How long do you keep your seed for?

[AZGardener]

Hi guys! I'm going through my seeds over the next week or so and I'm trying to determine what to toss (SO hard for me to toss any!!!!) and what I can keep and feel good knowing they will germinate. The oldest seeds date back to 2009. I have kept them in a cool dark place and sealed in baggies within a plastic bin.

So how old are your oldest seeds and when do you decide to toss them?

Thanks!!!

[KarenO]

hello,

There is no need to throw it out unless it doesn't germinate. Tomato seed can last a long time if stored properly. If your seed is getting old and it is open pollinated, you can grow out a plant to save fresh seed then replace the old seed in your collection, discarding the old. If it is hybrid seed, you can test germinate a few and keep it as long as they still germinate.
KarenO

[Gardadore]

I started a few Absinthe tomatoes from 2009 this spring and have some germination already. If I really like the tomato I will save seeds to update it. That is a good idea with the old seeds. With so many varieties (I have over 250) I can't grow them all each year. But from now on I will pick a couple of the oldest ones to try and save seeds from. I don't have the heart to throw out any either! Terrible addiction!

[NarnianGarden]

I think it's a great method to keep some of the older seeds just in case, while saving new ones. The older ones are a back-up if new seeds turn out to be crossed.

[carolyn137]

I've never thrown out a saved seed since the late 80's and the only reason I'd go back that far, usually into the 90's is b'c someone would ask me if I had seeds of this or that b'c what they had received was no longer true to the variety. Remy and Tania have made such requests.

HEre's the way I look at it.

For seeds up to 5 yo just sow normally
From 5 to about 10-12 years, double sow
Over about 12 years, check germination first and if low or no, treat the seeds as I've described here before.

Also noting that seeds from heart shaped fruits lose viability faster and that my best save was waking up seeds of September Dawn which were 22 yo but the record to date was waking up seeds that were 50 yo.

Now the days I gave above is based on knowing the seed age, which I did, but not all commercial seed packs indicate that for they may say packed for 2003 which is useless since you don't know how old they were when packed, or they may give a dated germination percentage on the pack, and that's better.

Carolyn

[Starlight]

Originally Posted by AZGardener

Hi guys! I'm going through my seeds over the next week or so and I'm trying to determine what to toss (SO hard for me to toss any!!!!) and what I can keep and feel good knowing they will germinate. The oldest seeds date back to 2009. I have kept them in a cool dark place and sealed in baggies within a plastic bin.

So how old are your oldest seeds and when do you decide to toss them?

Thanks!!!

Please ... Please, if you must clean house, don't throw your seeds out. Offer them up in the Haves forum. There are a lot of folks like me who don't mind old seed and will gladly take them off your hands and take the time to germinate and save fresh seed. Granted, like Carolyn said, germination goes down with older seed, but all you need is some patience and one plant to germinate to keep a cultivar going.

I totally agree with what Karen said. I do that myself.

My oldest seed right now is 1986. I just germinated a bunch of seed from 2005 and 2006.

Unless it moldy, somehow, I never throw any seed out. There always somebody somewhere who may just need or want it.

[Noreaster]

Carolyn's idea of keeping them dry in glass vials.....has worked quite well for me.
Amazing how long they can be good for. The older they are the longer to germinate, but most come up for me. This year several 7-10 year olds came up in about 10-14 days.

[Father'sDaughter]

Are we talking just tomato seeds? If yes, then you have your answer. If we're talking other veggies sand herbs, then it depends.

[nwheritagegrdn]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I've never thrown out a saved seed since the late 80's and the only reason I'd go back that far, usually into the 90's is b'c someone would ask me if I had seeds of this or that b'c what they had received was no longer true to the variety. Remy and Tania have made such requests.

HEre's the way I look at it.

For seeds up to 5 yo just sow normally
From 5 to about 10-12 years, double sow
Over about 12 years, check germination first and if low or no, treat the seeds as I've described here before.

Also noting that seeds from heart shaped fruits lose viability faster and that my best save was waking up seeds of September Dawn which were 22 yo but the record to date was waking up seeds that were 50 yo.

Now the days I gave above is based on knowing the seed age, which I did, but not all commercial seed packs indicate that for they may say packed for 2003 which is useless since you don't know how old they were when packed, or they may give a dated germination percentage on the pack, and that's better.

Carolyn

Not to hijack the thread, but whatever happened to September Dawn? I loved the name, since my daughter was born on a September dawn and I googled it, but found very little information. Does it still exist?

[MikeInCypress]

This year I germinated some Juliet from the year they were an All American Selection (1999). I sowed 5 and at least 2 germinated. A couple years ago I got some 1994 Tadesse seeds from Carolyn
and was able to get at least one to germinate and produce fruit.

[AZGardener]

Thanks guys! I won't be tossing any! Lol! This is just tomato seeds... Once I take some inventory of what I have and how much then I will jump to the Have Forum for trade Thanks everyone!!

[k3vin]

Tomato seeds remain viable much longer in a low humidity environment. Being in Phoenix, you have that going for you. I store mine in the deep freezer at -20F in tightly sealed 2 quart bail top jars with a large (fist size) package of dissicant. I'm 42 and I anticipate that most of my seeds will outlive me in fine shape...

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Noreaster

Carolyn's idea of keeping them dry in glass vials.....has worked quite well for me.
Amazing how long they can be good for. The older they are the longer to germinate, but most come up for me. This year several 7-10 year olds came up in about 10-14 days.

No, I didn't store my seeds in glass vials, they were stored in screw cap plastic bottles, 100 of them to each box, that I had kind of liberated from work when they switched to a new scintillation device used for radioactivity data that required different bottles.

When I ran out of those in about 1995 I switched to plain small business envelopes not sealed and still use those. Most of the time since about 2004 my seed producers would send back to me seeds in coin envelopes or similar, and those were put into those small envelopes, not just processed seeds.

My saved seeds were not stored in a fridge, just stored at ambient room temps and humidity and temps in that back room would vary from a low of about 64F ( my default setting back there) in the winter to maybe 80 F in the summer and yes, it could be humid sometimes.

When I had to pack seeds when it was cold back there I had a small electric heater, for me, not the seeds.

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by nwheritagegrdn

Not to hijack the thread, but whatever happened to September Dawn? I loved the name, since my daughter was born on a September dawn and I googled it, but found very little information. Does it still exist?

I could find a bit about it by Googling and below is the best of whatI found.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/30635/#b

Since no comments were made about the variety I have to assume that harris Moran stopped production of this variety. And I have no idea where I got the seeds from in the first place, but it would make sense to me since I was buying seeds from Harris Moran after I moved back home from Denver in 1982, but where I got seeds of it that were already 22 yo, which would make it to about the mid 80's if introduced in 1963, I haven't a clue as to remembering that.

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by MikeInCypress

This year I germinated some Juliet from the year they were an All American Selection (1999). I sowed 5 and at least 2 germinated. A couple years ago I got some 1994 Tadesse seeds from Carolyn
and was able to get at least one to germinate and produce fruit.

Mike, YOU were the one that started that whole search for correct Tadesse seeds and I found the thread that described how the four of you did deal with those 1994 seeds I had found.

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...adesse+Project

Happy reading and memories for anyone interested and it is a long thead.

Carolyn