Hello all,
As the title said I sowed a lot of out of date seed anyone know what I can reasonably expect to germinate?
seed dated sow by 2005
Cabbage greyhound
Purple sprouting broccoli
Leek musselburgh
Brussels sprout fill basket
seed dated sow by 2008
Cucumber marketmore
Seed dated sow by 2009
Pepper Californian wonder
To be honest I don't really have space for any of this if it does grow, I really did just want to do some gardening because it was sunny.
Vicki
I douibt if you will get the leek but most of the others you should get some germination, might be slow and not a lot. Be patient.
The 2009 should be fine anyway.
XX Jeannine
yes, all that happens is the germination rate drops off. Five year old seed might only have a 10% germination success, but so what, its still free plants from seeds you would have otherwise chucked out.
I've sown out of date (only one year out) peppers before and they didn't do a thing. Not sure about the rest, so I'll be reading this thread!
Let us know what works and what doesn't!
My pepper plants growing now are from 2006 seed, I got 14 plants pot of 35 planted XX Jeannine
This year I used up some old out of date tomato seeds..sow by 1999 :o...there must been about 50 seeds in packet if not more and I still ended up 2 germinating from each packet.. ;D I must admit that those were stored in fridge and with silica gel saches..so without cold storage I don't think any would have survived.
A little update for you,
The Cabbage greyhound are already starting to show, not a great number maybe about 30% of them have come up so worth doing already ;D they might have to go in the garden thought because the brassica bed at the lotty is full.
Further update ...
Now I have the Purple sprouting broccoli and the cucumbers coming up. And I've had better germination from the old cabbage seed than the stuff I bought fresh this year.
I'm really quite impressed.
Hmm, how strange, I looked in my seed box the other week, 2'x2'x18". I couldnt believe the old seed pacs I found in it 2004 and onwards, Boltardy beetroot, marketmore and tasty king cucs and a whole range of stuff, sooooo I decided to plonk them into a few large raised beds of compost and see what occured, I wish I had marked the things because now to my surprise I have a lot of items growing no idea what is what at present and no where to put them.....
Still at least when they do grow up I will have a mass of fresh seed from them....... sigh, another box for seed coming up methinks.
Brassica usually last about 5 years,turnip, swede, carrot 2, leeks, lettuce and peas and beans do about 3, squashes up to 7, Parsnip and scorzonera only 1. [Lawrence Hills 1974]. I use a lot of old seed and tomatoes go on well. This years Delicious all germinated and are from 2004. In fact I've never had tomatoes that didn't eventually germinate -- somewhere! :)
I had very high germination from chilli seeds dated 2005 that had been left inside a magazine in the original packaging. I chitted the seeds first - about 95% came through. I've spent the last couple of months trying to give the plants away! ;D
It's got to be worth trying old seeds or giving them to someone else willing to take a chance.
:)