How to Test Vegetable Garden Seeds Before You Plant

Seed harvested from open-pollinated crops can be planted to raise new plants.

Using seeds to grow your vegetable garden is one of the most rewarding ways of saving money on food. When you plant your garden from seed each year, inevitably you have seed leftover, or may have collected seed from last year's vegetable crops. Whether your seeds are from the vegetables produced from your own garden or you have commercial seed packets leftover from previous seasons, you need to know before you plant your vegetable garden whether they'll sprout, or are viable.

Things You'll Need

• Vegetable seeds
• Wet paper towel
• Plastic bag

Instructions

1. Wet a paper towel and squeeze excess water out of it until it's uniformly moist, but not dripping.

2. Sprinkle about 10 to 20 seeds onto the paper towel, making sure they're spread apart and not in clumps.

3. Roll it up, tightly enough that the seeds are in good contact with the towel, but it doesn't have to be super tight.

4. Fold and place in a plastic bag, secure it shut and store at room temperature. Every two or three days, check to see if the seeds are beginning to sprout. If two or three weeks go by and you see no signs of sprouting, you should buy fresh seeds.

5. Early February is the best month to check the viability of your vegetable seeds in storage. Cold-weather transplants to your vegetable garden will need to be started indoors right away and you'll want to start your inside warm-weather transplants in March.

Tips & Warnings

• Store seeds in a sealed jar in a cool, dry place.

• Add 2 tablespoons of powdered milk rolled up in a tissue in the sealed jar will help keep seeds dry.

• Many types of seeds can stay viable for up to five years. Make sure you date each jar, so you know how old your vegetable seeds are.

References

• Iowa State University: Seed Viability
• University of Illinois Extension: Evaluating and Storing Vegetables