Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth_10
Don't you know it! 
So is poor germination more often due to fermentations gone wrong? Are hearts more difficult to germinate or are problems, should they occur, post-germination? |
Poor germination for seeds can be due to many things Ruth, but in this thread we're talking about seed age alone.
And the problem with seeds as they age is that they become dessicated. So methods that are used, and this was recently discussed in a thread that marypnw started, are directed towards use of rehydration.
Hearts are no different from others when seeds are fresh, but yes, speaking now of very old seeds, I've mentioned here before that the seeds for some of those don't seem to have the long term viabiity that others have and I know Fusion and a few others have seen that as well.
So how do we define old seeds? Not easy to do b/c that also brings up the subject of how seeds are stored, but that too has been discussed quite a bit here.
I can tell you that I have such a large seed collection that all my tomato seeds are stored just at ambient room temp in vials and in plain envelopes.
I do nothing re germination until seeds are perhaps over 5-6 years old and expect in xs of 50% germination at that age. When seeds get to be maybe 6 to 10-12 yo I will double sow. When seeds get over maybe 12 years I will use special magic to enhance germination.
And many times I find when I double sow that everything comes up, almost, and I have to thin out ASAP.
And I only fool around with very old seeds if I'm dealing with a rare variety for which there is no obvious other source.
Good grief, I just looked up and out this panel of 4 low windows in front of me and we have a rather vigorous snow shower going on here. it snowed this past week here and is supposed to spit snow and ice and rain most of this next week.