This is how I handled my Rugosa seeds this past year. First I soaked them in 3% hydrogen peroxide for a minute or two to kill any pathogens and rinsed them off. I then wrapped them in moist paper towels and place them in sandwich bags. I kept them at room temp for 60 days, checking them every week or two for mold or signs of germination. If they had mold, I soaked them in HP again and put them in new paper towels. If any were germinating, (only a very small percentage germinated here) I planted them in a good seed starting mix. After 60 days I took the seeds that hadnÂt germinated and placed them in the fridge. I would check these every week or two also for signs of germination and plant the ones that were. After 90 days in the fridge most of the seeds that were going to germinate did, so I discarded the rest, but you could plant them, as there might still be some left that might yet. Good luck

Squash seed is often a problem when you're buying seed packets. Often the germination rate is low because they harvest too soon to fulfill their contracts. I have saved seed from 'store bought' squash, but then the other problem can be that the farmer used a hybrid of some sort that won't necesarily breed true. Last season I bought a N. GA. Candy roaster at the farmer's market for $4, ate the squash (delicious) and got a pound of seed from the thing. Lost the plants to Powdery Mildew so bought two more this year and will try again. Having said that, your seed should grow next season if you allow the squash to 'Mature'and dry the seed properly. Butternut will last all winter stored in a cool basement so save one for a few months and then 'harvest' the seed. You'll probably do as well as you would with 'store bought seed' without the expense. All gardens(and farms) are experiments in motion so go for it! This past spring I wanted to try my hand at Garlic and 'Seed Garlic' is upward of $20 a pound so I bought six pounds of Garlic at a Super Wal-mart for $3.89 a pound and planted it. It grew, looked different than the parent (a hybrid) but tastes like garlic and made me happy. Sold some at the Farmer's market ( made a hundred dollars that day) and have six pounds of my own 'seed garlic' to plant in a few weeks. Now that's smart gardening. Let us know how it works next season.

What will happen if you try to save and propagate propriatary seeds is the seed police will show up and arrest you, the seed police are related to the mattress tag police who are all related to Yahootie... You know him, he's the little guy that lives in your fridge and turns on the lite when you open the door. In all seriousness do save your seeds and try the ones you get with dried peppers I've found a lot of the peppers that I get from the Mexican markets up here are air dried and sprout just fine. I save seeds by air drying them on paper plates. I like to use the closet our water heater is in as it's warmish but not hot and there's good air flow in there due to the venting so I never get mold on the seeds. I'll leave them in there for several weeks so they get good and dry. To store them go and find some paper coin envelopes, they are about 2"x 4" and put your seeds in them, plastic will work but if there's any moisture in the seeds you'll get mold and it will kill them, paper mo betta bro. :) What works great is a good size Mason jar with the wire top and rubber seal, use silaca gel in the bottom and put your clearly marked and dated envelopes in the jar and have Yahootie store them in the bottom back of the fridge right next to that freeze dried something in the tupperware where it's cool and dark. If you can't get the silica gel pour 2 inches of fresh rice in the bottom as it will also absorb the moisture. I've kept seeds this way for years, I had some pepper seeds that were at least ten years old kept this way and had better than 60% germination from them.

Usually, fruit trees are not grown from seed for the following reasons: 1. The tree resulting from the seed will not be the exact same cultivar as its parents, and the fruit will often be inferior. Whenever plants are propagated through sexual reproduction, it's the luck of the draw as far as what genes the offspring gets. That's why fruit trees are almost always asexually propagated from cuttings. 2. It takes a long time to grow a tree from a tiny seed 3. Most fruit trees are grafted onto different rootstock (of a different cultivar or very similar species). This allows the tree to began producing fruit much early in its life. It may start producing at 3 years instead of 10 years like it would growing in the wild. By stunting the tree's growth a little bit, more of the energy will be diverted towards fruit production. That being said, growing fruit from seed can be fun if you have the patience to wait 10 years. You could end up with a new variety. It's cheap and easy to grow from seed, but you will likely put a lot of time investment into the tree only to find out that the fruits don't taste as good. One more problem is that most of the fruit varieties sold at the supermarket may not be the best tasting varieties; rather they are the varieties that last longer during shipping and don't bruise. So flavor is sacrificed. If you plant a fruit tree yourself, it may not be the best idea to plant the same name variety you see in the supermarket. Do some research. All these reasons are why it is usually better to buy a fruit tree than grow from seed.