Save the Seeds From Your Pumpkin & Grow Next Year’s for Free

You carved the pumpkin. You scooped out that slimy handful of seeds. Straight in the trash, right?

Stop. Those seeds are next year’s pumpkins. Every single one is a plant waiting to happen.

Here’s the deal. Squash and pumpkins are the same easy crop, and both are loaded with seeds you can dry, store over winter, and sow in spring. Grow your own once and, if you play it right, you may never buy a pumpkin again.

Let me walk you through it. Then I’ll show you a way to eat the seeds you don’t plant, because there’s a mountain of them and it would be a shame to waste the rest.

First, the honest catch about store-bought seeds

I’m not going to pretend this always works perfectly, because it doesn’t.

Most pumpkins and squash from the store are hybrids, and the whole family cross-pollinates like crazy in the garden. Both of those mean the seeds inside won’t reliably grow into a copy of the parent.

Plant seeds from a grocery pumpkin and you might get a gorgeous carving pumpkin. Or you might get something small, warty, and strange.

So here’s how to think about it:

• Just want a fun, free experiment? Save any seeds and sow them. You’ll get squash of some kind. The surprise is half the fun.
• Want a specific, reliable pumpkin or squash every year? Buy open-pollinated or heirloom seed once, grow it away from other squash, and save seed from that. Those come true year after year.

Now that you know the deal, let’s save some seed.

How to save squash and pumpkin seeds

This part is easy and a little satisfying.

1. Cut the squash in half, or slice the top off if you’re carving a pumpkin, and scoop out the seeds.
2. Tip them into a strainer and rinse well to get all the stringy pulp off. Clean seeds store better.
3. Spread them out on paper towels and let them dry for a few hours, ideally longer, until they’re properly dry.
4. Put the dry seeds in a labeled envelope and store them somewhere cool and dark until mid-spring.

That’s your seed stock sorted. Free, from something you were going to throw away.

How to grow pumpkins & squash from seed

Come spring, here’s the plan.

Start them indoors for a head start:

• Sow one seed per 3.5-inch pot in peat-free potting mix.
• Plant the seed on its edge, about three quarters of an inch to an inch deep. This matters. Lay a flat seed down and water pools on its broad surface, and it tends to rot. On its edge, water runs off.
• Sow a few weeks before your last frost.

Once the seedlings are about 4 inches tall and all danger of frost has passed, they’re ready to go outside.

Squash and pumpkins are tender plants. Cold kills them, so do not rush them out the door. Late spring or early summer, once it’s genuinely warm, is the time.

Give them room, or grow up

Here’s the thing nobody warns first-timers about. These plants are enormous.

One squash plant will sprawl across a shocking amount of ground. So space individual plants at least 3 feet apart, and honestly, farther is better. They’re hungry too.

Work plenty of compost or well-rotted manure into the soil before planting, and feed them a liquid tomato food once a week from the time the flowers appear through late summer.

No room to let them sprawl? Grow them up instead. This is where a lot of the interest is, and for good reason.

You can grow squash vertically by training the vines onto a trellis, a fence, or sturdy stakes, tying the shoots in with string as they climb.

It saves a huge amount of space and keeps the fruit off the ground. Just keep an eye on the heavier fruits.

As they swell, you may need to make little slings to support them so they don’t snap off the vine. An old pair of tights or a mesh produce bag works perfectly.

Want bigger pumpkins for Halloween?

Simple trick. Once the little pumpkins start forming, pick off most of them and leave just two or three on the plant.

All that energy the plant would have spread across a dozen small pumpkins now pours into a few. You get bigger, showier pumpkins for carving.

As fall comes on and the fruit gets heavy, slip a paving slab, a board, or a thick layer of straw under each one. That keeps the bottom from sitting on wet soil and starting to rot before you’re ready to harvest.

No garden? Grow them as microgreens

Squash plants need real outdoor space, so an apartment windowsill won’t grow you a pumpkin. But it will grow you squash microgreens, any time of year.

Sprinkle a few seeds over a seed tray of peat-free potting mix, barely cover them, and set the tray on a sunny windowsill. In a couple of weeks you get tender shoots and leaves you can snip into salads.

It’s a nice way to use a few of those saved seeds without waiting for summer.

And if you really want an easy way to grow micro greens, checkout the instafarm. I had ADHD, at its the only way I grow microgreens consistently.

Now roast the seeds you’re not planting

One pumpkin gives you hundreds of seeds. You’re not planting hundreds. So roast the rest, because homemade roasted pumpkin seeds are one of the great snacks of fall.

Here’s the quick version:

• Clean the seeds the same way you would for saving, but don’t bother drying them for days. A pat dry is fine.
• Toss them with a little oil and salt. Add whatever you like: smoked paprika, garlic powder, cinnamon and sugar for a sweet version.
• Spread them on a baking sheet in a single layer.
• Roast at 300°F for about 30 to 45 minutes, stirring now and then, until golden and crisp.

Air fryer works too, around 350°F for 10 to 15 minutes, shaking the basket halfway.

Same handful of seeds, two payoffs. Some go in an envelope for next year’s plants. The rest go in a bowl for tonight.

So this fall, before you toss that slimy handful in the trash, stop. Rinse them. Save a few to grow, roast the rest to eat. Free pumpkins next year and a free snack tonight, from the thing everyone else throws away.