Marigold Seed

In the greenhouse in the center row my husband and I constructed a long bed approximately 3 feet deep and 3 feet wide and something like 38 feet long. In the center we made a slightly raised bed on top. The raised bed is housing passion fruit and cantaloupes, watermelons and European cukes, the climbers. On the outside of the raised section are planted Papayas and Pepino Melons. Because they are shallow rooted and nematodes spell death for them, I planted marigolds in between every tree and bush. It's nice to see such bright colors bordering the bed.

Everyday I walk about between garden chores to do my most favorite chore: searching for seeds. I never collected seed from marigolds before. I found expired blossoms and picked. I read that the seed needs to be black if they're ready. I opened different ones and paid attention to just how expired they were. I gently moved all the dead blossom forward and pinched it while holding on to the stem end and wiggled a bit. It loosened and out came black seeds with their whitish tops. Then I put the greenish brown package down, (the seed holder is a little package full of gifts). I gently pinched the black seeds with one hand and the expired blossom with the other and wiggled some more. They separated effortlessly. I continued to do this until I had a nice pile of marigold seeds and a nice pile of seed packages. Then I went through the pile of packages and emptied the seed that remained inside.

9 blossoms produced a 1/2 a jelly jar of seed.