"candide" wrote in message
...

Hello I hope you can give me some advice:

I have been stripping away the remains of last years runner beans today
to get my borders ready for this years crop.
Can you tell me if planting the beans/seeds from the pods of these old
plants will be better, worse or no different from planting beans/seeds
fresh out of a packet?



Thank you for any help, im a bit new to this!




--
candide

Hi candide. My expierience with this has been that the seeds from the old
plants work better than the packets, as long as plants are open polinated,
and they have not cross polinate with other plants from the same family.
Plants like beans and peas are usually OK because they seldom cross polinate
(or so I've read). Plants like Peppers might be better to go with seed
packets, because your more likely to get what you want.

Also can I use seeds for runner beans and Jalapeno peppers that I
bouught last year or is it better to buy new packets this year?

The seed packets usually have a date on them that tells how long they will
be viable. As long as they have been stored in a cool, dry, dark area, (I
keep mine in a paper bag in the frig) they should be fine. The worst thing
is that there will be a slight decrease in germination. If you are not sure
about it, follow the old saying "When in doubt-throw it out".
Best of luck, Dean.