You need to be careful while choosing seeds even from plants of your own. If you wish to save the seeds of a plant, what all should you consider? A single blossom alone is not sufficient to decide this. The entire plant needs to be taken into consideration. A weak and straggly plant, producing one god blossom should not make you imagine that it will continue to give endless blossoms of similar kind. Thus, the seeds may or may not produce the same type of plants as the parent plant.



Hence, while doing seed selection, we need to consider the entire plant. We need to consider the sturdiness, shape, symmetry and general health of the plant.

If you happen to see a seedman's garden, you'll notice a string wrapped around certain blossoms. Well, here they are? the chosen blossoms who will lend their seeds. If you have a look at these particular blossoms you will realize the assets of the blossom and see plainly why the seedsman chose those blossoms over the others.

Size is another criteria that's crucial to bear in mind while doing seed selection. Always choose the seeds that are larger and plumper than the rest. The reason is that seed contains within itself the food that the baby plant will feed upon until the plant's roots are developed enough to do their job. So, a larger seed means more food for the baby plant. These food reserves are known as cotyledons.

Another issue while buying seeds is impurity. The seeds are often found mixed with similar looking seeds. Also other bits of some foreign matter may be present in the seeds. These become very difficult to clean if the case of small seeds.

Viability is another thing that needs to be kept in mind. So, a seed that looks fine to our eyes may not develop properly or may be, at all. One reason for this may be that the seeds might have been picked a bit before ripening, may have frozen, or may be just too old. There is a certain viability period, usually of a couple of years after which the seed becomes useless.

Seed tests may yield a seed's germination percentage. So unless it is a small seed, do not bother to plant it in case the germination percent is low. This is so because the small seed is usually sown thickly and has a good chance of germinating and thriving. But a large sized seed, such as corn, I planted far apart thus in case the germination percent becomes very important. Even small seeds of 50% germination percent may be used; however, this percentage level is quite low for a large seed.