If you are planning to start saving seeds from your own vegetable garden in order to save money, or to become self-sufficient, or merely to be sure that you always have the variety of veggie that you like best on hand few veggies are easier to work with than cucumbers.
You will need only two things, really. One is an old, yellowed cucumber useful for nothing, apparently, other than the compost pile. The second is an old crock of some kind, or better still, several of these.
Here is what you do.
Let one or more cucumbers go soft and squishy and yellow in the garden.
Once they have reached this state, fill a crock, or the bottom of a clean crock pot ¾ full with room temperature water.
Tear; do not cut the cucumber apart to expose the seeds. We advocate not using a knife because it can injure the very seeds which you are collecting.
The seeds will be surrounded by gel, scoop out the seeds, let as much of the gel drip away as will do so easily and place the remainder, seeds and all, into the crock. The seeds and the gel should float.
If the crock has a cover, put it on, if not then improvise a lid with plastic and duct tape. Poke a few holes in the plastic with a knife to let gases that build up during fermentation to escape.
After 24 hours check the seeds on a daily basis and give the fluid a quick, gentle stir. The seeds that were trapped in the floating gel will sink to the bottom of the crock in 2 to 5 days.
When the seeds have dropped to the bottom, remove the top layer of the water and remaining gel with a large spoon or cup.
Pour the remaining water through a strainer trapping the seeds. Then, gently rinse the seeds with room temperature water.
When the seeds are free of all gel place them in a pan or better, on a screen and allow them to dry for three weeks. If drying takes place on a porch or in a shed, be sure that the seeds are out of direct sunlight and safe from birds or rodents.
When thoroughly dried the seeds are ready to be placed in jars or envelopes and stored until next growing season.
And that is all you need to do to start your own strain of house cucumbers!
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