How to Save Arugula Seeds
Arugula is one of those plants that is so easy to save seeds from in the spring. Not only because one plant produces a ton of seed pods, but because each seed pod has a bunch of seeds in it. I usually sprinkle my arugula seeds in a row and then thin out the plants as they grow, so I always make sure to have lots of seeds on hand.
And I do a couple of succession plantings of arugula in both the spring and fall. So here’s how to go about saving the seeds for the future so you never have to buy arugula seeds again!
Step 1. Let your arugula flower
The first photo below is what your arugula looks like when it is growing. You’ll harvest the leaves as you need them, and it will continue to grow and produce more. But arugula is a cool-season crop. So as the days get longer and the temperatures get higher in the spring, you’ll notice that your plant will begin the process of flowering.
People often refer to this process as “bolting” or “going to seed.” Each arugula plant will develop a green “rosette” looking structure at its center. Then you’ll notice the plant begin to get taller and produce longer, skinnier leaves.
The leaves will still have that striking arugula scent, but they won’t be nearly as plentiful as the plants when they are primarily directing their energy to producing new leaves. When your plant is beginning to flower, it is instead directing its energy into that process—finishing its lifecycle to produce seeds!
The plant will eventually develop long stems with flowers on them. Many of these flowers will then drop, and a seed pod will emerge.
Step 2. Monitor for seed pods
The seed pods look like the long green pointy things in the first picture below. But don’t pick them! If you pick them and pull the seeds out now, they won’t be viable (second pic below). Instead, you want to let the seed pods dry for as long as possible on the plant.
Step 3. Let seed pods dry
I recommend letting them dry on the plant for as long as possible. You can cut off a stem and put it out on a paper towel or in a paper bag when the green seed pods are beginning to yellow and turn a bit brown.
This is often a good idea because, if you let the seed pods dry completely on the stem, they will probably break open and drop the seeds. This is fine if you just want to let the plant re-seed itself wherever. But capturing some stems before the pods break open naturally will allow you to capture more seeds.
Step 4. Capture seeds
If you see brown see pods on the stems that are beginning to split, you can go ahead and snip them off. Break them open and put the seeds onto a paper towel to dry.
If you snipped stems and laid them out on a paper towel, pop them into a paper bag. Then you can gently crunch the bottom of the bag to break open dry pods and let the seeds fall to the bottom of the paper bag.
When you’re done, you can use scissors to cut a tiny hole in the bottom of the paper bag and gently shake the seeds out onto a paper towel. I did this with the stems from my mom’s plants because she had a ton to process.
Whichever method I use, I make sure to lay the seeds out on a paper towel on a sunny windowsill to dry for 24 to 48 hours before storing. And that’s it! Never buy arugula seeds again 🙂
