Question
Kinda new on gardening.  for the last 5 years though i have been buying 18 corn plants, 18 tomato, 12 bell peppers, 9 hot peppers, 9 Cucumbers, and 3 packs of seeds each radish, carrots, and green onion.  I have gone to the same nursery every year, the first 4 years my bill was always $14 and change this year my bill was $52.69.  Sorry got off track so my question is these vegetable's i grow (i know tomato's are fruit)how can i use the seeds from them to grow my own plants and how do i get carrot, radish and onion seeds from the ones i planted? it seems you need a college doctorate to understand the books out there.  Please help.  I love my veagetable's since i know the soil is clean of chemicles.  every year after thanksgiving I put about 1 inch of cut grass down then 1/4 inch of used coffee grounds, every spring i take my compost bins and empty them into the bed which is 144X3 and then till it probably more then needed.  And thru out the season every time my nephew and dad goes fishing (once a week) and have left over worms they throw the my garden and back yard.  When i moved my side, front and back yards were all clay now my garden and back yard are nice and soft and black were as my front and side yards are gray and hard clay.  Thank You Jim

Answer
Jim:
I know what you mean - the cost of both seed and plants has skyrocketed, like everything else.

You can save your own tomato and pepper seed, as long as the varieties you planted were open-pollinated, that is not hybrids. The name should include the word hybrid if the are).

Pepper seeds are easy, you know how to remove them, just let them dry on a paper plate before storing them.

Tomatoes need a bit more work. Squeeze the seeds and juice from a tomato into a bowl. Allow it to sit for a couple of days until the mixture begins to ferment. Then rinse and clean the seeds to remove all pulp. Dry on paper plates.

when the seeds are dry, pack them into envelopes, plastic bags or jars. Save any desiccant packages you might find in vitamin jars or whatever, and place one of these in with the seeds. You can also place multiple envelopes of seed in a jar and a desiccant package with that. If you don't have any desiccant, you can use powdered milk in an envelope or tea-bag. Store the seeds in the refrigerator or at least in a cool dry place.

You can save cucumber seeds only if you can be sure that no other curcubits are growing within 1000 feet of them - otherwise they may cross-pollinate and you won't know what you will get. Treat them the
same way you do the tomatoes.

Carrots and radishes aren't good candidates for seed saving for the same reason. There are too many wild relatives that will cross with these vegetables, so buy your seed.

Most of the corn you buy are hybrid varieties, so I would continue to purchase that, but buy seed instead of plants. The best way to get a good quality seed from onion is to let some of the storage onions sprout, then replant them in spring and allow them to flower. Allow the seeds to mature on the plant, you can put a paper bag around the seed head when it begins to look ripe to keep from losing the seed. Alternatively, pull up the entire onion just before the seed ripens and hang upside-down in an airy location, with the seed head in a bag as above.

It's a lot of work, but fun and economical. I save some of my own seeds, not too much. This year though, I, too am planning to save more.