How to Produce Organic Fruit and Vegetable Seeds (basic instruction)
By Mattana Aphaimool
For the seed production there are four groups of fruits and vegetables:
- Fruits that dry on the plant e.g. wing beans/ bottle gourds
- Fruits that are dried in the shade after harvest e.g. corn
- Fruits that have to be cut in order to take the seeds out, seeds are washed and dried e.g. eggplant, pumpkin
- Fruits with jelly, the seed is fermented (kept for 2-3 days), and cleaned and dried afterwards e.g. papaya or tomato
In general there are seven steps of seed production to be followed:
- Choose plant
- Choose best season e.g. rainy season for pumpkin/ dry season for leafy greens
- Prepare land
- Prepare fertilizer (compost)
- Make sure you have enough water (especially in dry season)
- Harvest the fruit
- Extract and clean seeds
- Fully dry seeds in the shade
- Clean again (if needed) and store
When the seed is cleaned, the good seed will go down to the bottom of the bucket and the bad seed will be swimming on top. This is an easy method to get rid of the bad seed.
The seeds can be kept in paper. Paper allows the seeds to breathe and can absorb some moisture. Plastic does not do this. If stored in a fridge they can be used even after 2-3 years.
