MINNEAPOLIS - Autumn is an excellent time to harvest seeds from your garden and wild spaces.
Once the seed heads of your perennial plants begin to brown and dry out start watching for the seeds to loosen or the pods to begin to split.
It’s okay to help them along if they aren’t quite ready, just be sure to have a dry place to store them as the seeds continue to mature.
For the next several weeks, the seeds can be stored in a cool dry place – such as the garage or even the refrigerator. Just remember to keep them dry.
Follow Mother Nature’s plan for seeding success!
In the wild, when seeds mature on the plants they remain in place until the wind blows them away, birds or other animals pick at or eat them, and snow will even carry the seeds to the ground.
To promote seeding success of certain species in your garden space, seeds can be sprinkled directly onto the soil surface.
We recommend waiting until the first light snow of the season, 2-3 inches is perfect!
This will help create a freeze thaw cycle on the soil surface, and will cold stratify the seeds.
A process necessary for many plant species to break dormancy the following spring.
An important thing to remember any time you are growing plants from seed in the garden, you won’t be able to use pre-emergent herbicide in that area in the spring.
Thanks to Bre Bauerly for this great information - for more info click on the link below!