old seed challenge 2025

[svalli]

Do you find that if old seeds do germinate, they produce malformed seedlings? That generally has been my experience. Sometimes they grow out of it; sometimes not.

Cotyledons on my seedlings grown from 2004 packed seeds are a bit misshapen. I should move these now to individual pots filled with potting soil and see how these will grow. These germinated couple of weeks later than the first ones and growth seems to be slower too.

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[wykvlvr]

I have my 2004 Uribikany seeds in a "damp paper towel" to see if any would germinate. While a few have shown signs that they might germinate today I saw my first actual root from any of them. Time to get my seed starter set up and ready for at least that one to grow.

I also need to settle on other older seeds I may want to try this year. Currently I am thinking of Mormon World's Earliest 2013, Pit Viper 2015, Cherokee Tiger 2017, and Riesentraube 2017 especially since it turns out I am growing for 2 sets of great grands who are in the 12 to 4 year old range.

[BlackKrim]

There are still seeds sprouting on my seed starting tray. 2004 Green Zebra has now 4/6 sprouted.

That is just magnificent. 20-year-old seeds germinating. Were they kept in the freezer or what.

[rxkeith]

sprouting is still happening.
heatherington pink had a stem come up, nothing on the end.
several helmet heads on aunt ginnys purple, and crnkovic yugoslavian.
most have come off on their own, or needed some help. condition of
the seedlings vary from weak, to strong. soldacki are the smallest, and
weakest of what is up. the hope is once they decide to live, they will
perk up. just takes awhile with some of them.

very impressive with the green zebra, sari.


keith

[svalli]

I store my seeds in a plastic box where I have a folded paper for each variety like file folders. These Green Zebra seeds have been in the original paper envelope and the box has been stored in room temperature.

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I poked the clay granules today and noticed that the germination for those seeds is 5/6, but one seems to have the seed coat stuck on and the root has started to shrivel.

I am quite amazed about the germination rate and for a while I suspected that I had mixed up what I have sown to each cell in the tray. But all the fresher ones had 3 seeds sown per variety and those germinated 100%, so these are definitely from that old envelope.

[Shule]

Do you find that if old seeds do germinate, they produce malformed seedlings? That generally has been my experience. Sometimes they grow out of it; sometimes not.

I have not found that to be the case, personally. Were the seeds mailed without padding?

[Shule]

My Brandywine Pink tomato that I like so much was 11 years old when I first grew it. A lot of the seeds of other varieties I planted this year are marked as about 9 or 10 years old.

I love growing old seed, because it's selecting for seed longevity.

[Tormato]

I see all kinds of malformations, deformed cots, headless seedlings, etc... with 6 year old seeds, and much slower germination along with a much higher % of helmet heads. Such issues may occur with younger seeds, but they are very few and far between.

Much lower germination, and a high % of no germination starts in year 7. If possible, I try to use seeds no more than 5 years old. And, I've basically seen no differences in 1 to 3 year old seeds.

This is all with good looking, nice and plump, seeds.

[green_go]

Sowed 2013 seeds of Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Big Rainbow.
They sprouted 2 weeks after sowing (my other tomatoes from fresher seeds sprouted in 1 week).
Excited to see how they will develop/produce.

[BlackKrim]

I've had mis-shapen cotyledons too (re Comment #41 above) but let them grow anyway, and all turned out well.

After reading about the experiences of others, I am keeping my fingers crossed over my elderly seeds of Green Bombs, Rose Quartz Multiflora & Rose (from JSS via Amish). Pray for me! If those don't work out, all I have left are Cosmonaut Volkov, Pearl, Woodle Orange & some heart-shaped from Anneliese; one is called "Corazõn de Buey de Rosal".

While I'm here: Is Corazon de Buey de Rosal (Spanish) the same variety as Cuor di bue (Italian)? Or is there some difference between these two? I went to google images, where some Corazons look very much like the Cuor di Bue, but others show a pleated tomato. Oh, well, if our summer goes well, I shall find out.

[colcol2]

I was happy to see some sprouts of a few old seeds I planted:
Spike's Red Belly Button 2015 one of 5; Mom's Heart 2017 got 2 out of 5; Snowball 2019 one out of 4; and Zorica's Sebastian Bull's Eye 2019 all 6 of 6!
Honey & Sugar 2018 didn't sprout any of 5.
I was most excited to see one for Spikes All of these were from the MMMM swap except for Zorica's. If I'm lucky I'll have some to return.

[wykvlvr]

I have a seedling it is from the 2004 Uribikany I found when redoing the database. Currently getting the "damp towel" treatment are seeds from the 2017 Cherokee Tiger

[svalli]

I think that my 2004 seeds are not viable even sprouted. All of them have grown just one leaf after cotyledons and that leaf is not a normal. These seem to be missing the normal apical bud. Interesting is that all of the 4 seedlings have same problem in growth. It looks like something in the genetic code has broken same way in all of them.

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[rxkeith]

i had that happen with a plant. it looks something like an inverted mushroom.
if you have the patience or space to keep some of them around, you might get
some shoots to sprout from the cotyledon joints. it doesn't always happen, but
SOMETIMES, it does. i have had it happen before. i forget which variety it was, but
it made it into the garden.

of my old seeds heattherington pink, and kolb, have not come up, and probably
won't by now. i'll give them another week, and then call it.


keith