How to Save Cucumber Seeds (including an extra step most people skip!)

[@ScottHead]

This is one of the best seed saving videos on KZbin.

[@AuxhartGardening]

Thank you!!!

[@CynStone]

🥒 🥒 🥒🥒🥒 FANTASTIC ! You did the best explanation for cucumber seed saving that I've ever seen. WELL DONE. Cynthia 🌷

[@lukewilson3271]

Great video!

[@AuxhartGardening]

Thanks!

[@ScottHead]

Nice to see your channel growing, you will be at 10K before you know it!

[@pamkrimsky1715]

This is a very helpful video. I had no idea how to save the cucumber seeds. Thanks.

[@AuxhartGardening]

You're welcome!

[@melodioushaste]

Thanks for explaining about the seeds sticking to the paper towel. That is something that would have happened to me.

[@altoncheatham7383]

Thanks for sharing

[@cliveburgess4128]

I have a terrible time with cucumbers here in fl. grow, bloom, die, that's about it, any variety you think might work here? Thanks for the videos, Clive.

[@AuxhartGardening]

Have you tried growing them over winter? Usually dropping flowers without fruiting is due to heat or lack of water.

[@chiefredbird7315]

T u

[@cliveburgess4128]

@@AuxhartGardening Yes, it seems to be disease, fungal or otherwise, lack of water perhaps, big problem here, I have been trying to build decent soil, hopeful that this fall garden will be much improved, thrown everything at it I can think of, thanks!

[@sillysausage2244]

I didn't bother remove the membrane from mine, and they were perfectly viable, sprouting their root in 3 days. I feel that the membrane dries, and seals the seed to prolong its shelf life...

[@AuxhartGardening]

Interesting! I've not seen anyone talk about not removing the membrane before.

[@sillysausage2244]

@@AuxhartGardening Maybe I was just lucky they didn't go mouldy 😬

[@amirh.926]

thank you

[@wardsdotnet]

Is this the same protocol for a saving seeds from a melon? Like if you have a cantaloupe and you want to save seeds from it

[@AuxhartGardening]

As far as I know, melon seeds don't have that mucus coating (but to be honest I don't eat any melons regularly). If they don't have that gel/mucus coating, they don't need to be fermented. For example a pumpkin wouldn't need this process, you could just dry the seeds immediately.

[@wardsdotnet]

Cucumbers are melons though, we just eat them in a less mature phase.

[@AuxhartGardening]

@@wardsdotnet well I have the most experience with watermelons and those seeds definitely don’t have that gel coating. So I’m not sure which do or don’t have it.

[@wardsdotnet]

Yeah, watermelon are so different from cantaloupe or honeydew. It's almost like they're different species and hard to believe they're not. I tried saving seeds from cantaloupe following pretty much the same steps here, which is also how I did it in the past with tomatoes, and I think it was just not a good cantaloupe and none of the seeds were viable

[@litahsr.8226]

how to make a fresh Cucumber from the store to ripe with out getting mushy?

[@AuxhartGardening]

I don't think cucumbers will continue to ripen after being picked, so ripening ones from the store won't work.

[@JohnFerrerAkaEric]

Greetings from a Cola area gardener! That bug on top of the male flower you showed... is that bad for plants? My cayenne peppers are always covered in them, I keep killing them but they keep coming back!

[@AuxhartGardening]

I think it's a leaf-footed bug of some sort. They are a pest, but a mild one in my experience. Sunflowers are a great trap crop for them though, as they gravitate toward them. Your sunflowers may look sad, but everything else will get largely ignored.

[@JohnFerrerAkaEric]

@@AuxhartGardening Do the sunflowers need to be close to the garden or could they be like ten feet away to get the benefit? My garden/yard isn't terribly big but I think dwarf sunflowers may be something that could be a good functional decoration on my deck. For what its worth, Jerusalem Artichokes did not seem to have the same effect.

[@gardeningplus7271]

Can you tell me after all doing this why the seeds go flat not just some all of it, it was very healthy but in the end it got hallow and flat not just one cucumber many of them from many plants.

[@AuxhartGardening]

Did you by chance try to save seeds from a hybrid cucumber that’s been bred to not produce many seeds? The other thing I can think of is maybe you just didn’t wait long enough for the cucumber to mature.

[@gardeningplus7271]

i grow this cucumber for 30 years and save seeds from it just this year started acting funny. weird

[@lekgotlatgae5955]

Uhm.. whats the problem with cross pollination with more than one variety? Also i’d like some advice on how to get the algorithm to work for me because i too want to start posting my gardening adventures in the harsh climate of Botswana.. it’ll be my first time doing it at such a scale.. my ashley cucumbers are super fragile but next season i’ma strictly plant them under a shaded area cause my they sure cant tolerate the heat

[@AuxhartGardening]

Cross pollination isn't a problem unless you care about keeping the same type of cucumber year over year. Crossed seeds will grow a cucumber, sure, but you won't be able to control what you get as well. It also makes it harder to select for the strongest seeds when you don't control the pollination. As for the algorithm, I'm not really the one to ask. I mostly just post videos that I would've wanted to see, and I do so regularly.

[@kennysilver9769]

David the Good said to just wash them off and dry.

[@MomIrregardless]

i have watched twice AND read the transcript. so, where do you talk about the 'hook' in your title? the 'included extra step most people skip'???

[@AuxhartGardening]

It’s the germination testing to make sure that you’ve actually got viable seeds when you’re done, so that come planting time you’re sure you’ve got good seeds.

[@orsonzedd]

Why would I want genetic purity? That sounds dumb. I want my cucumbers to hybridize and make a special cucumber only for me

[@AuxhartGardening]

The only reason to keep genetic purity is just for consistency and health of the plant. A hybrid can be cool, but it's rare to get a viable one with characteristics you actually want, and can take several generations and a lot of work to get a hybrid variety to genetically stabilize. So if you're okay with getting different types of cucumbers every year, and having some of them be weak and unhealthy, then you don't need to worry about this.

[@orsonzedd]

@@AuxhartGardening I don't think that's true. Between all the Grex and landrace and ultra crosses I'm seeing out there I think genetic purity is kind of dumb and ignores that plants are subject to natural selection. I think it's better to hybridize your plants to adapt to your environment

[@KimSatterfield]

@@orsonzedd If you hybridize, you will not be able to count on good flavor. When volunteers spring up from hybrid plants in my garden--so far, they have basically no flavor--just bland.

[@orsonzedd]

@KimSatterfield I'll live. Hybrids are awesome

[@wardsdotnet]

When you start talking about the test, you said "put my seeds up on that" but you didn't point out that you're only testing a few of the seeds! I worry a beginner might think they should put ALL the seeds in the bag!!!