I bought three packs of Wilkos seeds yesterday, 1st March 2016. They all have post dated seed packing dates! They purport to have been packed in the future - August, September and October 2016! Am I missing something? The packing dates are clearly separate to the "sow by" dates.
Quote from: JASPW on March 02, 2016, 09:41:01
I bought three packs of Wilkos seeds yesterday, 1st March 2016. They all have post dated seed packing dates! They purport to have been packed in the future - August, September and October 2016! Am I missing something? The packing dates are clearly separate to the "sow by" dates.
That should have been 'packaged in the year ending August 16' etc. So they were packed after July 2015. Very confusing and utterly meaningless. At that point a germination test would have been carried out and found to be satisfactory. Does n o t say they were fresh seeds at that time. Then the 'sow by' is calculated by some algorithm on how slowly the germination deteriorates, determined by not sure what? (perhaps there is a difference between foil sealed packets and loose seeds). There is little information here, which is a problem with all commercial seed.
Seed saving gardeners always put on the year that the seeds were harvested. This is a better indicator of how old the seeds actually are. Given that tomato seeds, pea, bean seeds and squash for example last for 5 years easily if they have been stored cool and dry, the harvested date gives a much better indication of what to expect. :wave:
Just noticed that this is your first post - Welcome to A4A! - hope you'll feel at home quite soon in our great A4A community.
Looking forward to reading your posts :sunny:
If they cannot put a proper date on them they have something to hide. Perhaps all seeds are female.
i think its packed for season 2016 and then you should have a sow by date which really is all meaningless as galina states and welcome to the site hope you enjoy it as much as i have
Quote from: ACE on March 02, 2016, 10:39:15
Perhaps all seeds are female.
😮 ACE ...HOW VERY DARE YOU
Welcome from me too.
I also agree about the packed in year to August 2016. Ie it was packed in September Since they take a time to dry, presume this means they were actually harvested 2014 or even before.
Very confusing. Little wonder boughten parsnip seeds are so shy to germinate.
A plot neighbour of mine is very surprised about how high the percentage germination is with my own harvested bean seeds.
Hi welcome to the forum.