Post what seeds you can "harvest" from the supermarket..

[smom1976]

I want to start this.. because I have to buy fruits and veggies from the store too.. and I was wondering what seeds I can save and use again..

Like for instance.. I saved the seeds from my cantelope and honeydew.. can I plant them?

Any other seeds I can save? Please post..

 

[Rosalind]

Probably. Commercial growers usually have nothing but the same squash for acres and acres, chances are it was pollinated by another similar melon.

You can do any kind of winter squash, tomatoes, peppers, cukes, citrus from grocery store produce and it will usually grow true. Also, poppyseeds, the kind you get for bread rolls, will grow into nice flowers if planted in a very sunny location. Organic potatoes will usually sprout for you, too. Avocado of course. Lots of herb seeds, like celery seeds, cumin, black mustard seed, coriander, dill.

Things that will not come true from the seeds: Apples, pluots or any kind of stonefruit hybrid (e.g. nectarines), anything labeled "hybrid."

What I used to do when I was little, you can cut a carrot or turnip off with about 1-2 inches of carrot still left on the bottom, and set the top in seed starter. I assume you were planning on eating the bottom half of the carrot, right? It will re-grow new leaves, and if you let the tops go to seed you can collect that seed and use it next year as long as you're careful about seed saving. I wasn't so careful, my carrots tended to hybridize with the local Queen Anne's Lace, but if you're more diligent than a ten-year-old it actually works.

 

[patandchickens]

You can plant anything, and most of it will germinate and grow... however most commercial stuff is hybrid and so it is a bit of a cr*pshoot what you will get out of it, qualitywise. Also of course most commercial cultivars do not have as good eating qualities as other cultivars that are available - the commercial ones are usually chosen as much as anything for simultaneous ripeness, easy mechanical picking, resistance to rough handling, and looking decent even after long storage and abuse Also not all of it will do well in your climate or growing season.

So I am not sure how *worthwhile* it is, given that a packet of seeds is pretty cheap, or free if you bum them offa someone with extras And takes up the same amount of your (probably limited) garden space as a mystery seed from the supermarket.

Peas and beans -- grown from dried (intact) peas and beans sold in the soup aisle, I mean, not from the produce section -- may be your best bet for getting something true to its parent. Assuming you can get them to germinate and grow ok for you.

If you are mostly looking for 'fun', try citrus seeds as houseplants, or if the disease implications don't concern you you can plant store-boughten scallions (use most of the green part, plant the bottom part that remains, new leaves will grow back for you to cut and use) or the tops of carrots (cut off and eat the carrot, plant the top 1" or so that has the remains of leaves attached to it, and if you're livin' right you will get several small carrot roots grow down from it in time). You can sometimes get beet tops to grow the same way as carrot tops, you won't get a beetroot out of it but you can cut beet 'micro-greens' for your salad for a little while til it poops out

Have fun,

Pat

 

[Grow 4 Food]

I tired this with peppers but didnt have any luck. The melons and squash types worked just fine. Tomatoes grew plants but never really any useful fruits. Cukes came out ok but nothing to right home about - has better luck saving seeds from my own plants. Potatoes worked ok as well but the sweet potatoes didnt grow very good starts.

But this is just how it went for me. Try it, you might find something new

 

[smom1976]

So if I planted a lemon seed it would grow a lemon tree??? I thought most those were grafted ??

And I thought that they were not guarenteed to produce fruit.. (I can plant those right outside..)

 

[bid]

Yes it will grow a lemon tree. Wash the seed and plant it as soon as you cut the lemon, don't let the seed dry out.

As far as grafting, I was under the impression this was done to speed up production, not sure though.

 

[patandchickens]

So if I planted a lemon seed it would grow a lemon tree???

Assuming it grows at all then yes, it will of course grow into a lemon tree. If you give it good enough conditions it will even fruit. However unless lemons do not crosspollinate much (and I have no idea), you can't necessarily count on it producing the same quality of lemons, because if the seed was produced by anything other than selfing it will be genetically rather different than the parent and thus rather unpredictable in results. Like with apples.

I thought most those were grafted ??

Sure, but that doesn't change the fact that a lemon seed grows into a lemon tree

Grafting is done for a variety of reasons: to speed production as bid says, and to get trees with different growing characteristics (think size, hardiness, disease resistance, growth rate, yrs to starting to bear), and most of all because that way you get genetically-identical plants that will produce identical fruits i.e. the exact type of fruit you wanted.

Even if a scion is grafted onto a completely different species of roostock, though -- like pear grafted onto quince, or lilac grafted onto privet, or whatever -- that doesn't affect what species seed it produces

Pat

 

[smom1976]

I just remember a post on here about a peach seed producing a willow tree.. being that it was grafted

second post here http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=24911

 

[farmerlor]

A lot of the fruits and vegetables that are grown for the supermarket were specially made to travel and pack well (i.e. tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, etc) and in hybridizing them for that purpose a lot of flavor and even nutrition has been sacrificed. You'd do much better to join a seed exchange and get some seeds for produce that you can't find in stores.

 

[patandchickens]

I just remember a post on here about a peach seed producing a willow tree.. being that it was grafted

second post here http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=24911

Sorry, but, no. That doesn't happen.

The willow grew from the ground (either from roots or existing shoots or a seed that was there or a willow stick used to mark where the peach seed was planted); the peach seed evidently never came up.

The rootstock has ZERO effect on the genetic makeup of the scion.

Sorry, but that's the way it is,


Pat