old seeds and 'blind' seedlings - any correlation?

Tania · May 14, 2008

Growing 1000+ seedlings every spring over the last few years, I always wondered about why some (rare) seedling would appear to be 'blind' (with no growing tip). Most often I observe this is melon/watermelon seedlings, less frequently in tomato seedlings, and very rarely in pepper and brassica seedlings.

This year I had quite a few of these 'blind' ones, and could not help but notice that these are more frequent (from 20 to 100%!) in a batch that was started from very old seeds.

I am thinking that there must be a correlation between the age of seeds and the frequency of 'blind' plants. Did anybody else notice the same? Another theory is that the 'blindness' may be related to some degree of seed damage (which is likely to occur with the seed age I guess...).

Any thoughts/comments?

May 14, 2008	#1
Tania Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Anmore, BC, Canada Posts: 3,970	old seeds and 'blind' seedlings - any correlation? Growing 1000+ seedlings every spring over the last few years, I always wondered about why some (rare) seedling would appear to be 'blind' (with no growing tip). Most often I observe this is melon/watermelon seedlings, less frequently in tomato seedlings, and very rarely in pepper and brassica seedlings. This year I had quite a few of these 'blind' ones, and could not help but notice that these are more frequent (from 20 to 100%!) in a batch that was started from very old seeds. I am thinking that there must be a correlation between the age of seeds and the frequency of 'blind' plants. Did anybody else notice the same? Another theory is that the 'blindness' may be related to some degree of seed damage (which is likely to occur with the seed age I guess...). Any thoughts/comments? __________________ Tatiana's TOMATObase