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Magnificent nasturtium adorns many flower beds, gardens and parks. Its vines, abundantly covered with bright flowers, are excellent for vertical gardening and continuous soil cover. Low-growing plants are often used to create flowering borders. Annual and perennial varieties of this crop are propagated by seeds, which have some medicinal properties and can be used as a medicine or food additive. Next, in this section we’ll talk about how to collect nasturtium seeds and properly store or use the collected material.
Brief botanical description of nasturtium
Nasturtium arrived in our latitudes from South America. Due to its unpretentiousness and resistance to low temperatures, the plant has successfully taken root in Russia and is popular among domestic gardeners.
A huge number of varieties of this crop allows you to choose the best option for decorating your garden. Thus, low-growing plants have a height of no more than 30 cm, while climbing nasturtiums can form vines up to 3 m long. The leaves and stems of nasturtium are fleshy and bright green. Flowers can be painted in soft cream, orange, yellow, red and their shades. The diameter of the flowers can reach 5 cm. The flowering period is long, which is an important advantage of the culture.As a result of flowering, nasturtium forms fruits - small nuts that are seeds. They are used for propagating plants, preparing medicines and food.
When and how to collect seeds
The beautiful nasturtium blooms actively for 30-40 days. At the end of flowering, boxes of grooved, intricate shapes form on the plants. Each of them consists of three equal parts, which are the seeds. Mature boxes change their green color to crimson or brown. This color change indicates the maturity of the seeds and is a reason to collect planting material for the next year.
Collecting ripened seeds is quite simple. This is done at the moment when the boxes begin to dry out. In this case, you just need to place your palm and lightly shake the nasturtium stem. Small nut-seeds will fall onto the palm of your hand.
If it is not possible to regularly monitor the process of seed ripening, then you can collect the grains as follows: spread a piece of white paper or a piece of light cloth on the ground under the root of the plant. As the plants wilt, they will begin to bend over the leaf and drop seeds onto it. The gardener will only need to gather together the crumbled grains.
If nasturtium seeds could not be collected in a timely manner and they spontaneously fell off, you can pick them up from the ground. Otherwise, next year you will see a large number of plants that have sown on their own.
The options proposed above for how to properly collect nasturtium seeds are only suitable if the autumn was dry and timely. Rainy weather or early frosts can significantly damage the grains and make them unsuitable for sowing next year. In this case, it is recommended to collect unripe nasturtium seeds by forcibly tearing them carefully from the stem. Insufficiently ripened grains are ripened at home, scattered in a thin layer on a piece of paper. The planting material is dried for 1-1.5 months with periodic stirring.
Proper harvesting of grains at home allows you to obtain only high-quality planting material of already proven varieties, as well as save money on purchasing seeds in the future.
Storage of planting material
You can store nasturtium seeds collected yourself with your own hands for quite a long time. Thus, carefully dried grains can maintain their quality and germination capacity for 2-3 years. However, for this it is necessary to ensure certain humidity and temperature conditions:
- air humidity should not exceed 70%;
- the optimal storage temperature should be +18-+220WITH.
So, after drying the nasturtium grains, they are collected in a cardboard box or paper bag. Store them in a dry place without access to sunlight.
Additionally, recommendations for collecting seeds and storing them can be found in the video:
Beneficial properties of seeds
Nasturtium seeds have a number of unique properties. They contain a rich vitamin and microelement complex:
- nasturtium contains amino acids, carotene, ascorbic acid;
- grains have antifungal and antibacterial properties;
- the seeds are used as an expectorant.
Fresh, not fully ripened nasturtium grains are especially rich in vitamins. Thus, green nuts are collected, forcibly torn from the stem, and used fresh for cooking, pickled. Dry nasturtium grains retain their beneficial properties throughout the year.
It is worth noting that the taste of the grains is quite acceptable, slightly reminiscent of capers. It combines pungency and spice, so fresh grains can be safely added to a salad, and pickled nuts will become a wonderful and very original snack. Dried seeds can act as a spicy seasoning.
By using nasturtium in cooking, you can provide yourself and your family with a natural and tasty source of vitamins. That is why, having collected the required amount of grains for sowing next year, you should not neglect the remaining seeds.
Pickling recipe
Pickled nasturtium grains are often called home-style capers. They can be prepared quite simply. To do this you need:
- Wash 100 g of green seeds under running water and pour into a jar.
- Prepare a marinade based on wine vinegar. Add 15 g of salt, a few black peppercorns and a bay leaf to 200 ml of vinegar.
- Boil the marinade over a fire and pour it over the nasturtium grains in the jar.
- After 3 months, the seeds will be ready for use.
In addition to the proposed recipe, there are other options for preparing this tasty and original winter preparation. One of them is shown in the video:
Conclusion
Thus, nasturtium is not only a beautiful, blooming garden decoration, but a useful product and medicine. Depending on the purpose of the seeds, the gardener must decide for himself when to collect nasturtium seeds. So, in order to sow grain for next year, it is necessary to ripen well, either in the garden or indoors. For consumption, it is preferable to use fresh, still green grains, which must be collected before full ripening. Proper collection of seeds and proper storage will allow you to preserve the crop for propagation next year and use it as a flavorful ingredient in many culinary dishes.
