Harvesting Sweet Basil Seed

[DoubleDogFarm]

This is my first time at harvesting basil seed. Probably nothing new to most of you, but I thought it worked out well.

My jar of stems and flowers

A few quick pulses in the spice grinder.

Shift the grindings.

Spread them out and see what you have. A bunch of little black mouse turds. Little hard to see. Many seeds mix in there.

You could try to separate the seed from the rest, but I will just broadcast over a open 1020 flat.

Eric

[rainbowgardener]

Yeah, I don't try to clean my seed any farther than what you have...

[PunkRotten]

I must be too meticulous I harvested my basil seeds all by hand. I completely removed all the chaff to have only just seeds. But I found a quick technique to do it by hand. Each little flower I just pinch it in the back carefully and 4-5 seeds drop. After awhile I got a good rhythm down and was not all that time consuming.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Yeah, I don't try to clean my seed any farther than what you have...

That's good to hear Rainbow. I already planted to open flats. I liked how the "chaff" was a slightly different color than the bedding mix. Like Marlingardener mentioned, I believe it helped spread the seeds more evenly.

I must be too meticulous I harvested my basil seeds all by hand. I completely removed all the chaff to have only just seeds. But I found a quick technique to do it by hand. Each little flower I just pinch it in the back carefully and 4-5 seeds drop. After awhile I got a good rhythm down and was not all that time consuming.

Your way may be slower, but less damaging to the seed. Will have to wait and see how my germination goes.

Eric

[Runningtrails]

I dry the stems then rub it between my hands until all the seeds have fallen off with the chaff. I spread it out on a piece of paper and blow over it very, very gently. This blows away a lot of the chaff and leaves the seeds.

[rainbowgardener]

Well, my home collected seed that looks like that has been planted AND has sprouted. I have a ton of it, so the germination rate must have been pretty good, not that I tried counting all those little seeds! So I will testify that it works just fine that way.