I recently wrote to Burpee about the very same thing. They apologized and
said they were dealing with retail sales of there product and had no control
over how long stores kept the seed or in what environment it was kept. There
suggestion was to purchase seed from there catalog and if it did not
germanate they would replace it with two packages. They want all stores to
send back or log into them how many packages are left over after being on
the shelf for three months. Like that will ever happen !

Kathy


"Repeating Decimal" wrote in message
...
Has anyone run into poor seed germination from seeds purchased presumably
fresh this year. I think it may be because the seeds may have been cooked
during storage.

In particular, I bought seeds several times from Target with the brand
name
Fordhook. They are prepared by Burpee. Out of about eight banana squash
seeds, only one sprouted. Out of their IIRC Big beef only a few
germinated.

Am I imagining this or do you really have to watch out for the retail
environment in which seeds are stored?

Bill