Old seeds?
 

I found some lettuce, carrot and tomato seeds the are close to 13 years
old.
will they Grow?
I have heard storys of seeds that are hundreds of years old that grow
but I am not sure.
they are unopened packeges og seeds so I don't think Moitsture has
affected them
Chuckie
Zone 5

Highly unlikely that they will grow. The few seeds found that grew
after hundreds of years came from peat bogs and were hard-shelled (as
I remember from the articles). Most other seeds are viable only the
next spring. Viability drops rapidly after that.


On 17 Apr 2005 19:08:37 -0700, "Chuckie" wrote:

I found some lettuce, carrot and tomato seeds the are close to 13 years
old.
will they Grow?
I have heard storys of seeds that are hundreds of years old that grow
but I am not sure.
they are unopened packeges og seeds so I don't think Moitsture has
affected them
Chuckie
Zone 5

"Chuckie" wrote in message
oups.com...
I found some lettuce, carrot and tomato seeds the are close to 13 years
old.
will they Grow?
I have heard storys of seeds that are hundreds of years old that grow
but I am not sure.
they are unopened packeges og seeds so I don't think Moitsture has
affected them
Chuckie
Zone 5

Only one way to find out! Plant them!

alice

Not all seeds are equal in their life expectancy.

Lettuce and carrot -- probably dead.

Tomato -- pretty good chance of nonzero germination (but significantly
less than 100%)

But, there's a small but nonzero chance that I'm wrong.

Put some seeds on a damp paper towel and keep in a warm spot (room
temperature, not really warm). Be sure to keep the paper towel damp (not
really wet). If nothing happens in two weeks, they're dead. If you let
the paper towel dry out, start over.




alice wrote:
"Chuckie" wrote in message
oups.com...

I found some lettuce, carrot and tomato seeds the are close to 13 years
old.
will they Grow?
I have heard storys of seeds that are hundreds of years old that grow
but I am not sure.
they are unopened packeges og seeds so I don't think Moitsture has
affected them
Chuckie
Zone 5


Only one way to find out! Plant them!

alice

The "classic" test is to place 10 seeds in a rolled up damp paper
towel setting in a glass with 1/4" inch of water on the bottom. After
4-14 days (depending on the plant) examine the seeds and calculate
your approximate germination rate.

If I take seeds from a annual when it seeds and plant those the next
will they grow?
Chuckie

Did you lose any sleep trying to think up that question, Cheesy Chuckie?

Maybe if you pray really hard, Jesus will give you the answer to that stupid
question too, you dummy.


"Chuckie" wrote in message
oups.com...
If I take seeds from a annual when it seeds and plant those the next
will they grow?
Chuckie

On 17 Apr 2005 19:08:37 -0700, "Chuckie" wrote:

I found some lettuce, carrot and tomato seeds the are close to 13 years
old.
will they Grow?

Seed viability declines over time -- faster for some than others. The
way to find out if any are still viable is to plant them.

I agree. I've had very low germination with lettuce seed from the previous
year. dps's paper towel germination test is the way to go!

Suzy in Wis., zone 5

"dps" wrote in message
...
Not all seeds are equal in their life expectancy.

Lettuce and carrot -- probably dead.

Tomato -- pretty good chance of nonzero germination (but significantly
less than 100%)

But, there's a small but nonzero chance that I'm wrong.

Put some seeds on a damp paper towel and keep in a warm spot (room
temperature, not really warm). Be sure to keep the paper towel damp (not
really wet). If nothing happens in two weeks, they're dead. If you let the
paper towel dry out, start over.




alice wrote:
"Chuckie" wrote in message
oups.com...

I found some lettuce, carrot and tomato seeds the are close to 13 years
old.
will they Grow?
I have heard storys of seeds that are hundreds of years old that grow
but I am not sure.
they are unopened packeges og seeds so I don't think Moitsture has
affected them
Chuckie
Zone 5


Only one way to find out! Plant them!

alice

"Frogleg" wrote in message
...
On 17 Apr 2005 19:08:37 -0700, "Chuckie" wrote:

I found some lettuce, carrot and tomato seeds the are close to 13 years
old.
will they Grow?

Seed viability declines over time -- faster for some than others. The
way to find out if any are still viable is to plant them.

Yep. I recently found a sealed package of Poppy seeds that were packed in
1989. I planted the whole package in a outside container this season, and
out of perhaps 500 seeds, have had about 10 (ten) actually germinate and
begin growing. You need to plant the entire package, because doing a
germination test is useless after a certain percentage - ten out of 500 is
what, 0.02% ?? Too low for zero...