Starting old bean seeds

[svalli]

I am a seed hoarder and have a lot of old bean seeds in my seed box. I purchased a lot of these seeds, when we lived in Wisconsin. I decided to try germinate them before I throw them away and since beans need warm soil to germinate, I am doing it indoors. I sowed 24 Royal Burgundy seeds marked with best before 2007 on cells filled with peat based potting media and put it on heat mat. Only 3 of those germinated and I noticed that all those were light beige color and all of the dark more purple color started rotting.
I then read instructions online for starting old bean seeds and selected same number of beige seeds and the darker ones. I soaked those in hydrogen peroxide and put on top of wet Moler clay granules with the radicle down. Now all but one of the lighter color have sprouted but none of the dark ones.

I will need few more sprouted beans to fill my small raised beds for bush beans and maybe I should go through my stash and throw all dark ones away and try germinate the light color ones.


Sari

[rxkeith]

i really should do something with my old seeds.
i think i have read that pre soaking seeds for 2 to 3 hours might be
helpful. i usually just plant thick with older seeds and see what happens.
i don't know what my record is for sprouting old seeds, but i had jumbo bush
romano seeds that were lying around on an unheated porch, and in the basement
that were close to ten years old. enough grew for me to replenish the seed stash.
if you have seeds that aren't easily replaceable it doesn't hurt to plant them all in
hopes of getting one plant to grow for fresh seeds. chances are, someone here would
be able to replace them for you with a care package.
i also had some old uncle steve italian pole beans grow from pretty old seeds. i
think some varieties have a longer shelf life than others. are you able to grow pole beans
where you live? there are several i can grow and save seeds from. it gets pretty close some
years here. some times it doesn't work out.


keith

[svalli]

i also had some old uncle steve italian pole beans grow from pretty old seeds. i
think some varieties have a longer shelf life than others. are you able to grow pole beans
where you live? there are several i can grow and save seeds from. it gets pretty close some
years here. some times it doesn't work out.

I grow also pole beans every summer. We have quite sheltered back yard, which gets warm in the afternoon and we do not usually get any late frosts. I start the beans indoors and plant outside when the weather is warm enough. Now I have Buenos Aires Roja seedlings growing from beans I saved last year. I will plant those in a big round tub, which has 2m garden stakes for the beans to climb.

[rxkeith]

very good.
you may consider me as a resource for northern suitable seeds if you wish.
i don't think uncle steve has made it to finland yet. i have a box of just bean
seeds that has morphed into satellite boxes, and bags, and containers. you know
you may have a seed saving problem when you start losing track of seeds for several
years, before finding them. thats where i am at now.


keith