Seed Viability

I was going over my seed catalogue database and sorted it for dates. I have a number of seeds that are 7 years old and older. I purposely gathered up all the old seeds and have planted them to see if they'd germinate and if they do, grow them to collect fresh seeds.

I was thinking it would be a nice addition to Plant Files to indicate how long seeds stay viable and invite others to go through their lists and do the same.

The picture is of my oldies I'm trying out. It also shows how I keep track of seeds which might be of interest to some.

If any decide to try .. post here, the oldest viable seeds you have.

X

This message was edited Nov 4, 2008 9:02 AM

What a splendid idea!
When I find information about how long seeds are viable I always make a note of it. Some of my information I get from
http://flora.instnat.be/FloraInlog.do. They give information about native plants in Belgium (but a lot of these are common in great parts of the world). I is in dutch, and you need a login, but it is open for everyone. After you searched for a plant click on 'reproductie' and you might see how long the seeds are viable.
One of the longest viable seeds are the poppies (papaver), they can survive 100 years in soil.

I didn't think that I had any very old seeds to experiment with but I just found a pack of 'Sunset' sunflowers from 1995. I can basically guarantee that they'll do a whole load of nothing, but I'll go ahead and plant them in the name of science.

~Amanda

I think the main thing that helps with viability is the way they are stored.

X

A great idea! I have many old seeds I just end up tossing because I think they'll no longer be viable. Have you contaced the Admin about adding this info to the database?

That's a good idea .. we should decide on a percentage of germination to consider viability. If you plant 100 old seeds and 1 comes up, that probably isn't a good indicator of how long a seed can be stored.

What percentage do you think would be a good indicator? I'm thinking bare minimum of 50% though it probably should be more.

X

Last year my mom gave me some packets of seeds from the late 1970s. I threw out the California poppies, but I did plant the nasturtiums. The germination rate was incredible. Almost all of them grew. She'd forgotten them on a shelf in the garage where it was dark and cool. What a fun experiment that was for Mom and I!

I found this one:
http://www.hillgardens.com/seed_longevity.htm