During the seed shortages of the 2020 pandemic, we began learning how to save as many seeds as we could. But even though we learned how to save cucumber seeds, we weren’t able to do so because we had all hybrid varieties. Womp womp. Lesson learned. We knew we needed to find an open-pollinated or heirloom variety so we could start saving seeds from our cucumber patch the following year. We found a variety from Sow True Seeds called bushy that sounded similar to our favorite hybrid.
Why save seeds?
Saving seeds is a super economical way to propagate the next season’s garden and allows you to save your seed money for fun new varieties rather than re-buying the same exact seeds year after year. Collecting your own seed also allows you to begin adapting a particular variety to your exact environmental and soil conditions ensuring your garden becomes more and more bountiful each year.
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Hybrid vs. open-pollinated
Before going to the effort to seed save, make sure your plants are open-pollinated or heirloom varieties. This will ensure that your next planting is “true to seed,” which means the seed you planted will grow into the same plant you had the year before.
Avoid saving seed from a hybrid plant. Hybrids are a cross of two different parent varieties and seed saved from them will not reproduce the exact same plant the following year. If you do save and replant a hybrid seed, don’t expect the same exact plant, leaf, or fruit next year!
Cross-pollination concerns
Cucumbers rely on pollination to produce fruit, so if you’re growing more than one variety of cucumber, pollinators could mix things up for you accidentally. To prevent cross-pollination you can use one of two methods. Space each cucumber variety 800 feet or a ½ mile apart (obviously not the most feasible small-scale). So option two in a small homestead garden, cover up the blossoms before they bloom with little mesh gift bags to prevent pollinators from spreading unwanted pollen around. The catch with cucumbers is you will need to hand pollinate the female flowers that you place inside the mesh bag. We personally just grow one variety of cucumbers each year to eliminate the need to spend time trying to play bumblebees and transfer pollen around.
Save seeds early
I don’t know about you, but in our humid and hot summer climate, we always end up with some sort of mildew or blight on our cucumber plants eventually. So even though we love to snack and pickle our cucumbers, we know we can’t delay so long that we either lose a plant to pests, disease, or the weather. No plant means no seeds to save. So while your cucumber plants are happy and healthy earlier in the season, select a few cucumbers to leave on the vine to over-ripen for seed.
How to save cucumber seeds
As mentioned above, you’re going to have to sacrifice a perfectly edible cucumber or two for seed. While we humans love eating cucumbers when they are green, immature fruits, the seeds inside are not yet fully formed. In order to save seed, we have to allow the fruit to stay on the vine until it’s big and turns a yellowish-orange color. Then wait until it starts getting soft and a bit mushy. Now your seeds are fully mature. It’s a bit gross, I know.
Slice and scoop
Once you have an ugly-looking cucumber ready, slice it lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon and put them into a jar or container of water. Similar to tomato seeds (LINK), cucumber seeds are covered with a slimy pulp coating that will need to be fermented off.
Ferment and Strain
Allow the cucumber seeds to sit in 70-80 degree water for about three days to remove the pulp from the seeds. We place ours in the warmest room in our house. When fermentation is complete, pour more water into the container and give it a stir. The viable seeds should sink to the bottom of the container and the rest will float. Carefully pour out water with the non-viable seeds and collect the good seeds on the bottom.
Dry and Store
Set the seeds out on a paper towel, coffee filter, or mesh screen to allow them to dry. Once they are completely dry (dry enough to snap), store them in a cool, dark, and dry location. We like using these self-sealing packets to organize our seed storage. Under ideal conditions the seeds should last for up to 5 years.
Pro tip
Vigorously label all the seeds you are saving. We’ve grown our fair share of mystery plants over the years, but it’s not fun when you’re wondering what half your garden is…To prevent such a scenario, we like using masking tape on mason jars during the fermentation stage and then we write with a sharpie on the paper towels used for drying off the seeds. And, of course, label your seed packets before placing them in storage.
Hope learning how to save cucumber seeds inspires you to learn how to save even more seeds from your garden year-to-year. Linked below are more seed saving tips to help you keep on growing:
