Can you grow seeds from store bought produce?

Question

My husband tells me that you cannot plant seeds and expect fruit or vegetables from store bought produce. He says that they are some kind of hybrid seed that will not produce. Is this true?

Answer 1

Yes. You can grow some seeds from the vegetables at the supermarket. You just might not get spectacular results, as many of the supermarket fruits and vegetables are indeed hybrids, which means either the seed itself will not grow well, or the variety of fruit was acheived by grafting one variety on to a different rootstock.
Some seeds that do grow well are watermelon, butternut squash, pumpkin, avocado, lemon, and grapefruit. Some grape seeds may grow but might not produce good fruit. You can plant an onion from the supermarket, grow it until it grows a flower, and collect the seeds from that flower, and grow those seeds into onions. I have also saved some of the green onion roots after chopping up the stems, planted those roots and they have been sprouting again in a cup of water on my windowsill. You can plant the garlic cloves that sprout in your kitchen drawer, they will grow into garlic plants. Some potatoes grow well just from peels in the compost heap, like red and white potatoes, but Yukon Golds are a hybrid which should be started from seed potatoes.
Most of the hot peppers can be grown from seed but I have not had significant success with the bell peppers. Roma Tomato seeds have been found sprouting inside the tomato when I cut it open, I planted those seeds and picked some nice tomatoes that year.
I tried planting cantalope seeds. They grew into plants but never produced sweet cantalopes. I'm still working on those.
Peach seeds grow, as do pear seeds, but it might be better to go with grafted root stock for nectarines and plums.
Even if you don't have grand success it is still fun to experiment.
Just don't store seeds in ziploc bags, or they will get mold. Clean off the seeds, dry them out, and store them in envelopes in a dry, cool spot until you are ready to plant.
Good Luck.

Answer 2

Most store bought vegetables do grow from seed,even the regular hybrids,it is only the fruit or vegetables developed through a sophisticated technique,called F1 hybrids that require to be hybridized each time seeds are needed.These seeds need to be bought new each season, regular seed packets are fairly cheap & have tested seeds which are also protected from pests for a short while after germination ,i think using these is preferable,you can even look forward to a good yeild from these seeds.

Answer 3

Totally depends on what the item is. Most hybrid seeds will grow just fine. Take some seeds out of an apple, and a tree will almost surely grow. Watermelon will work out quite well too, as will planting the eye of a potato. Many things you buy at the store will certainly grow.

Answer 4

I tried growing bell peppers, red, yellow, and green from the seeds that I got out of store bought ones. The plants were beautiful but they never did produce any veggies. I also tried growing tomato, the plant was growing so nicely but never did grow any tomatos.
I would suggest you buy planting seeds for whatever you want to grow. It is quite the let down when you can grow the plant but never get any produce from it in the end.

Answer 5

They will grow but only if properly managed. Just by dried seeds from the store, because you usally have to keep them dry for a season before planting to get better growth.

Answer 6

I think it might depend on the type of plant. I know tomato and watermelon seeds will propagate ANYWHERE, so he may only be partially correct.

Easy experiment...buy some different fruits or vegetables and give it a go.

Answer 7

Yes you can; I have grown many plants from fruits and veggies from the supermarket. Now to get citrus trees such as lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit you need to grow them in pairs and keep them root bound. That way you can actually grow the fruit if you are in a warm enough climate. I bring mine inside in the fall. I also have stunted several different plants to grow miniature fruits.

Answer 8

Fruits are identified as ripened flower ovaries which produce seeds.

Answer 9

It will produce an apple tree and there should be plenty of apples. The snag is that they won't be like the apple they came from. They are likely to be a poor sort of fruit but hey, you never know!

Answer 10

yes you can. i have an orange tree that i started from a seed out of a bag of oranges i bought at wal-mart.