How Much Should You Sell Seeds For? (2026 Pricing Guide)

You let a row of tomatoes go to seed, scooped out the best fruit, and now you have a jar of clean, dry seed that would fill fifty packets. Gardeners at your farmers market buy seed every spring. The question is what one of your packets is worth next to the racks at the hardware store.

This guide answers it with numbers loaded the day it was written. It compares what seven seed companies charge for the same tomato, works out what a packet costs you to fill, and covers the part most guides skip: selling seed is regulated by state seed laws, and a permit or a lab test can cost more than the envelopes.

How Much Should You Sell a Seed Packet For?

We recommend $3.50 for a packet of 25 to 50 open-pollinated vegetable or flower seeds that you grew and saved yourself, and $4 for a rare or hard-to-find heirloom. That is close to what established seed companies charge, a little under the middle of the range, which suits a hand-packed envelope from a local grower.

Three things back that number:

• The market. On October 1, 2026, the same Cherokee Purple tomato cost $2.95 to $5.50 a packet across seven seed companies. The middle price was $3.95, and Baker Creek, one of the best-known heirloom houses, charged $3.50 for a packet of at least 25 seeds.
• Your cost. A kraft coin envelope costs about 4 cents. The seed came from your own garden, so the cash cost of a packet is tiny.
• Your paperwork. In states that require a permit or a lab germination test, those fees are the real cost, and $3.50 leaves enough per packet to cover them once you sell more than about 40 packets of each variety.

If you also grow starts for spring, our guide to selling plants and seedlings at farmers markets covers the booth side of a plant table. Seed packets fit on the same table. This guide sticks to pricing, packing and the rules for the packets themselves.

The one price to avoid is $1. A $1 packet looks like leftovers, and on an online card sale the fixed 30 cents of processing takes nearly a third of it.

What Do Seed Companies Charge for the Same Packet?

Seed companies charge $2.95 to $5.50 for a packet of one popular heirloom tomato, Cherokee Purple, and most land between $3.45 and $3.99. Using one variety across every company keeps the crop the same. Seed counts still differ from company to company, so the table below shows the price per seed too.

Scroll sideways to see each company's seed count and price per seed.

We checked every price on each company's Cherokee Purple product page on October 1, 2026. Price per seed uses the seed count the page states. Shipping is not included.

What a store pays is useful too. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange sells packets to garden centers for seed racks, and its 2027 season pricing for an order of 150 to 399 packets is $1.99 a packet if the store keeps everything, or $2.65 if the store can return up to 40% of the packets it ordered for credit toward next year's order. So a shop that buys from you wholesale will not pay $3.50. Expect a store to want your packet for about $2, so it can sell it near the $3.95 middle retail price in the table above.

How Many Seeds Should Go in Each Packet?

Put 25 to 50 seeds in a tomato or pepper packet, which is what Baker Creek, Johnny's, Holmes and Thresh pack in a Cherokee Purple tomato packet, and count rather than weigh small batches. Twenty-five tomato seeds is more plants than most home gardeners have room for, and it gives them a few spares for seeds that do not sprout.

Counting matters because tiny seeds weigh almost nothing. Johnny's lists Cherokee Purple at an average of 10,900 seeds per ounce, so 25 seeds weigh about 0.065 grams. Most kitchen scales cannot read that, so a scale only helps once you are filling hundreds of packets.

Use these counts as a starting point, then match whatever the companies above put in the same crop:

• Tomatoes and peppers: 25 to 50 seeds. The one pepper packet we checked, Baker Creek's California Wonder, holds at least 25.
• Beans and peas: about 40 to 50 seeds. Botanical Interests packs about 25 grams, roughly 40 seeds, of Kentucky Wonder pole bean for $3.49, and about 15 grams, roughly 48 seeds, of Cascadia snap pea for $3.49.
• Zinnias and other easy flowers: a generous pinch of 50 or more, because buyers sow them in rows. Botanical Interests lists its California Giants zinnia packet at about 2 grams, roughly 240 seeds.
• Lettuce and herbs: a few hundred, measured with a small scoop once you know how many your scoop holds. Botanical Interests packs about 0.75 grams, roughly 550 seeds, of Buttercrunch lettuce for $2.99.

What Does One Packet of Saved Seed Cost You?

The cash cost of one packet is about 4 cents for the envelope, plus your share of any permit and lab test, which can run from nothing to several dollars a packet ($2.72 on a 50-packet Washington lot) depending on your state and how many packets each variety fills. Your own seed costs no cash, but your time and your paperwork do.

Swipe the table to see what each cost line adds to a packet.

The envelope price comes from Uline's product page for its S-7798 kraft coin envelope, loaded October 1, 2026, and the Washington permit and test fees on the state's seed labeling permit page and in its seed testing fee rule (WAC 16-303-200) the same day. A lot here means one variety from one harvest.

The last row is why lot size matters more than anything else on the cost side. $136 of tests on a lot that fills 20 packets adds $6.80 a packet, nearly twice a $3.50 price. The same tests on a lot that fills 200 packets add 68 cents. If your state wants lab tests, grow fewer varieties and save more seed from each one.

Your time is the cost the table leaves out. Time yourself filling, sealing and labeling ten packets, then do the math: at one minute a packet, an hour of packing fills 60 packets, which is $210 of sales at $3.50.

Do You Need a Permit to Sell Seeds?

In most of the states we checked, yes: selling seed you labeled usually needs a seed labeler permit from the state agriculture department, at $10 to $75 a year for a small grower. A few states exempt seed you grew and sell from your own farm. Seed law is separate from cottage food law and separate from the nursery license that covers live plants.

Drag the state table sideways for each rule and fee.

Sources, each loaded October 1, 2026: the Washington State Department of Agriculture seed labeling permit page and its 2019 small-farm handbook chapter on selling seeds, the Wisconsin DATCP seed labeling page, Iowa Code chapter 199 (2026), the California Department of Food and Agriculture 2026-27 seed sales application instructions, the Ohio Department of Agriculture seed page, Minnesota Statutes 21.89 and 21.891, and Missouri statutes 266.031 and 266.080.

Two states show how wide the range is. Washington's seed labeling permit costs $20 and applies to anyone labeling seed for sale in the state. Wisconsin's seed labeling page says you do not need a license for seed grown and sold on your own farm.

Read exemptions like Iowa's and Wisconsin's word for word. Both tie the exemption to the farm where the seed grew. Read literally, a customer picking up at your place fits, and a table at a farmers market across town does not obviously fit. Ask your state's seed program before you count on it.

What Has to Be Printed on a Seed Packet?

A seed packet for home gardeners generally needs the kind and variety, a lot number, the year it was packed for or a germination percentage with a test date, and your name and address. Iowa's seed law asks for those four lines and adds two more, shown as 5 and 6 below. Washington's handbook asks for similar lines plus a few more.

Iowa's code spells out the packet rule in one place. Its chapter 199 on seed says packets of vegetable seed for home gardens must carry:

1. The name of the kind and variety, such as "Tomato, Cherokee Purple."
2. A lot identification, which can be your own code for one harvest, such as "Lot 26-CP1."
3. Either the year the seed was packed for sale, or the germination percentage and the month and year of the test.
4. The name and address of the person who labeled or sells the seed.
5. If the seed tests below the state's germination standard, the germination percentage and the words "below standard" in type at least 8 points tall.
6. The last date the variety will normally germinate, under standards the state agriculture department sets by rule.

Other states add their own lines. Washington's handbook lists a minimum germination rate, an arbitration statement and noxious weed information for packets. Ohio requires a germination test within 12 months before sale.

If you mail seed to another state, the federal rules apply too. The Federal Seed Act is a truth-in-labeling law for vegetable and farm seed shipped between states, and its rules (7 CFR 201.26 and 201.27) require the kind and variety, the word "hybrid" on hybrid seed, and the shipper's full name and address on the packet.

Do You Have to Germination Test Seed Before You Sell It?

You should test every lot either way, and some states, including Washington and Ohio, require a germination test before you sell. For seed you mail to another state, federal rules set a minimum germination rate for each vegetable, and a packet that tests below it must say "Below Standard" with the actual percentage.

Move the table sideways to see how many seeds should sprout in a packet of 25.

Minimums from 7 CFR 201.31, the federal germination standards for vegetable seed shipped between states, loaded on ecfr.gov on October 1, 2026. States set their own standards for seed sold inside the state.

A lab test is the expensive part. Washington's state lab charges $60 to $82 for a standard 400-seed germination test in 20 of its 21 crop categories, plus an $8 sample processing fee, under its fee rule loaded October 1, 2026. Washington also requires a noxious weed test on every lot, which its lab runs with a purity test for $68 on tomato, pepper, bean and most other vegetable seed. Brassicas like kale and cabbage cost more: $117 for purity, or $185 a lot with germination and the sample fee. So a tomato or pepper lot costs $136 in fees at the state lab before you sell a packet. Flower seed can cost more. Washington's testing category rule lists tomato and pepper in its fruit and vegetable category, but it puts "flowers" with native species in a separate category, charged $90 for purity and $146 for germination. With the $8 sample fee, that is $244 a lot, or about 70 packets at $3.50, so ask the lab which category your flower lot falls in before you price it. Washington's small-farm handbook also says any lab that tests by Association of Official Seed Analysts (AOSA) rules may analyze seed for your labels, so the price depends on the lab you use.

A home test tells you whether a lot is worth packing at all, even where the law asks for a lab:

• Count out 50 seeds from the lot.
• Roll them in a damp paper towel, put it in a plastic bag, and keep it warm.
• Count what sprouted after the days listed for that crop on any seed packet.
• Write the percentage and the date in your lot notebook.

If a lot sprouts poorly at home, do not pay for a lab test on it. Compost it or keep it for your own garden.

Which Seeds Can You Legally Save and Sell?

Sell seed from open-pollinated varieties that are not under Plant Variety Protection, which lasts 20 years, and skip hybrids and protected varieties. Heirlooms like Cherokee Purple are open-pollinated, so their seed grows into plants like the parent.

Three kinds of seed cause trouble:

• Protected varieties. The USDA's Plant Variety Protection Office grants certificates that protect new seed varieties for 20 years, and owners "have rights to exclude others from marketing and selling their varieties." A packet marked "PVP" or "patented" is a warning sign.
• Hybrids. Seed saved from an F1 hybrid usually does not grow true to the parent plant, so a buyer gets something different from the name on your label. Seed labels must name the variety (Iowa Code 199.3, 7 CFR 201.26), so that label is false.
• Crossed seed. Squash, corn and other crops cross easily with neighbors. If your zucchini grew near a pumpkin, the seed may not match the variety name.

When you are not sure, sell the variety name only for seed whose parent you know. Your lot notebook, with the packet the original seed came from, is your proof.

How Do You Set Your Seed Price, Step by Step?

Set your seed price in five steps: check the going rate, count your seeds, add up your paperwork per packet, set a floor, and round. It takes one evening with a calculator and your state's seed program page open.

• Check the going rate. Look up the same variety at three or four seed companies. For Cherokee Purple on October 1, 2026, that was $2.95 to $5.50, with $3.95 in the middle.
• Match the seed count. Pack at least 25, the count Baker Creek puts in its $3.50 packet, and closer to 50 if you want to match Holmes, which packs about 50 for $2.95. A 15-seed packet at $3.50 will not hold up.
• Add up your paperwork per packet. Divide your yearly permit by the packets you expect to sell, and each lab test by the packets in that lot. In Washington, a $20 permit over 200 packets is 10 cents, and $136 of tests over 100 packets is $1.36.
• Set a floor. Your floor is the envelope plus that paperwork share, doubled. With $1.46 of paperwork and a 4-cent envelope, the floor is $3.00, so $3.50 clears it.
• Round to a market price. Use $3.50, $4 or three for $10, so cash change is quick and the bundle is easy to say out loud.

If your paperwork share is under 50 cents a packet, $3.50 leaves you about $3 a packet before card fees and your time. If it is over $1.50, cut the number of varieties before you raise the price.

Should Flower and Bean Seeds Cost the Same as Tomato Seeds?

Yes, roughly: most of the flower, bean and tomato packets we checked sold between $3 and $4, so one price of $3.50 works across a seed table. The crop changed the seed count far more than the price.

The numbers we loaded on October 1, 2026 show how flat it is:

• Zinnias. The 42 zinnia packets with a price on Baker Creek's zinnia page ran $3.00 to $5.00, and the middle price was $4.00. Sixteen were $3.50 and 18 were $4.00, so 38 of the 42 sat between $3 and $4.
• Beans. Botanical Interests charged $3.49 for about 40 Kentucky Wonder pole bean seeds.
• Tomatoes. The seven Cherokee Purple packets above ran $2.95 to $5.50.

A flat price makes your table simple. A sign that says "$3.50 a packet, 3 for $10" covers every envelope, and customers mix flowers and vegetables in one bundle. Charge $4 only for varieties that are hard to find, like a family heirloom with a story you can print on the packet. If you also sell cut stems, our guide to pricing cut flowers covers the bouquet side, and zinnia seed is an easy add-on for flower buyers.

California is one place where flower seed is treated differently. The state's seed law registration covers vegetable and agricultural seed, and CDFA's instructions say flower seed is not covered by the California Seed Law.

Should You Sell Single Packets or Bundles?

Sell single packets at $3.50 and offer three for $10, because card fees take a bigger bite out of small tickets. On a single $3.50 packet paid online at 2.9% plus 30 cents, processing comes to 40 cents, about 11% of the sale. On a $10 three-packet order it is 59 cents, about 5.9%.

A bundle helps in three ways:

• Fees. The fixed 30 cents is charged once per order, not once per packet.
• Choice. Many gardeners want more than one variety. "Pick any three" gets them to a salsa set or a flower bed in one decision.
• Pace. At a busy market table, one $10 sale is faster than three $3.50 sales and three rounds of change.

Themed sets are easy to sign once you know your best sellers. A "salsa garden" of a tomato, a pepper and cilantro, or a "cutting garden" of three zinnias, can carry $10 without a sign explaining the math.

What Do Card and Platform Fees Take From a Seed Sale?

On a $10 three-packet order, card processing costs you 59 cents on Homegrown at 2.9% plus $0.30, and Homegrown's $10 a month plan, billed annually ($12.50 billed monthly), is the only other cost. The table shows the full fee stack for each option on that order and on a month of 50 such orders.

Slide the fee table sideways to see every platform's full cost.

Fees come from Homegrown's signup page, Etsy's sell page, Square's pricing page and Shopify's pricing page, all loaded October 1, 2026. Etsy's row assumes three packets from three listings, each renewing at $0.20 when it sells, and a $1.50 shipping charge. Etsy may also charge a one-time shop set-up fee and a 15% Offsite Ads fee on sales from its ads. Taxes are not included.

What the table means for a seed table:

• Etsy costs the most per order, $1.94 on $10 of packets, because the 6.5% fee also applies to shipping and each packet sold renews a 20-cent listing. Etsy does reach buyers outside your town, which matters if you mail seed.
• Square's Free plan is the cheapest for cash-and-card market sales at 41 cents a tapped order, but you build and promote your own ordering page.
• Homegrown costs $8 more a month than Square online at 50 orders on annual billing, and gives you a storefront with pickup scheduling and your customer list.

How Do You Let Gardeners Reserve Packets Before Market Day?

Gardeners plan their seed list before planting, and a gardener who sees your list in February wants to know you will still have the Cherokee Purple in April. Putting your packet list on an ordering page lets them pay for it now and pick it up at the market or at your place.

Homegrown is $10 a month billed annually ($12.50 billed monthly) with no percentage fees beyond standard payment processing of 2.9% plus 30 cents. You list each variety with its price, set how many packets you have so the count drops as orders come in, and set the pickup days and spots, including your market and your own porch. A "3 for $10" bundle can be its own product. Compare that to Etsy, which charges $1.94 on a $10 three-packet order and is built around mailing, or to collecting seed requests over Facebook messages and keeping the count in your head.

Here is what Homegrown does not do. It handles pickup and local delivery within 1 to 25 miles, not mail-order shipping, so if most of your buyers are out of state, Etsy fits better. Customers create a Homegrown account to place their first order. Your storefront is listed on the Homegrown marketplace, but plan on most orders coming from people you send to your own link, such as a QR code on your seed table sign.

If your seed list changes every season, set up your Homegrown storefront before seed-starting season so regulars can reserve packets of each variety before the market opens.

What Does a Season of Seed Sales Look Like?

At $3.50 a packet in a state with Washington's fees, 200 packets across 5 varieties loses about $8 after envelopes, the permit and lab tests, and 400 packets across the same 5 varieties leaves about $684. The jump comes from selling twice the packets against the same testing bill.

Swipe left for the full season math at each size.

Uses Washington's $20 seed labeling permit and its tomato and pepper seed lab fees of $60 for germination, $68 for purity and noxious weeds and $8 for sample processing, all checked October 1, 2026, and the Uline envelope price checked the same day. A state with no lab test requirement cuts the last cost column to the permit alone. An exemption for seed sold from your own farm drops the permit, but not always the test: Iowa's own-farm seed must still be labeled from a lab test.

Each tested lot needs about 39 packets sold at $3.50 just to pay its $136 of tests. That is why, in a state that requires lab tests, seed pays when you sell 50 or more packets of each of a few varieties, not 3 packets each of 30.

What Does It Cost to Mail Seed Packets?

A one-ounce letter costs $0.82 with a stamp, and USPS can add a $0.49 nonmachinable surcharge to a lumpy envelope, for $1.31. Those prices come from the USPS price list effective July 12, 2026, loaded October 1, 2026.

A few packets in a regular envelope usually stay under an ounce. Seeds make an envelope lumpy, though, and a lumpy, rigid or uneven letter can be charged the surcharge. A padded mailer is safer for the seed, and it moves you into a higher price class.

Mailing also changes which rules apply:

• Federal labeling. Vegetable and farm seed shipped between states falls under the Federal Seed Act, so the packet needs the kind and variety and your full name and address.
• The buyer's state. Minnesota's permit covers seed "sold for use in Minnesota," so a packet you mail there is under Minnesota's rules too.
• Etsy's fee on shipping. Etsy's 6.5% applies to the shipping price you set, so a $1.50 shipping charge costs you about 10 cents in that fee. Etsy's 3% payment processing fee also applies to shipping, which adds about 5 cents more.

If you sell mostly at one market, local pickup avoids all three. If you also grow starts, our guide on where to sell seedlings compares the places where a plant and seed table does well.

What Pricing Mistakes Do New Seed Vendors Make?

The costliest mistake is skipping the paperwork math, because one lab test can cost more than every envelope you will fill this year. The other mistakes are about matching the market.

• Pricing at $1 to $2. A $1 packet pays more than a quarter of the sale in card processing on an online order and looks like leftovers. The seed companies above start at $2.95.
• Too many varieties. Thirty varieties of 10 packets each means 30 lots to label, track and, in some states, test.
• Short counts. A packet with 10 tomato seeds next to a $2.95 packet with 50 makes yours look stingy.
• Selling hybrids or protected varieties. Seed saved from an F1 hybrid usually will not grow true, and a PVP variety can be off limits for 20 years.
• No lot notebook. Without a record of what each lot is, where it grew and how it tested, you cannot answer a customer or an inspector.
• Ignoring the rules because the sale is small. None of the seven states we checked waives the permit below a sales figure, and five of them require a permit for labeled vegetable packets from the first sale.

Seed packets also sit well next to other small-grower products. Microgreen growers already buy seed by the pound, and our guide on how to sell microgreens shows how that business runs week to week.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should I charge for a packet of saved seeds?

A fair price is $3.50 for 25 to 50 open-pollinated seeds you saved, and $4 for rare heirlooms. Seven seed companies charged $2.95 to $5.50 for a Cherokee Purple tomato packet on October 1, 2026, with a middle price of $3.95. Offer three packets for $10 to keep card fees low.

Is selling seeds profitable for a small grower?

It can be, if each variety fills a big enough lot. The envelope costs about 4 cents, so in a state without testing rules most of a $3.50 packet is yours. In a state that requires lab tests on every lot, as Washington does, a tomato or pepper lot costs $136 at the state lab, so each variety needs about 39 packets sold just to cover its tests.

Do I need a license to sell seeds at a farmers market?

In most states we checked, yes. Washington, Ohio, Minnesota, California and Missouri charge $20 to $75 a year for a permit to sell labeled vegetable seed, and all but California and Missouri cover flower seed too. Wisconsin and Iowa exempt seed you grew when it is sold from your own farm, and Missouri exempts a farmer selling unlabeled seed of their own production unless they ship it by common carrier, sell it through a public sales service, or advertise its germination or purity. Those farm exemptions cover sales at your farm. Iowa's applies only when the seed is delivered on or from the farm where it grew, so a farmers market table likely does not qualify. Iowa still wants that farm seed labeled from a lab test. Verify your state's current rules with its department of agriculture before you sell.

How many seeds should be in a seed packet?

Most of the Cherokee Purple tomato packets we checked held 25 to 50 seeds (Victory packs about 20, and Ferry-Morse about 90 to 110 by weight), Baker Creek's California Wonder pepper packet holds at least 25, and the one bean packet we checked held about 40. Flowers like zinnias and small seeds like lettuce get more. Count your seeds for small batches, because 25 tomato seeds weigh only about 0.065 grams.

Can I sell seeds I saved from store-bought vegetables?

Usually not under the variety's name, because many store vegetables are hybrids, and hybrid seed rarely grows true to the parent. Some are also protected varieties. Seed labels must name the variety (Iowa Code 199.3, 7 CFR 201.26), so a variety name the seed will not grow into makes the label false. Sell seed from open-pollinated plants you know.

What does it cost to mail seed packets?

A one-ounce stamped letter costs $0.82 under the USPS prices effective July 12, 2026, and a lumpy envelope can add a $0.49 surcharge. Vegetable seed mailed to another state also needs a federal label with the kind and variety and your name and address.

Related Reading

These guides cover the plants, flowers and rules that sit next to a seed table at a small grower's booth.

• How Much Should You Sell Seedlings For?: what a 3.5-inch start costs to grow and why $4 is the going rate.
• Can You Sell Homemade Seedlings?: the nursery license rules for live plants, a different law from seed.
• How to Sell Plants and Seedlings at Farmers Markets: equipment, timing and the plants that sell.
• Where to Sell Seedlings: markets, plant sales and online ordering compared.
• Cut flower pricing: stems, bunches and bouquets, priced from real costs.
• The Real Cost of Selling at Farmers Markets: booth fees and the other costs a seed table has to cover.

Ready to let gardeners reserve your seed before spring? Start your Homegrown storefront, list each variety at $3.50 with a three-for-$10 bundle, and put the QR code on your seed table sign.