Have you ever saved your own pea seeds?

It is really empowering to save some of your own seeds and we really want to encourage more gardeners and growers to save their own.

Peas are one of the easiest crops to save from as they are self-pollinating, which means that different varieties will not cross together. They also do not need special treatment for seed saving (unlike some crops) so you can just grow them as you would peas for eating.

The best way to save pea seeds is to choose a couple of plants that you want to save from and do not harvest any pods off them for eating. (As pea plants can become tangled together you can also just allocate a small area of your peas instead of individual plants.)

You will notice the skins of the pods go from green and fleshy, to brown and leathery as the seeds ripen (see pic below). Once they look like this they are ready for harvesting.

You can harvest in three different ways:

1. individual pods
2. branches with a few pods on
3. whole plants with pods

Which method you choose depends on how many pods you want to harvest. If you only want a few seeds for the following year then harvesting single pods will work fine, but if you want to harvest lots then one of the other methods will be less time consuming.

Once harvested it's important to dry the seeds properly, as they will still have some residual moisture in them and can easily go mouldy. You can dry the pods / branches / plants by laying them out in a single (or thin) layer in an area with good ventilation for two weeks.

After being 'dried down' you can pod the pea seeds individually or stomp on them in a bucket and the seeds will separate.

You can find more of our seed saving resources by clicking the button below.

July sowing and growing

• It's got hot again! Remember to keep your plants well watered to stop them from bolting
• After all the rain we have had the weed seeds will now be very happy about that, so make sure you hoe your beds regularly - we aim to weed everything every two weeks in the summer months
• There will be lots of things to harvest now, keep on top of them to make sure you eat them at their best, especially peas and courgettes which come thick and fast
• Sideshoot your tomatoes regularly to encourage fruiting, also remove the bottom leaves to maintain good airflow and encourage fast fruit ripening
• Sow seeds of successional crops and some winter veg

Happy growing :)

Fred and Ronja