using older seeds

[swordy]

A friend promised me to bring me a bag of seeds from his father in law who died in the 90s. Of all the seeds he tried to grow when he found them one or two years ago none germinated. When he brings me the bag I will try myself. There were seeds of different vegetables, not only tomatoes. We'll see!

[Worth1]

My old seeds were brought up.
Nope nothing out of the ordinary just in the house.
In my opinion I think some methods where people try to get them to last longer may do more harm than good.

Worth

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by swordy

A friend promised me to bring me a bag of seeds from his father in law who died in the 90s. Of all the seeds he tried to grow when he found them one or two years ago none germinated. When he brings me the bag I will try myself. There were seeds of different vegetables, not only tomatoes. We'll see!

Swordy, two folks contacted me,not Tville members,I don't know how they found my e-mail,but both have much older seeds they are trying to wake up,one has older seeds of from his grandfather whose tomato was once carried by several commercial places,and the other one bought Lots of seeds at an auction in NYC from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

I suggested what they might do,but haven't heard from them lately, as to any success,but it would take several months even after seed treatment before anything might show,so fingers crossed for both of them.

Carolyn

[swordy]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Swordy, two folks contacted me,not Tville members,I don't know how they found my e-mail,but both have much older seeds they are trying to wake up,one has older seeds of from his grandfather whose tomato was once carried by several commercial places,and the other one bought Lots of seeds at an auction in NYC from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

I suggested what they might do,but haven't heard from them lately, as to any success,but it would take several months even after seed treatment before anything might show,so fingers crossed for both of them.

Carolyn

Dear Carolyn, I have a better suggestion When I get the whole seed pack to mail it to you directly, so you can do the treatment and any goodies germinate will be both interesting to you and me!

[slugworth]

I have 30 year old tomato seeds I am trying to start myself.
On day 4 of the project.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by swordy

Dear Carolyn, I have a better suggestion When I get the whole seed pack to mail it to you directly, so you can do the treatment and any goodies germinate will be both interesting to you and me!

Swordy, did you try treating them at all yourself?

No problem if you want to send some to me maybe you still have my address when you sent me the Dikaya Roza seeds,if not,just PM me with that so I don't have to try and find that envelope in a sea of envelopes.

Just so you know,it's too late here to treat seeds and get anything possible for this summer, but I could do so maybe right before Xmas or possibly in Jan so there would be several months of waiting to see if anything came up..

If you have enough tomato seeds you should keep some for yourself as well.

When you get the tomato seeds why don't you PM me as to how many there are and then tell you about how many I would need.

Any idea at all of what those seeds might give as to Greek tomato seeds or otherwise?Just curious.

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by slugworth

I have 30 year old tomato seeds I am trying to start myself.
On day 4 of the project.

Are you treating them first,since 30 yo seeds are pushing the record of 50 yo seeds which no one has come close to again as far as I know.

If treating them,what are you doing?

Do you know the name of the variety and I ask since if seeds for that variety are still available,and many are I wonder if it might be best to just get new seeds.

If nothing is known,then that could be interesting to see what you get and then know where the seeds came from and who they came from.

Carolyn, who will be 77 in June and grew up on a truck farm and was helping her father back when she was maybe 5 yo since we had many acres of tomatoes. But really got in involved with the mostly non commercial heirloom kinds when she moved back home to NYS from Denver in 1982.

[slugworth]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Are you treating them first,since 30 yo seeds are pushing the record of 50 yo seeds which no one has come close to again as far as I know.

If treating them,what are you doing?

Do you know the name of the variety and I ask since if seeds for that variety are still available,and many are I wonder if it might be best to just get new seeds.

If nothing is known,then that could be interesting to see what you get and then know where the seeds came from and who they came from.

Carolyn, who will be 77 in June and grew up on a truck farm and was helping her father back when she was maybe 5 yo since we had many acres of tomatoes. But really got in involved with the mostly non commercial heirloom kinds when she moved back home to NYS from Denver in 1982.

unknown seed type saved by my late mother,hopefully a huge san marzano type she used to grow back then.She called it a boris tomato,but that was probably the guy that grew it in southington,ct at that time.
32oz tomatoes were common.
the treatment would involve a thread of it own,involving hydrogen peroxide,vinegar and what I call a "surrogate tomato", a slice of tomato with previous tenants evicted and old seeds injected in the rim.On a coffee filter and coated paper plate inside a ziplock bag on a warming mat.

[swordy]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Swordy, did you try treating them at all yourself?

No problem if you want to send some to me maybe you still have my address when you sent me the Dikaya Roza seeds,if not,just PM me with that so I don't have to try and find that envelope in a sea of envelopes.

Just so you know,it's too late here to treat seeds and get anything possible for this summer, but I could do so maybe right before Xmas or possibly in Jan so there would be several months of waiting to see if anything came up..

If you have enough tomato seeds you should keep some for yourself as well.

When you get the tomato seeds why don't you PM me as to how many there are and then tell you about how many I would need.

Any idea at all of what those seeds might give as to Greek tomato seeds or otherwise?Just curious.

Carolyn

I don't know exactly what and how many they are. That guy told me though that the old man had the seeds very organized, all in differents packets and written the varieties in each of them. The location of that farmer was in Thrace, northeastern Greece, near Bulgaria and Turkey.

It's been a while since he promised to bring them to me. I'll have to call him and remind it! When I get the package I will pm you and maybe I will do the treatment to some and send you the rest, or send you the whole package.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by swordy

I don't know exactly what and how many they are. That guy told me though that the old man had the seeds very organized, all in differents packets and written the varieties in each of them. The location of that farmer was in Thrace, northeastern Greece, near Bulgaria and Turkey.

It's been a while since he promised to bring them to me. I'll have to call him and remind it! When I get the package I will pm you and maybe I will do the treatment to some and send you the rest, or send you the whole package.

Do remind him b/c if near Bulgaria,I've loved every Bulgarian one I've ever grown and same with Turkey,someone sent me lots from Turkey, and Mehmet who owns that wonderful seed Co called Two Seeds in a pod,helped me figurr out what they might be.

Aha,just remembered that it was J Delaney who was in Turkey and sent me those,and M was a bit jelous,if you will,since I got some of the same seeds he'd been trying to get from Turkey, and wasn't very successful at all.

So I sent him seeds from the packs that Delaney had sent me.

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by slugworth

unknown seed type saved by my late mother,hopefully a huge san marzano type she used to grow back then.She called it a boris tomato,but that was probably the guy that grew it in southington,ct at that time.
32oz tomatoes were common.
the treatment would involve a thread of it own,involving hydrogen peroxide,vinegar and what I call a "surrogate tomato", a slice of tomato with previous tenants evicted and old seeds injected in the rim.On a coffee filter and coated paper plate inside a ziplock bag on a warming mat.

Have you used that treatment before to wake up seeds and if so how old were the seeds and how did it go?

If I were a seed that was being treated as you describe,I think I'd give it up ASAP b/c I wouldn 't want to be injected into the rim of a tomato , nor be subjected to any interactions between vinegar and hydrogen peroxide nor put on a coffee filter and into a baggie where it's warm

And my ratonale is that for very old seeds one has to wait sometimes several months to see anything and two months or so under those conditions spellsMOLD to me.

Carolyn

[AlittleSalt]

Carolyn, post #26

[NarnianGarden]

This year, the oldest tomato seed is vintage 2009 (Kosovo). I am interested, as I read somewhere that hearts have a shorter seed viability than most other varieties.

Some years ago I had a large plant from a 2007 seed. No troubles with germination.