Divisi
Before you plant a single seed you saved, test 50 of them.
Before you plant a single seed you saved, test 50 of them.
Roll 50 seeds in a damp cloth, keep it damp, and count the sprouts after five to seven days. Double that number and you have your germination percentage. Below about 70%, plant it thicker or don't plant it — finding out in the field costs you the season, and finding out on a cloth costs you a week.
The test is also how you learn which of your own seed is worth keeping. Seed chosen off the grain heap at the end of harvest usually fails it. Seed chosen while the crop is still standing usually passes:
• Walk the field before harvest and flag 30–50 of the healthiest, best-yielding plants of ONE variety.
• Harvest those separately and keep only the full, clean grain.
• Dry to about 8% moisture — a kernel should crack when you bite it, not dent.
• Store airtight, cool and dark. In an open tin, seed can lose half its germination inside six months.
One thing not to save: hybrid (F1) maize. In Kenya, recycled hybrid lost 16–20% of its yield in the first replant and 32–46% by the third. Open-pollinated maize, beans, cowpea, groundnut, sorghum, millet and rice all breed true — those are the ones worth building a store around.
https://divisi.africa/insights/community-seed-bank-save-your-own-seed-el-nino/
What other farmers said
sure. I keep tomatoes and carrots seeds. and beans and ground nuts. I will use this information to select the seeds. I use ash to preserve them.
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