Seeds left over from this years planting may be used to plant next years vegetables if stored properly. They should be kept in a closed container and placed in a cool dry place. Don't keep sweet corn, onion, parsnip and pea seed more than one year. Beets, cucumbers, muskmelon and tomato seeds may be good for at least five years if properly stored. One year old seeds should be planted thicker than normal since germination and vitality of resulting plants will be reduced.

To check seed viability next spring place a few seeds between two paper towels, roll up and keep moist. Check the rate of germination in about a week. Some seed may take up to three weeks to germinate.

Saving seeds from vegetables grown in the home garden usually isn't recommended. The cost of good disease free garden seeds is quite inexpensive. Home saved seeds of some crops may carry diseases and varieties of cross pollinated crops, such as sweet corn and melons may be badly mixed. In many cases the produce raised from the these seeds may not even resemble that from the plants you had last year. Seed from hybrid plants shouldn't be saved since they will not reproduce the same uniform quality as the original hybrid. They will always revert to many different and often undesirable varieties.

This page was last updated April 2003

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