Troppofoodgardener wrote:I have saved the seeds as recommended, and dried them, but they end up very thin and resemble flakes.. is that normal?
I got them from the biggest mature cucumber I could find. It was very thick and and more seed than flesh.
I just finished the fermentation process on two different cucumbers, a pickler variety and a slicer variety. The pickler gave me nice fat seeds that sunk to the bottom and look like seeds; the slicer gave me seeds that floated and reminded me of your description in this thread: thin and resembling flakes.
I'm no expert, this being my first cucumber seed-saving experiment and all, but I tossed the ones from the slicer and am now drying the ones from the pickler.
I still have cucumbers sitting on the counter from an October picking. Two are picklers; one is a slicer. Tomorrow I am going to begin fermenting one of each again. I reason that if I do this long enough, I will be ready one day to save tomato seeds. I don't need cucumber seeds, but my neighbor wants the seeds, and I want the experience.
If the slicer still doesn't work, giving me skinny flake-like seeds, I have a plan C: I left two of them in the cucumber bed. I imagine they are frozen solid by now. Next spring, I'll see what nature has done with 'em.
BTW, the difference I notice between the pre-fermentation seeds and the post-fermentation seeds is the the latter are definitely plump compared to the former. I don't know what the means in terms of viability, but I found it interesting.