keeping qualities of seeds

[pongeroon]

I'm going through the seed box to see what we need. Anyone able to help me out on the keeping qualities of leeks, carrots, lettuce and brassicas? They are only a year or two out of date.

[alan refail]

If they have been kept cool and dark they should be fine. The figures on the linked list are a good guide.

http://www.amateurgardening.com/plants/seed-viability/

[FelixLeiter]

The dates on seed packets should only be used as a guide. For sure, the date stated is a guarantee that the seeds therein have been tested to have good viability for that year. However, this does not mean that the seeds were necessarily freshly grown the previous year, it just means that they are sufficiently vital for them to germinate well when tested. I recommend you go through your packets and do some germination testing, which is easy and fun, and informative. You can use moistened kitchen towel and any sealable container for this. Your results will tell you which are worth keeping and which you need to replace. Now is a good time to do this, so that you can get new seed in before the season begins in ernest.

[Kleftiwallah]

If you keep in your mind that the seed merchants would like you to buy new seeds every year. . . . .take the 'use by' date with a pinch of salt. Cheers,m Tony.

[Johnboy]

Hi pongeroon,
It always amazes we that people would rather risk a years bad crops for what amounts to a few coppers.
Of the seeds mentioned the only one I would dismiss are the Carrots.
Carrots are of the same family as Parsnips and can be just as temperamental and are not very long lived. Unless stored properly Lettuce can be almost as bad.
Certainly you can do a germination test but that is not necessarily the final word on the subject because with old seed they may germinate but will be totally lacking of vigour and you do not get the best out of them.
This is the case of Lettuces. If they have been overheated they have a tendency to lock up and not germinate and then go through a cold period and they will then germinate which is not what you are after.
JB.

[FelixLeiter]

This is the case of Lettuces. If they have been overheated they have a tendency to lock up and not germinate and then go through a cold period and they will then germinate which is not what you are after.

This is true of lettuce whether they are fresh or stale. But it has got nothing to do with how they are stored, it's what the conditions are like when the seeds are given what they need to germinate: that is, when they have taken in water and air. If the soil / compost is too hot, the seeds go dormant. This can be for many months, and it's true that a subsequent cold period can break this. To all intents and purposes, germination becomes erratic if sowing conditions are too hot. Commercial lettuce growers usually sow their seeds in the evening, then keep the sowing modules cool under sheets of white expanded polystyrene. Kept like this for 24 hours is long enough to get them through this initial critical period. Years ago, the boys at the old NVRS attempted to select this tendency out of lettuce but it proved to be intractable.
It's common wisdom, though, that any seed will deteriorate quickly if it is stored too warm. Lettuce is one of the longer-lived of vegetable seeds, up to seven years.

[pongeroon]

Thanks for all your replies, I will be ordering seeds online this evening, will add carrots to the list, and take a chance on the rest, I think.

[solway cropper]

This is one of those questions that pops up regularly. As Felix says, it's so easy to do a germination test and will give you a rough idea of what's viable and what's not.

I frequently sow out of date seeds with no problems, including three year old parsnip seeds just to see what would happen. The parsnips had excellent germination and produced good healthy plants.

And don't forget that a lot of sprouted seeds are perfectly edible and make a good addition to a sandwich.

You may gather from the above that I'm not very good at throwing stuff away.

[alan refail]

And don't forget that a lot of sprouted seeds are perfectly edible and make a good addition to a sandwich.

Hi SC

If you'll permit, I would suggest adding to that: Only ever eat sprouted seeds
a] if you know they are edible and not poisonous
b] they are fresh seeds
c] they have had no post-harvest chemical treatment

Err on the side of caution, have a marmite sandwich

[solway cropper]

Err on the side of caution, have a marmite sandwich

And only use a sliced loaf. Picking up a bread knife without first commissioning a detailed risk assessment is not recommended.

[FelixLeiter]

Picking up a bread knife without first commissioning a detailed risk assessment is not recommended.

Alan's got a point, though. I wouldn't much fancy a tomato-cress sandwich. Tomato and cress, yes ... but anyway, you get the picture.

[peter]

Err on the side of caution, have a marmite sandwich

And only use a sliced loaf. Picking up a bread knife without first commissioning a detailed risk assessment is not recommended.

Have you completed the following courses?

Domestic comestible unpackaging techniques.
Bread products safe handling techniques.
Cutting and slicing techniques.
Safe handling of sharp tools.
Safe handling of pointy tools.
Correct butter use.
Correct butter substitute use.
Sandwich ingredient selection.
How to handle and prepare sandwich ingredients
Sandwich assembly.
How to transition a sandwich from preparation area to consumption area
How to ingest a sandwich in safety.

All of these one day courses are available from your local branch of "Nokom-n-zens" at a reduced rate for marmite users.

[Monika]

Going back to "keeping qualities of seeds": some years ago, my OH helped to demolish a stone-flagged outhouse in the back garden of a friend and when the flags where removed, and the sun and rain got to the soil below (which must have been totally covered for, say, 200 years), the grass sprouted like newly bought mustard and cress!

[solway cropper]

the grass sprouted like newly bought mustard and cress!

ah, but that's weeds, Monika, and we all know that weeds are indestructible

[Johnboy]

Hi Felix,
Although this is a rather late reply I would suggest to you that Lettuce seeds that have been incorrectly stored, for example left in the greenhouse by mistake, will lock up and not germinate although sown later on in the year may well germinate.
For over thirty years I produced Lettuce Plants for the Commercial, Retail and Mail Order markets and in all that time only got locked-up once and that was a freak exceedingly hot February day and the trays were laid aside and forgotten and they all germinated in October.
Those seeds had been left on the bench by mistake in one of my tunnels the day before sowing! Sowings made the previous day from the same packet germinated and produced a crop and there were sowings made from that packet the following year which were perfectly fine.
JB.