It depends on how you collect, clean, and store them, as well as how viable they were when you collected them, and how well suited the variety is to your garden.Put simply, yes, seeds YOU collect CAN be as good as store bought, but might not be.

For a lot of gardeners, the main advantage to store bought is predictability. The seed company KNOWS (or SHOULD) what genetics are in that packet. How big the tomatoes will be, what colors the moss rose will bloom, how sweet the corn will be, how hot the peppers.

Wanna save your own seeds? You'll need to learn how to take all of those factors into your own hands. The pros of saving your own seeds include tailoring the crop to YOUR garden, saving money, and probably the occasional surprise as you're likely to produce some things that look or taste different than expected.

I think the OP is talking about collecting seeds from store bought produce and growing those.

If so, yes, you can. However, you won't know exactly what quality the resulting plants will have. You won't know if the fruit you bought was a hybrid variety, in which case the seeds won't grow true. And you don't know if the fruit you bought was cross pollinated, in which case the seeds won't grow true.

If you don't mind surprises then go right ahead.

Rodney

My previous post was a little too broadly focused... Okay, specifically seeds from produce can work. I've actually been growing a pepper for two years now, decended from a produce section pepper. I'm also growing watermelons decended from a produce section black diamond. Occasionally store bought potatoes will sprout in the fridge and make their way to the garden. It can definately work.

Remember, the seed company got THEIR seeds out of a fruit or a vegetable, too. They just knew more about the pedigree.

Thank you both oldmobile and theforgottenone1013, it's my first vegetable garden but I'm going to take a shot, I see that i have much more to learn but am looking forward to it. Thanks again for the advice!