Old seeds
martin freed
Posts: 4
in Plants
HEllo,
I found some old seeds in the garage the other day, so i planted them.
I now have some 13 year old dyanthus and 12 year old marigolds coming up!
Has anyone got older seeds which they have managed to grow!!??
0
Posts
That's encouraging since I few a few packs of old seeds. Did you plant them more densely than new seeds, on the theory that fewer would germinate, or did you treat them as nnormal?
The length of time for which seeds remain viable depends entirely on how the seeds are stored.
The Kew Seed Bank is designed to keep seeds for hundreds of years. They make sure that the seeds are dry, and store them at -20C...
http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/save-seed-prosper/millennium-seed-bank/saving-seeds-worldwide/saving-seeds-at-the-seed-bank/seeds-in-cold-storage/index.htm
I have just planted some old seeds about 8 years old (cosmos) 3 have come up.
hello,
I can now happily report that i have some Gardeners delight growing from 1988!!
25 years must be a record!!
i did just bung a load in all at once, as i had nothing to lose.
Il have to get in touch with The Kew seed bank, im sure i can save them a lot of moeny by just storing stuff in my mums garage!