bulk germination rates

[habitat-gardener]

If you grow most of a seed pack, what has been your experience with germination rates?

By "bulk," I mean starting 10-70 seeds and expecting most to germinate.
Easy year, the local master gardener group typically starts 1300 seeds, which yield about 1100 tomato seedlings, and 900 get sold.
The seeds are started in a commercial greenhouse and are transplanted a couple weeks later. So anything that has not sprouted within 13-14 days is considered "not germinated." That may skew the results if some varieties take longer to germinate (but...longer than, say, 13 days? we plant everything that has sprouted even a little). We had 10 volunteers planting seeds for 35 varieties this year, so it was a bit chaotic and there is always the factor of human error -- seeds being sprinkled on the table instead of in the pot, or when soil cover is added, seeds sticking to the gloves. I did find seeds left in the seed baggies after the seed sowing, so at least a couple people were not paying attention!
Still, it was surprising to get only 1000 transplants this year (35 varieties), so I looked at the stats and wondered if one of the factors was the seed sources.

All of the seeds were purchased from Nov 2024 to Jan 2025, except for "past-year" seeds, which were purchased a year ago and stored in the fridge. We started 25-45 seeds of most varieties.

The most consistent finding was that all the seeds from Bene Seeds had a 94% germination rate. The 4 current-year seed packs averaged 94%, and the three past-year packs averaged 93%. The lowest was 90%. No other vendor came close to these numbers.

The worst was Baker Creek, possibly skewed by the 36% germination of Pink Tiger, which has dustlike seeds. I worried about that one and should have planted it myself! But of 3 varieties, germination averaged 59%. One variety from last year, 76%.

This was the first year I bought seeds from Delectation of Tomatoes. For 5 varieties, 64%. Lowest was 45% and best was 85%. Not so bad considering that these specific varieties are hard to find elsewhere, and with the low cost of the seeds, maybe in future we can just buy more packs. Dale does list the dates of the seeds, and none were older than 2021 (which, in seed company parlance, translates to 2022).

A big surprise was AW Whaley. Last year's seeds, 3 varieties, 77%. This year's seeds, 5 varieties, 76%. These numbers seem low.

Also surprising was Lemon Boy Plus F1 from SeedsNSuch: 49% (and the ones that did germinate were small to tiny). That brought down the rate for SNS, 4 varieties, 77%.

So is 77% the best that can be hoped for from the more commercial vendors? For both Whaley and SNS, at least some of the packs are not dated. Can that be a factor? SNS has a generic statement something like "germination tested at least 80%" on its seed packs, so I wonder if they just keep shipping seeds until the rate falls below that number for a given seed lot, no matter the date.

The rest of the seeds were from smaller vendors.
Hudson Valley, last year's seeds, 1 variety, 97%
Open Circle Seeds, 3 varieties, 81%
Sow True, 2 varieties, 89%
San Diego Seed Co., last year's seeds, 1 variety, 51%

[habitat-gardener]

Actually, 77% is reasonable. I just came across this site at Cornell Law that gives "minimum germination standards for vegetable seeds in interstate commerce," and the minimum for tomatoes is 75 percent! And 55 percent for peppers!
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/7/201.31

[leftylogan]

This Arizona publication expands on the germination rate requirement. Looks like we utilize the federal requirement at the state level. An interesting note is that germination testing of vegetable seeds requires a 400 seed minimum sample.

https://extension.arizona.edu/publicati ... quirements

[Mark_Thompson]

I had poor germination off a pack of Whaley seeds a few months back too