On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 02:10:39 GMT, (Rez)
wrote:

In article s.com, "Don B" wrote:
Hello everyone
This is my second year working on my little garden (4x8), and I still have
some seeds from last year. My question is should I plant using the old
seeds, or purchase new ones?

The remaining seeds were sealed up, and were kept in a dry place in the
basement.

Speaking from experience: so long as they have been kept dry, and
haven't collected any of the nasty little borers that eat their
innards, most seeds keep at least a couple years, and some keep for 10
years or more. I once saw a chart that indicated there is an average
10-20% die-off rate per year of storage for most veggie seeds, but if
you're concerned, just plant a few extras to make up for what don't
germinate.

I've had gazinnia and marigold seeds that were a good 10 to 12 years
old achieve 100% germination. I don't think we ever had this-year's
seed in my grandmother's garden -- she'd buy last-year's discounted
seeds, and as I recall (being the head garden labourer at the time
the germination rate was indeed about 80%.

~REZ~

_Such_ an interesting thread, thank you! I could have sworn I saw a
program on the television documentary re Egypt re the seeds, that is
what is so odd. I'm sure that even if things germinated, there
wouldn't have been an extremely high success rate, but it always
fascinated me. I'll have to look into this further, as it's something
that has been with me for so long and I always believed it to be true,
that now I want to know for sure.

But also really neat thread re germinating. The garage experiment
sounds neat, too! Hope that the seeds come up nice!

p.s., I'm also concerned about one thing. _If_ older seeds from a
long time ago do germinate now yet new seeds don't, one has to wonder
about modern growing practices, too! Mustn't forget that our
ancestors did things the right way - more in accordance with nature's
laws, esp. before the industrial revolution! They may not have had
the "science" of this, as we supposedly do, but they had no choice.
They grew organically, etc. g