In article , John Savage wrote:
Unless you are tilling a former chemical waste dump :-) I'd doubt that the
cause would be the soil chemistry. Chemistry might affect growth, but most
seeds germinate when supplied with moisture and warmth regardless of soil

Pretty much. They don't complain til they start trying to actually
chew it.

fertility. Bean seeds would have to be the easiest and most rewarding to
sprout! Practically fail safe! It is possible to plant some seeds too

Except lima beans. They don't seem to like this germination thing and
only about 1 in 3 sprouts. (BTW, very young lima beans are *delicious*
raw -- sweet, like young peas.)

deeply, but probably not so with bean seeds, within reason. Some seeds do
have a short use-by date.

Which ones have you found that to be the case for?

Back around 1990, I saved a bunch of seeds from a special roadkill
daisy (er, gazinna... they plant 'em along the roadbeds here, so I've
renamed 'em ... didn't have anywhere to plant them until a couple
years ago. In 2002, I planted a few and NONE of them came up. So I
thought they'd aged out and were no good... in 2003, I planted ALL the
ones I had left. And every bloody one of them sprouted. Hmm...

~REZ~