If you’re on a journey towards self sufficiency like we are, the though of saving seeds may have crossed your mind. After all, if you’re always purchasing seeds from your local store or ordering them online, that’s not really self-sufficient is it?! By saving your seeds from this year’s garden for next year’s planting, you can avoid or at least cut down on the amount of seeds you need to purchase. Some of the easiest seeds to save are green bean seeds. Learn how to dry green bean seeds for planting following this simple tutorial.

Why You Would Want To Dry Green Bean Seeds
So why would you want to dry green bean seeds in the first place? We touched on this in the intro. If you are saving your seeds from your summer garden, you are at least cutting down on the number of seeds you need to purchase. This is thereby increasing your resiliency.
By relying lesson on seed suppliers, you are relying more and more on your own abilities. This is basically self-sufficiency in a nutshell. Not only does this increase your resiliency, but saving seeds can definitely also save you money.
But there are other reasons why you may want to save green bean seeds for next year’s garden. First, green bean seeds are some of the easiest seeds to save. Preparing the seeds for saving requires only about a half hour of hands on time. Green beans are one vegetable that grown the fruit and the seed in the first year. Some plants produce the fruit in the first year and seed in the second. But green beans seeds offer the seed in the first year of growth making them a great candidate for saving!

In addition, beans are generally self pollinating. So, even if you planted multiple varieties of beans, chances are slim that you will have a bean seed that is cross pollinated. By following a simple practice of labeling your seeds with the year and the variety, you should ensure healthy single variety beans growing year after year.
Finally, green bean seeds have a relatively high germination rate. This means they are a forgiving seed to save even if conditions are not perfectly met during the drying process. Green beans have an average germination rate of 70%. So even if some of your seeds aren’t that healthy, you will still have a high yield.
Something To Consider When Drying Green Bean Seeds
One thing to consider when saving green bean seeds is a general rule for saving any seeds. That rule is that you should only save heirloom varieties. Don’t try to save hybrid varieties of green bean seeds or any other seed for that matter.
Hybrid seeds are created to specifically produce a certain type of plant. Saving hybrid seeds won’t result in the “true breed” the following planting season. A hybrid seed is created by crossing two differing varieties of the same plant. This process is done by taking pollen from a male plant and pollinating the female parts of another variety of the same plant. The seeds from this hybrid will not yield the same quality plant as the original seed.

An heirloom seed, on the other hand, is a single variety seed that has been cultivated and saved for at least 50 years. The plant is grown and the seeds are carefully saved year after year to preserve the single variety. This is the type of seed that is good for saving.
How To Dry Green Bean Seeds
So, how do you actually dry the green bean seeds? The process is actually quite simple. Follow the step by step guide to learn how.
- Avoid picking the green beans from your plant until they have become large and tough. You should be able to see that the seeds are very large inside the bean pod.
- Once the beans are large and tough with visibly large seeds, pick the green bean. We like to do this with the last picking of the season.

- Thread a needle with a durable thread. Double the thread over and tie a double knot at the end.
- Thread through the first green bean near the end of the bean. Instead of pulling this first bean to the end of the thread at the knot, insert your needle through the little loop created from the double thread near the know. Repeat this step a few times to ensure that the first bean is secure at the end of the thread.

- Thread the rest of your beans onto the piece of thread and pull them to the bottom towards the other beans.
- Be sure to only put as many beans on one piece of thread as the thread can hold. My strands usually end up about 12-18 inches long.
- Once you have threaded all your beans, bring the needle and thread back over to the first bean. Knot the thread onto the original knot several times to secure everything.

- Hang the strands somewhere in a dry warm location.

- Once the bean pods have all turned brown and brittle, crack open the pods and pick out the seeds. (They are usually all ready for this step in about 6-8 weeks, but I usually just hang mine until I’m ready to use them next spring.)

- Discard any dark or black seeds. Also discard any half seeds or seeds that are cracked.

How To Save And Store The Seeds
The process of saving your green bean seeds is basically complete. However if you don’t plan to plant right away, you should store them in an airtight bag or container. Label the seeds with the year and the variety.
Store the seeds in a dry dark location for up to 5 years. Keep in mind that the quality of the seeds may slowly diminish over the years. Always use your oldest seeds first when planting.
We hope you found this info to be helpful!
Be sure to pin this tutorial to your board of gardening ideas for easy access!

Want to learn more about how to build a wholesome, self-sufficient, and handcrafted life? Check out some of these recent posts!
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How To Preserve Green Beans By Freezing
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