Saving Tiny Seeds

We grew Virginia Tobacco last year for the first time, more as a novelty than anything else.  I smoked it once just to see.  Way I figure, if we have to survive through hard times, I can put food on the table selling tobacco and homemade hard cider.  (That was a joke.)

Interesting thing about tobacco, it is the very smallest seed I have ever planted.  Think, smaller than poppy seed on your morning bagel.  Maybe even grain-of-sand-small.

This poses a serious challenge in my mind if you're inclined to save seeds.  Last year was also the first year we made a concerted effort to save seeds from every variety of vegetable we grew.  That said, I hardly even tried looking for the tobacco seeds, because I knew they'd be too small.  As it turns out, I couldn't be more wrong.

This afternoon while weeding and wandering around our winter-empty garden, I discovered these pods at the top of last year's tobacco plant.  The stalk is over my head, about seven feet in the air.  There are about two dozen pods on each plant.  And when you break open a pod, it is just full of seeds!

Left: tobacco seeds; right: broccoli, lettuce, spinach, 

and bok choi surviving in the hoop house.