If you want to collect marigold for seeds to sow next season, you should only pick the final blooms of your plants. The best quality marigold seeds can only be collected in summer. Direct sunlight and the high temperature help the marigold flowers to grow healthy and fertilize appropriately. Read on to learn how easy it is to collect , and save marigold seeds for beautiful blooms next year! 
How to Harvest Marigold Seeds
The best way to harvest marigold seeds is by directly picking mature flower from healthy plant with lovely blooms, and then drying and storing it carefully. Removing mature flowers encourages the marigold plant to grow new flowers.
. It's crucial to wait for the right time to collect marigold seeds.
. Wait for your marigold flower heads to begin turning brown.
. Before harvesting seeds, select the healthiest blooms. Healthy marigold flowers will develop healthy seeds and ultimately results in healthy seedlings next year.
. You can harvest if there is still a little green left on the base. If you wait until it is completely brown, it might have started to rot or mold.
When the flower head begins to die off and is mostly dry and brown, grasp the flower head "the petals only", and carefully pull the flower petals from the flower.
The seeds are underneath the petals and look like white and black rods. They are long, slender, pointed, and with dark color on one end and light on the other side.
How to Dry and Store Marigold Flowers
. At the end of the flower head, you should see a cluster of seeds.
. Let the flowers dry for at least 7 days.
. After 7 days of drying in direct sunlight separate the seeds from the flowers.
. Each flower will have hundreds of tiny seeds.
. The healthy seeds should look dark black and firm.
. Separate these seeds from the petals and spread out on a paper to dry in the sun for a couple of weeks.
. Don't leave the seeds attached to the petals as the rotted petals will rot the seeds!
. Set out a paperl. Your collected seeds will need to be scattered over it to dry over the next couple of days.
. When your seeds are completely dry, place them in a paper envelope to store over until next growing season. Don't place them in a plastic bag because that will retain any residual moisture, which can cause the seeds to mold or rot and you will lose your seeds.
. Label the envelope, so you remember what's in it.
. Store the envelope in a cool, dry place.
.You can plant the seeds next spring and you’ll have a whole new generation of marigolds.
. Just remember when growing marigolds from seeds you harvested yourself is that your marigolds may look different than the parent plant from which the seeds were taken. This is because many marigolds are actually "hybrids" - making their seeds different from the parent plant.
. Viability and germination rate will decrease over time.
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Hope you get to grow, and enjoy these beautiful flowers in your garden again next year.
Happy Gardening!
