It is an old gardening adage— rather pant new seeds than old ones. Now, I am not going to sit here and be hypocritical by pretending that I never use out-of-date seeds. I absolutely DO use them because I am too stingy to buy new every year. Having said that, with certain veggies we do buy new seeds every year; like Parsnips, a real temperamental diva that can be difficult at the best of times (in-date seeds or not). As you can see in the foto above, beans can also display a less than vigorous germination cyclus. The climbing beans above are the sort called, ‘Rakker’. They were planted on the same day (12 april), enjoyed the exact same conditions, side by side on the bedroom window sill…and here we are today, ten days later. Look at the contrast to the Rakkers behind the ones up front. We have noticed this disparity before, but now we have had enough. It will be fresh beans going forward, either bought or collected from my own. A side note: when it comes to old runner bean seeds, I do not notice any lethargy with germination. I sometimes do with broad beans, however. Well, if you grow veggies, do make a mental note if you are not happy with seed performance and check the use-by date on the packet. If they are not out-of-date then other factors like germination medium, watering and temp requirements could play a roll. So then; in my experience, age matters when it comes to germination rate.
so this just means i'm going to throw my seeds (in my lawn LOL!) that are like 5 years out of date because I just haven't started from seeds recently... I always keep forgetting them inside when first starting them (i'm horrible that way) I've just been getting them from a nursery ready to plant in ground.
My Past-date flower seeds, I broadcast over places that the municipality neglect. Sure, they may not germinate but if they do it will not be an ugly thing to see.
that's a good idea, however, my small village actually gets a lot of attention, and pretty good attention at that, so even if my out of date germinate they will be mowed down almost immidiately. D: but i could always try to find a spot they don't take the best of care
Thanks for the experiment, Sjoerd. I take pride in germinating old seeds, and try to use up old packets before buying new ones. This shows I should sometimes buy new ones anyway. Age matters. It takes much longer to get me started, than it used to. Just like old seeds.
