Old Seed Germination Success

[GrowingFun]

Hello, I was very surprised on how fast two of my tomatoes germinated. The Omar’s Lebanese seed is from 2009 and started sprouting in just 3 days. The Eckert Polish seed is from 2015 and started sprouting in 4 days.

For both, the seeds were soaked overnight in water and a little bit of liquid fertilizer keeping them at about 75 degrees on a germination mat. Then moved to dome covered trays still maintaining 75 degrees

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[BlackKrim]

Nice to hear about your old-seed success. I warily put some elderly (10-15 years old) GREEN BOMBS, ROSE & ROSE QUARTZ MULTIFLORA. into wet paper towels. They sprouted within a week, I then put them into soil, and they are doing fine. How 'bout them apples...

I wonder about carrot seeds. I have some 5-6 year old "MUSCADE" bought from Baker Creek.

[rxkeith]

3 or 4 days is pretty fast alright.

my seeds new or old take about a week. thats with out soaking, and temps
fluctuate depending how hot the wood stove is going. uncle steve, and milkas
red bulgarian from 2010 were up in a week.
i consider tomato seeds being old once they get past ten years old. my saved seeds
that are stored in foil lined repurposed tea bags stay good a long time at ambient
room temperature.


keith

[Paulf]

In March I found a pint jar full of seeds and decided just to see what happened. All were from 2009 and had been sent to me by a friend...after all these years I do not remember who, sorry! Of the twenty different varieties only two germinated; one Kosovo and four Slovenian Black. Kosovo has been a semi-regular and this is the first time for Slovenian Black. I have spent the past five years divesting myself of old seed so that the inventory is all five years old or newer. I do still have some of the original Cherokee Purple seeds sent to me by Craig LeH (1999) Amazing they are still germinating...one out of twenty seeds. Next year will be the last of that stash.