If you don’t want to eat your ground cherries
immediately, store the fruits in their husks in a refrigerator, cool basement, garage, or root cellar. They
need to be kept cool for optimal storage. In the right conditions, ground cherries can store from 6
weeks to 3 months. Ground Cherries are often used fresh, such as in salads, or cooked in
sauces and more. Try flash freezing- line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the
ground cherries over the baking sheet. Put them in the freezer for about 5 hours, then transfer to a
freezer safe bag or an airtight container and will stay good for several months.
3 seed-drying techniques to prolong the life of seeds and keep them from developing
mold or rot while in storage. By saving organic seeds from heirlooms, as opposed to hybrids, you’re
ensuring that your new crop will take on the traits of the parent plant. In hybrids, you may get traits
from either the male or the female plant or even a plant further back in the plant’s lineage.
Dry in open air
1) Once the seed pods or fruits have been harvested from the plant, crack them open
and collect the seeds. If the seeds came from a “wet” fruit or vegetable, such as a cucumber, tomato,
pepper or squash, wash off the slime( If the seeds came from a “dry” seed pod or capsule, like a zinnia,
marigold, parsley or cosmos plant, you can skip this step.) Once the seeds are free from their pods or
fruits, spread them out on a coffee filter, wax paper or a fine window screen laid on a flat surface in a
dry, cool room.
Do not use paper towels or newspaper if the seeds are wet. They’ll stick to it and be nearly impossible
to remove later. Spread the seeds out over the area so they don’t touch. Let the seeds rest for a week
to ten days before gently stirring them with your finger or a small spoon. Let them dry for another two to
three weeks. At this point, they should be dry enough to put into storage.
Dry in paper bag
2) use a simple brown paper lunch bag for dry seed pods and capsules, but it should
not be used for saving seeds of wet fruits, such as tomatoes, squash, peppers, melons, and the like. It
is especially useful for flower seeds, vegetable, and herb seeds born on stalks, like those from lettuce,
carrot, spinach and dill plants. For example, put the flower stalk into a brown paper bag, top end first,
allowing the cut stem end to stick out of the bag’s opening. Place the open paper bag on a table or tray
in a dry, cool room with the stem end sticking up. If the bag is top heavy, you can also lay it on its side.
Allow the stem to fully die and turn brown in the bag over the course of two to three weeks. Once the
stem is brown and dry, reach into the bag and use your fingers to pull the seeds out of the dead flower
head or seed capsule. For some seeds, you might have to crack the seed pod open. The seeds will fall
out into the bag and collect at the bottom. Pull out any non-seed materials, such as the plant stems,
dried up petals and chaff, and discard it. After the seeds are collected in the bottom of the bag, leave
the open bags sit in the room for another two to three weeks, shaking them occasionally to stir up the
seeds.
When that time passes, your seeds are now ready for storage.
Dry with silica gel
3) This is a granular substance that pulls and absorbs moisture from the air. You’ll
often find little sachets of it in shoe boxes and purses when making a purchase from the store. Loose
silica gel is available from craft stores and is very useful when it comes to drying seeds. To dry seeds
using silica gel, prepare the seeds accordingly to separate them from their fruits or pods. Once the
seeds are separated, weigh them. Place the same amount by weight of silica gel into the bottom of a
glass screw-top jar. Place a small piece of screening on top of the silica gel and then place the seeds
on top of the screening. Spread them out as much as possible so they sit in a thin layer. Put the lid of
the jar and keep it sealed for 7 to 10 days. Large seeds, like squash and pumpkins, might need a few
more days.
Once that time passes, open the jar, remove the seeds and store them appropriately.
[After washing seed in technique #1, you may need to add the fermenting part: Tomato seeds, as you
may have noticed, are covered with a slimy gel, which is meant to protect the seed. This covering
needs to be removed if it’s going to be planted, and the way you do that is by fermenting the seeds
with the gel in a jar covered with a cloth for three to four days. When you start seeing a mold appear on
the surface of the liquid, you can strain the seeds through a sieve to remove the liquid and prepare the
seeds for drying. However, be sure to get to the seeds before they begin to sprout—once sprouted
their viability is lost.]
Propagation:
Typically propagated via seeds, they also can be grown from cuttings. This
is an easy and inexpensive way to start a new plant. The best time to take a cutting is in
the late spring to early summer. Here’s how: a) Take a 4 to 6 in. stem cutting, and
remove any foliage on the lower half. b) Dip the cut end in rooting hormone. c)Plant the
cutting in a small container with drainage holes that’s filled soilless potting mix. Place the
cutting in a warm spot with bright, indirect light. d) Keep the growing medium consistently
moist but not soggy, and roots should form in a couple weeks. Once you see new growth
on the stem, you’ll know it’s ready for transplanting.
