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This may seem a strange question, but I've been rooting through all my leftover seeds from this year. I still have plenty of, for example, the broad beans I planted about a year ago - are these still likely to work this year too? Or will I need to buy some more?

how longs a piece of string its one of those questions I planted 2 packets of kelvadonian wonder peas This year and one of the packets was from the back of my moms kitchen draw from when I was a kid and they must have been at least 15 years old  :o and they germinated better than the new packet that I have just purchased :o :o :o ??? ??? ??? though germination success is supposed to get less the older the seeds are

parsnips are not reliable after a year, don't know why they supply loads of seed  ???

weed seeds last for at least a hundred years
plant seeds, a bit less.

hiya, amberleaf, welcome to the site  :)

Hi and welcome.. onion seeds, parsnips and sweetcorn can be iffy after two years..snips actually after only one but beyong that most seeds will stay OK for years depending on where they are kept. I routinely sow seeds that are old and althoiugh I expect to lose some germination I don't usually have many probems. This year I did grow 3 year old snips with about 50/50 germination but I wouldn't rely on that and I do keep  most of my seeds chilled.

XX Jeannine

Scientists  have germinated seed from some Pharaohs tombs but what they were I don't know. Grains I would guess.

Back to the point;

A lot depends on how you store them as to quite cool and dry is the norm I find.

I keep mine in biscuit tins in a wardrobe in the spare room as seen here;



When it comes to sowing I tend to sow  a few more seeds in successive years than I did in the first year to cater for any deterioration that might take place.

I never save Parsnip seeds and I find that Lettuce can deteriorate rather quickly.

Most of mine are in a sealed metal container in my lottie shed.  A few are in my kitchen.

Greetings all. I've just signed up to A4A and keeping busy finding my way around, looks a really usefull and friendly site. Don't have a lottie yet but content to grow veg and flowers in a large garden patch (it gets a bit bigger each year :) )

I sowed some one year old onion seed this year and germination was nil. I also sowed one year old white lisbon sp onion seed and again,nothing. I bought a fresh packet of seed and germination was fine. As seed gets more expensive and you get less seed in the packet, the temptation is to save for next year any that's left over, but it's a gamble. Bean seeds and tomato seed seem to last for ever, never have any probs with them.

hiya, terrier, welcome to the site  ;D
we get loads of self seeded tomatoes growing, some of them do better than the sown ones  ;D

There are a number of useful charts on the viability of well-kept seed on the internet. Here is one ...

http://growingtaste.com/storage.shtml

Coming back to the original question, two-year-old beans should be fine. I've had broadies germinate perfectly well when they were black, shrivelled, and covered in blue mould.

I was just about to ask the same question. So thanks for all the replies. I've noticed that some seed packets have hundreds of seeds (carrots, parsnips etc) which I'd never get round to using, so I reckon it will be a great excuse to join in with the seed swaps - but before the sow by dates (expiry dates) on the packets LOL
1066

Once again, I am a great fan of chitting seeds first, and planting once they have shown signs of germinating. Have to admit the smaller ones can be very fiddly.

I have been saving leek seed because the amount you get in expensive packets is so pathetic (and why were Gardeners' Question Time so against this practice the other day? I've had perfectly good leeks from saved seed) but I have to admit that a row I sowed last year (three years since I thrashed them out of a seedhead) failed to germinate at all, while 2 reluctantly bought new packets did splendidly.