How to determine if a pumpkin seed is good for planting

Question

How do you know if a pumpkin seed is good to keep for planting next year? I have a bunch of pumpkin seeds that I would like to keep, but some of them feel very light and hollow. Is there a test (like putting in water and seeing if they sink?) that can tell me if they are worth keeping?

Answer 1

The water test is not a very good test to perform on freshly collected seeds because they are all still filled with moisture. You can safely assume that they are viable as the seed would not have developed at all if it was not pollinated. That being said, you may only want to store the "strongest" looking ones, ones that are larger and plump. The reason is that these will have a better chance at surviving long term storage.