From the working bench: seeds collecting

The seeds collecting is in high drive nowadays. For some species, all fruits mature and are collected at the same time, for others it is an on-going process.

When collecting fruits & seeds of the dry type (capsules, achenes…) either for yourself or for trading with friends and various seeds exchanges, always use paper holders, envelopes, any other type of paper-made envelopes and my favorites: coffee filters!
They are absorbent and you can easily write on them. Fold them neatly to form a nice envelope when collecting and/or leave them open later for the fruits/seeds to dry out. I also use them for temporarily holding fleshy fruits until the seeds get cleaned out.

Even the most dry-looking fruits will still hold moisture for a while, so even when collecting in paper envelopes in the garden/wild, always transfer and spread them on larger surfaces for a few weeks, before sorting out the seeds and placing them in the holding envelopes (paper or glassine).

Glassine envelopes hold moisture and are not good for keeping freshly collected fruits/seeds!

So, buy yourself a large batch of coffee filters, if you don’t already have them, and start collecting seeds!