If you have lots of pumpkins and you want the seeds, it’s easy, just cut open and take out and dry, But how about watermelons or zucchini’s?
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For zucchini I leave the fruits on the plants until they become super huge and change the color to yellowish. I left mine on the porch until I have time to process them. Open them and getting the seeds.
For watermelon I eat them and save the seeds. But it is time consuming.
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The same here, it is easiest to leave a few zuchini on the plants until they get really large and turn yellow. Sometimes i forget as they are still in the garden and they start to dry out and crack open. I just scoop up seeds and lay them on cardboard or old newspaper until fully dried out.
Watermelon seed are processed as we eat them,
one melon at a time. I keep a small strainer close at hand just for straining and rinsing seeds.
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Wowza! Can you share photos when they start coming up? Im wondering if the leaves will be distinct from each other?
@Hugo Do you get a good bunch of eatable melons? If so you can pick and choose the ones to get seed from. My garden area isn’t as large, I’m lucky to get a total of 20 melons or so…I choose from those 20 for seed saving. If there is a medium note of sweet taste, I save the seed. And I have had great watermelon from adding a layer, to the growing area, of horse manure with a layer of wood chip compost on top.
Whats on your seeds? Did you coat them?
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I have spent some time over the past few years “chewing” watermelons and spitting seeds, then rincing and drying. That is my simple techniques^^. You better like watermelon! Fortunately I have friends, and asked them to do the same with those I gave to them.
People love eating watermelon, so if you offer them loads they can do that for you, or at least save parts of the seeds.
I thought of another strategy today for seed increase handling piles of watermelon : doing juice and sterilize. Don’t know if it is good nor if anyones does that! But by doing so, you could test each watermelon prior to pressing and making juice: so you could sort by taste quality easily.
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Made squash soups in huge quantities also. So got tons of seeds within hours. It is also good doing it with friends, or maybe collaborating with someone or an enterprise doing soup, or more largely cuisine professionnally.
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Yes, i garden with farmers who see things need to change, they struggle getting seed though and have no time to invest or lost hope. Aren’t connected in ways i am, the old farmer got rid of his smartphone. I learn a lot of them and sometimes they learn something of me too. Very important to learn to scale up because farmers can teach other farmers, it takes a certain kind of open farmer to have this “cross pollination”.
The sweetness was exactly the point Thomas send me his seeds, first i had seeded old seeds he send me, they were animal fodder grade, but very good for dryland, they came up but i pulled those.
I didn’t coat them. It’s probably dried up spit from a diverse plumage of friends of Thomas. Haha.
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I don’t really like watermelons much, but i didn’t like aubergines nor strawerries much either before growing my own,
I tried that, handing neighbors Maxima fruits for free and asking seeds back as a thank you, but they rarely do! Now i open them take them out and hand two halves held together. Same with butternuts. I hope to make them understand.
Maybe we should organize a little tasting in the tiny village, with all that variety maybe i get a chance to explain some things. Then they can get involved deeper.
People kind of get it, they just think other people should do all the effort and i should be happy they’re willing to cook the free food, as a favor to me almost.
Then i can inject them with the fear of being the odd ones out if they don’t return the seeds next time.
“Muuuuhuuuhaha”
I like your juicing plan, is that how seed safe companies do it?
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local coating. We want our microbiome to invade YOUR place 
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@Hugo when do we get a manure pile video tour?
I didn’t like watermelons prior to cultivating it. Now it is my favorite, with melons and toms. The thing is to learn when to pick them. But if you have 100 you will learn!
Interesting. In 2021 and 2022 I made one “open garden” around the 1st of October day, with let’s say, from 30 to 50 people coming to my place: we harvested all summer crops (about 800 kilos / 500m²), I kept the best looking, some specials (kiwanos and others) and diversity within each population, for seeds. So the exchange was : “you help me cleaning up the place (remove plastic tarps, trelisses and stuff…), prepare for cover crop, I take about 20% of the harvest and you take 80%”. So I ensured having diversity AND quantities for me and “secured”(?) a bit my… “community” (this word is badly connotated in France, so… brackets! But these where local friends and relatives) .
So, all the work was done within 2-3 hours. Great thing. And in the afternoon I offered technical workshops dedicated to agronomy, notably one dynamics of the organic matter, one about cover crops with Yann Lopez and others. Each individual went back to his place with from 10 to 50 kilos of squashes. Everybody more than happy with that.
But as you say, in 2022, even if I secured diversity and the nicest looking squashes, I asked them to bring me back “some seeds”, if they could… And I MUST say that nobody did, apart from one neighbor who brought me back 500g-1kg of perfectly clean and dried seeds!
Overall they did not care. And it is not changing the way they… not garden!!!^^ Won’t ramble about this generation of pseudo-ecologists living in my rural dwelling with urban mindsets, hating farmers in general… blablabla… won’t ramble, promise
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I don’t know.
My overall strategy this year will be “working” with people doing ready-made dishes in good quantities, like ratatouille, tomato sauce, or squash soups.
For watermelons and other things I think I will “work” with closer relatives who understand what I am doing. Making crystal clear that it is free food against seed return.
I think it is the best combo: closer relatives, shared understanding, and some kind of real enthusiasm for the selection process…
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Great Thomas. I would hate to have people all over my garden ‘doing things’. It’s very unclear what i grow, too much chaos, support plants, herbs and trees and shrubs.
It might be interesting when i get going with cover crops and clear rows.
I saw some clips that seem interesting regarding seed saving of melons, but they waste them, i think your option to make juice in a way you can save seeds is more interesting.
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There’s also got to be some livestream/performance art option where you eat watermelon for 24 hours straight…
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