Allotments 4 All

Forgive my lack of knowledge on this, and if I do give you a laugh it will be doing you good stretching all those muscles..

..but having overordered/bought seeds this year, can they be used next year?

If so, do I store them in a shed or do I commandeer a part of the fridge?

Can they stay in the screwed up packet or do I have to put them in an airtight place?

Read that parsnip seed is best bought each year, but as I didn't buy any this year, that's a fine lot of use as info...

Ta

well my seed was last yrs seed and touch wood seems to be doing ok


(lets hope i didnt speak tooooo soon lol)

carl

Hi,

I keep mine in a plastic box in the fridge.

I keep them til I've sown them all - no problems with germination up to now. Still using parsley seeds 5 years after 'best by date'.....

Gail

storing my seed in the veg section of the fridge, in a small bag. so far so good.
you can always run some germination tests before sowing, if you want to make sure that you dont waste your time with older seed.

most seed will keep, things like parsnip and carrot will be diificult to germinate if not fresh!

i've got a book that tells you how long diiferent seeds will remain viable....which seeds were you thinking of keeping?

Still using courgette seeds that are 9years old!

In that popular gardening book (garden expert series) the veggie expert has the number of years you can store seed. It varies 1yr for parsnips/carrots 7yrs for brasiccas and most others around 3-5 years. I've had no problems with 2yr old parsnip seed stored in a tin under the kitchen sink.

Crazy Mel in his square foot gardening book has a couple of tables that show how quickly and what % of seed will germinate at different temperatures. Some like it warm and some like it cooler which is interesting. It gives an idea of how many days you need to wait before you question the viability of your seed. You can test germination on damp tissue in a propogator and if you're careful you can plant the pre-germinated seeds.

Sow more seed to compensate for it's age since there is a gradual decline in the seeds viability over time.

Same here - plastic box in fridge and I use seeds from years ago but some save better than others  I have grown parsnip and carrots from old seed.  I don't like to waste any seed so I carefully re-pack it, seal it with sellotape. I keep telling myself not to buy any more til I've used that which I've already got  :)

I keep all my old seed in a tin in the shed. I buy new seed each year, but then plant 'extra' using the old seed, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt . . .

the lottery of vegetable gardening!