On 28 Sep, 12:27, Martin wrote:
On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:08:59 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

This is of interest to all those who buy seeds, both veg. and flowers:
http://www.which.co.uk/files/applica...iers-445-12280...

Apparently, several suppliers have been found to have dead seeds in the
packets and some of them in very high numbers, too.

There's no mention of the dates stamped on the packets they tested or whether
the seeds had all been stored in the same conditions prior to sale. Nor is there
any mention of how many samples of packets they tested. Did they buy the seeds
off the shelf or by mail order? They should have tested both batches of mail
order and off the shelf.

With modern packaging, that's not particularly important - so long as
they've not been stored under really extreme conditions.
What they really need to do now is to take batches of known good seeds
in a range of species and varieties and try them out on a big sample
of gardeners because IME there's a great many folk out there
-'professionals' and amateurs who have no idea about caring for
germinating seeds and the aftercare of the seedlings.
In any case there's no point in fretting about a few percentage points
in germination figures because most packets have far more seeds than
most of us will need.
What is important though - and this wasn't tested is the final outcome
of the crop. That depends on the work of both the gardener in the
growing and crucially on the seedsman and his contractors - in the
process of selection/reselection and roguing of the seed crops. The
outcome can be vary widely between seeds supposedly of a particular
variety from a number of different sources.
So it's not at all as simple as the Which report seems to suggest.