if your original cuke plant was a hybrid? seeds from a hybrid plant won't sprout. also, when you collected seeds from your cuke did you let them completly dry out before you stored them?
from what I know, it's mostly tree seeds that require a period of coldness in order for them to sprout.
planting depth also comes to mind. a general rule is plant the seed double....or is it triple...??? the seed size. maybe some of your seeds were planted too deep?

I'm going to try to save some seeds...how do you store them???
If anyone has any x-tra seeds I would love some!!
thanks
NJ

I find a lot of times, cucumbers are picked before the seeds have a chance to mature. I've never grown cucumber with seeds inside nor have I ever seen any because most of the ones I've seen and grown are the seedless variety (they do have seeds but they just do'nt develop) .As well, with zinnias, they are notorious for producing infertile seeds. Any fertile seed will be hard and feel a bit thicker. Anything that is flimsy/soft or that can bend easily without snapping would be an infertile seed that won't grow.

I sow my seeds on top of a pot of moistened seed starting medium and them cover them with a fine layer of vermiculite and mist the top with a spray bottle. 2-3 is generally the rule for how much to cover the seed. Anything that is small (poppy seed and smaller) is generally just sprinkled on top and patted down but not covered.

My first zinnias were a bag full of dried flowers someone gave me. I didn't know which parts were the seeds so I crumbled the whole flower heads on bare ground and raked and stomped them in. I had zinnias coming out my ears! I did purchase a package of seeds and saw that the seeds were the little arrowhead shaped bits on the ends of the dried petals. So in subsequent years I planted only those.
It is all a learning process.

Hi NJ I have an over abundance of blackberry lily seeds if you are intereted pm me.

Zinnia's seem to stay viable for more than one year and reseed too. I love them so much I usually even start them indoors although it isn't necessary since they come up so quickly.

I've never collected cucumber seeds but I would imagine that if you wanted to you would have to keep that particular cucumber on the vine until it was way overripe before picking it. But I don't do them in my garden so I can't swear to it.

TK-I just PM'd you. Thanks.
NJ