How To Harvest Mum Seeds To Grow For Next Fall

With their flowers brightening up the world from late summer until the first frost, chrysanthemums are a staple perennial in many gardens. When other blooms fade in the summer months, mums showcase their staying power and bring color to an otherwise gloomy season. If you want to add even more flowers to your fall garden, you can grow your own chrysanthemums for the following year by harvesting seeds. A fun way to garden, seed collecting allows you to multiply your flowers without having to spend a single cent. 

To harvest mum seeds, you need to have a look at your plants and see if your chrysanthemums will produce viable seeds. Many mums aren't great for seed propagation because they are hybrids and their seeds tend to produce flowers with smaller blooms. Mums that are open-pollinated or heirloom varieties are best for seed propagation, as the plant grown will be similar to the parent plant. When you have decided on which mums you will harvest, wait until the seedhead has ripened and turned brown. This usually happens two months after they bloom, which will be late in the fall. Make sure to collect the seeds before they disperse. When your mums are ready, pick a dry day to harvest their seeds. Then, cut off the seed heads and place them inside to dry out.

Once your seed heads are dried out, it is time to gather the seeds, which can be a bit of a task. Mum seeds are pretty small, so take your time and be careful. Gently crush and massage the seed heads, allowing the seeds and surrounding material to fall apart. Make sure your seeds are clean from the surrounding material before storing them to avoid problems with mold and pests.

Your mum seeds must all be completely dry before storing them, so you may want to leave the seeds laid out on newspaper for a few weeks to ensure this. When they are ready to be stored, put the seeds in a paper bag with the name of the crysanthemum and the date of harvest written on it. Then, place the paper bag in a sealed glass jar. You may wish to add some desiccant, such as silica gel, to the glass jar, as this will remove any excess moisture that can affect the mum seeds. 

Once they are bagged and jarred, you need to store your seeds to keep them fresh for as long as possible. This means keeping them in a cool, dry place. Somewhere between 32 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit with humidity less than 50% is ideal. Your garage or basement can be a perfect place to store seeds, but another option is your refrigerator if you have the room. When stored this way, your seeds can be viable for a number of years.

The mum seeds you have harvested can be started for the following fall. You may wish to test your seeds for viability a month before you plan to plant them, which can be done with a paper towel. To grow mums from seed, you can start them indoors in early spring or winter. Fill small pots with germinating medium that is loose and well-aerated, then add your seeds. Make sure the medium is kept between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the temperature when crysanthemum seeds germinate. 

Keep the soil moist with a mist spray and ensure the seeds are getting enough light. Placing fluorescent lights above them can help them germinate and grow strong. You will start to see seedlings pop up after a few weeks, and after about a month, they are ready to be transplanted. At this point, you need to harden your seedlings off. Start by placing them outside for a few hours in the shade, then slowly expose them to sunshine, gradually increasing the time they are spending outside. After two weeks of hardening, you can plant your chrysanthemums out into your garden. In three months, when fall comes back around, your new mums will start to bloom.