seed saving ( psb & broccoli)

[niknik]

am fairly new to all this gardening stuff. but want to save my own seeds.
The Psb and a broccoli plant are making loads of lovely seedpods, now the question is, when do I collect them? .Do I have to wait for plant to die off, can I collect them now?
what does one do?

and once collected, how soon can they be planted?
his is especially of interest re the Psb, as the few seeds i have, although they germinated ok, have basically all died off.

apart from which the sooner I can pull up the plants, the better, as I need that space for other things, if Im to try and do some sort of rotation!

[Odsox]

The best and easiest way to collect brassica seeds is wait until the seed pods start to turn a brownish colour and then put a pillow case over the whole plant, making sure you tie it at the bottom.
Alternatively you can pull them up at that stage and hang them upside down in a shed, as long as you're sure that the seeds are nearly ripe.

You can sow them immediately, as if you think about it that's what nature would do ... shed their ripe seeds to germinate and grow into the next generation of plants, although if it's dry soil they would wait.
You have hit upon the problem of saving your own seed, that unless you have a large garden the seed bearing plants are inevitably in the way of the next crop, plus the seeds are produced a few months later than you might wish.
Storing this year's seeds for next year gets over the second problem though.

[Green Aura]

I doubt you'd need to leave more than one plant to go to seed niknik. It'll produce more than you'll want to use. Just make sure it's your best plant so next years crop have good genes.

Then you can get on with planting whatever in the rest of the bed.

[niknik]

thanks both......

There is only 1 broccoli plant, but its smack bang in the middle of the bed.. BUT I can buy seeds anyway, the PSB however, well neverseen ithere, and I got a few seeds (seed swap) but they have failed to come to anything. I´ll get rid of what I can, butunfortunately, as they were very leggy when I got them, they take up a lot of space, and even leaving just 11 ( of 4) probably wont help, as they cross overeach other, before growing upwards ( if you can understand what I mean)....

I just wonder how long they´ll take to get to full term!

[grahamhobbs]

You need to also be careful about cross-pollinating between the PSB and Brocolli, both are brassicas and as they flower at the same time they could cross pollinate and therefore the seed could be a cross-breed but it will be difficult to tell that at seedling stage.

[niknik]

well I´ll find out if anthing grows from the saved seeds! all in flower for quite some time now!

for future reference.how farapart do they need to be?

[Odsox]

for future reference.how farapart do they need to be?

At least 2 feet, better 3 feet if you can afford the space.

[niknik]

might be ok then, as about 4ft at nearest point!will try to seperatefurther in th future!

[Odsox]

Ah, what are you talking about Niknik ?
I meant 2' - 3' apart for growing PSB to crop well, if you meant separation to keep the variety true then it's as far as a bee can fly.