You can germinate old corn seed. I am growing Bloody Butcher that I saved in 1994. I expect about 10% germination. The key is to give the seed even moisture in a very good environment. What you have to guard against is having seed touching each other. This is because any dead seed will rapidly mold and cause the viable seed to die. Do not under any conditions plant in soil because old corn seed rarely has the vigor to break the soil crust. Here are some instructions that will work. As per the above, put some seed in a moist paper towel in a ziploc and leave it for 3 days, then start checking daily. verify the number that germinate. Get a seed starting cell tray and fill it with very moist seed start mix. You cannot use those 'peat pellets' commonly sold in mart stores this time of year, you have to have nice loose seed start mix. When the tray is full of mix, insert up to 10 seed (you should know the germination percentage) into the mix in each cell, pushing the seed in to full depth but leaving the kernel just visible beneath the soil surface. Now give the cell tray a quart of water into the bottom to keep the moisture level high. Place the tray somewhere very warm, 85 degrees is optimum. Check the seed daily to see if they are germinating. When you see them sprouting, get them into full sun. Do not leave them in the tray more than 3 days after they germinate. Carefully transplant into well prepared soil. Special note re refrigerator tops, Please be aware that many refrigerator tops are way too cold for seed to germinate properly. It is better to set them on a high shelf where heat rises that on top of a cold refrigerator. DarJones

You can get Silver Queen from Ferry~Morse at WalMart for less than $1.50. Same at Home Depot. Some WalMarts now have seed from Seeds of Change as well, and those seeds are organic. It would cost less tan postage. Corn is heavy, and it costs a lot to mail it.

Hi lilyloverlynn, Welcome to Garden Web and The Seed Exchange! You might want to add an email link to your member page, for ease of trading and so you won't have to post it publicly on the boards. It could be harvested by spammers. Please see addressing newbie and newer member issues for instructions on getting it set up. It also explains how to put your location in your profile (zone box) so it will automatically show when you post and also appear on your member page. See I am zone 5/6 S IN Sue

I picked shucked and have them drying, so I'm bumping.