Pumpkin Seeds...I have no idea! Help!

[TisMe]

Ok, so we carved a (Supermarket) pumpkin at Haloween, then had a bright idea of saving some seeds ready to plant next year. I kept back a good handful of seeds, and put them into a plastic food bag (Only thing handy at the time).

Nearly a month later, I decided time to do something with them (Like dry them and put them in a more suitable container).

Even though the bag was open, they are still rather damp and a few of them have black spores growing on them.

Should I...

a) Give up, throw em out, try again! b) Wash them, dry them properly, store in a labelled air-tight container, in a cool place. c) Something else???

Any help will be much appreciated! :-)

[betsyb]

Last year I did something easily as smart as you. I scooped the seeds out, plopped them on a folded paper towel to dry a bit and forgot them. Come spring I broke up the glob and planted accordingly. Pulled out the weaker looking plants and had a banner year of Punkins.

Betsy

[William Wagner]

pop pumpkin seeds that have a touch of soy sauce.

Bill When in doubt throw it out as food poison is deadly !!!

Aside Fresh Fresh Fresh Fresh Fresh

[Hettie®]

My inclination would have been to dry them out first, but that part I'm not sure about. I set pumpkin and squash seeds out for the birds. One year, a pumpkin fell off my stoop, and one volunteer plant came up the following spring. Somehow I knew it was a pumpkin and let it grow, wondering how in the heck it got there, then figured it out, covered much of that part of the front yard. We harvested three beautiful pumpkins from it. The vine was so dense, it kept the grass from getting untidy, and it wasn't too much of a problem to just mow around it, but it was surely odd, to be growing in my front yard. My neighbors know to expect things like that from me.

Yours will either germinate or rot in the ground, can't hurt to try. I doubt you can get food poisoning from seed that has molded :-).

If that fails, you can always just buy some seed.

[jmagerl]

I would do option B. You can't lose by trying. Just cover yourself with some commercial seed next spring if you have your heart on growing pumpkins

[TisMe]

Thanks everyone for your replies - I'll give them a go, like you say I can always cheat and buy some seeds in the spring! :)

[FarmI]

Do B but put them in an envelope once they are bone dry as dry is better than any possible hint of moisture. And older pumpkin seeds do better then fresh ones - use up to about 5 years old but I have heard of some as old as

10 years still being viable.