Yesterday and Monday I’ve been working to crack open the pods that the radish seeds are contained in. I let one radish continue to grow earlier this year and the main stem was over three feet tall! After the top bushy part of the plant turned brown, it was cut down and the seed pods were removed. The one radish plant still has new growth on it with new flowers and pods being produced – so I’ll have additional seeds in the future (if they finish before the frost hits).
As I’ve been opening the seed pods, I’ve noticed that there are some dark brown – or black – seeds in some of the pods – along with the typical light brown seeds. I’ve spent about four hours already cracking these pods open and still have just a bit more to do today! Overall, I may have close to 300 or more seeds so far. The pods can contain zero seeds or up to about seven seeds in each – depending how big the pod is.
I took 24 of those seeds and planted them in the carrot raised bed last night. I plan to check on the viability of the seed by taking just a random sample of the seeds. Hopefully at least half of them will sprout; having more than 50% would be even better!
But the idea of saving radish seeds and harvesting radish seeds is a good one and it is easy to do – but it is just very tedious and takes a lot of time! You won’t save time by saving your radish seeds – but you will save a few dollars since you won’t need to buy packets – and you also get the satisfaction of going full-circle with your plants; from seed to plant back to seed for the next generation of plants!
It is also said that if you save seed from plants you grow, those plants eventually will put in traits that deal with your climate better – so you may get more vigorous plants or higher yields in the future by using your own seed.