Seed question...clueless!

[greenmama777]

Hi! I have some seeds I saved from last year and I have no idea if there is something you have to do to them before you can plant them. Do you have to bake them, soak them...? I have no idea! One type is organic butternut squash I think and the other is organic moon and stars watermelon. Thanks for the input!

[Sinfonian]

If they were saved correctly and viable, plant them and they'll grow.
You have options as far as germination goes, but the simplest is to plant and water. Good luck and enjoy your garden!

[plantoneonme]

A simple way you can test the viability of seeds is commonly know as the baggie method. Take 10 seeds of the melon and place them on dampened NOT wet papertowel or a coffee filter. Place this inside a sealed zipper bag and set it in a warm place such as the top of the refrigerator. Check every couple days until you see the roots start to develop. Once things stop sprouting, count the number of seeds that developed little starter roots...if 8 of 10 started you have 80% viability.

If you want to then take it a step further, you can plant the little seeds that developed roots and in a few days you will have seedlings. The only thing you will not know for a very long time is if the seeds will develop the exact same fruit you originally got the seeds from. If they were hybrids they will not come true, if they were heirlooms they may if they were the only melons grown within a certain distance from other melons (melons cross easily with each other)...this may not be such a bad thing as sometimes the melons you grow are better than the original...sometimes not but for me part of gardening is in the learning and experimenting!

I will be doing this with a couple tomato seeds to assure good results. I have one type that is very hard to come by and I only have 6 seeds. I will do 2 at a time and baby the heck out of them. Hopefully at least 3 will later develop into full grow edible tomatoes...it is then I will save lots of seeds for the following year.

Since I basically follow the square foot method, I often presprout my seeds using the baggie method. Crops that like really warm soil can often be coaxed into growing a couple weeks earlier this way...you just have to remember to protect them once they sprout.

HTH, Kim

[greenmama777]

Thanks so much for the input! I will try this. They were organic and very possibly heirloom watermelon seeds, so I am crossing my fingers.

[greenmama777]

If they were saved correctly and viable, plant them and they'll grow.
You have options as far as germination goes, but the simplest is to plant and water. Good luck and enjoy your garden!
Thanks for the reply. I'm going to try it but I have a question. What IS the correct way to save seeds anyway???