How To Save Chamomile Seeds

Chamomile is a great herb for making teas and it is super simple to grow. Here is how you can save chamomile seeds so you can grow it over and over again!

I love growing chamomile flowers in my garden and their scent is amazing! The dried flowers make an amazing tea which I think tastes better than the store bought chamomile tea.

These little daisy like flowers will cover the entire plant, but after a week or two they start to wilt. This is great though because that means you can save seeds.

Here are all the steps you need to take to save your own chamomile seeds.

Guide To Saving Chamomile Seeds

Chamomile seeds are one of the easiest seeds to save from the garden. They take less processing than tomatoes or other seeds. Here is what you need to do.

Wait For Seeds

After your chamomile flowers these flower heads will eventually produce seeds. If you are harvesting chamomile for kitchen use you should harvest the flowers before this happens.

If you want to save seeds while continuing to harvest fresh flowers just let a few flowers turn to seed. The flower head will quickly lose its petals and turn brown.

You need to work fast before the seeds just fall off the plant!

Collect The Seeds

Once your flower heads start to turn brown you need to check your plants daily for ripe seeds. The seeds are ready to harvest when the flower head easily drops the seeds after being touched.

If you brush the flower head and the seeds stay intact they are not ready for harvesting. If it is windy the seeds will fall off by themselves so you need to check the plants often.

You can now pinch the seed heads and place the seeds (along with the chaff) into a brown paper bag or other container. Now they need to dry.

Drying Chamomile Seeds

While your seeds may already be pretty dry you need to dry them for long term storage. The seeds are tiny so you need to be careful when drying them.

I like to use either a coffee filter or brown paper sack to dry my chamomile seeds on. Simply pour the seeds and chaff onto the paper.

Place this paper in a cool, dry, and dark environment for drying (A basement works great). I place my paper on an old window screen for fast drying.

You will also want a fan set on low to keep air circulating. Note: Don’t point the fan directly at the seeds because they may blow away.

After a week or two you seeds should be dry and ready for the next step.

Storing Chamomile Seeds

These chamomile seeds are tiny so I decided to not sort through the chaff and seeds. The way I grow my chamomile doesn’t require that the seeds and chaff be separate because I sow the seeds close together.

You can sort through the seeds if you wish, but leaving the chaff in will not hurt anything. I simply pour my seeds into a paper envelope (You can find free ones here).

I label the envelope with the date and write chamomile across it. This seed packet can then go in my seed storage tin for use in next year’s garden.

Here are some great tips on storing your seeds for maximum seed quality!

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