Seeds

[Jack Rouse]

Her indoors and myself are guilty of having the "seed tin", it's a tin that sits in the greenhouse, and contains all the part bits of packets that we haven't sown, so all we have is the foil packs, with the torn tops neatly folded over and held with a paper clip.
We have no idea how old some of this seed is, we never use a whole packet of lettuce seed in a season, we just can't eat that much of it !

Our germination rates this year have been quite poor, so we have decided to throw out the contents of the tin and start afresh.

I'm wondering if keeping the seed in the heat/cold and humidity of the greenhouse is the reason for the failures, and can you keep seed indefinitely or does it really have a "grow by date" ?

 

[Chuck]

Her indoors and myself are guilty of having the "seed tin", it's a tin that sits in the greenhouse, and contains all the part bits of packets that we haven't sown, so all we have is the foil packs, with the torn tops neatly folded over and held with a paper clip.
We have no idea how old some of this seed is, we never use a whole packet of lettuce seed in a season, we just can't eat that much of it !

Our germination rates this year have been quite poor, so we have decided to throw out the contents of the tin and start afresh.

I'm wondering if keeping the seed in the heat/cold and humidity of the greenhouse is the reason for the failures, and can you keep seed indefinitely or does it really have a "grow by date" ?

High humidity will difinitely have a detrimental effect on seeds. In my experience you can keep seeds at least 3 years if kept under refridgeration. A big mistake is to put seeds in a plastic bag. I have found storing them in paper works best

 

[firelily99]

I use paper as well and keep them in an area that the humidity stays low. Often times the seed packages have a date on them so you can get an idea of how old they are. If not mark it on the package the next time that you buy them.

 

[Rhondi]

I have seeds stored in envelopes that are sealed with the description written on the front. If you can keep them in a cool place like a cellar or basement they should keep for at least a couple of seasons.

 

[gata montes]

Her indoors and myself are guilty of having the "seed tin", it's a tin that sits in the greenhouse, and contains all the part bits of packets that we haven't sown, so all we have is the foil packs, with the torn tops neatly folded over and held with a paper clip.
We have no idea how old some of this seed is, we never use a whole packet of lettuce seed in a season, we just can't eat that much of it !

Our germination rates this year have been quite poor, so we have decided to throw out the contents of the tin and start afresh.

I'm wondering if keeping the seed in the heat/cold and humidity of the greenhouse is the reason for the failures, and can you keep seed indefinitely or does it really have a "grow by date" ?

The correct and most highly recommended way of storing seeds is to store them in a cool dry relatively dark place - where the temperature remains fairly constant - with the optimum temperature being around 2-16 C or 35 -60 F and preferably in something other than a plastic bag - if its any help - I store mine in greaseproof paper inserted into a brown envelope.

As to whether or not seeds have a " grow by date " I think very depends on the quality of the seeds in the first place - but I have generally found them to keep well for somewhere around the 2 year mark - after that some types of seed seem to get a little iffy as to whether or not they will germinate.

 

[MindyT]

I learned my lesson of not storing seeds in a plastic bag the hard way. One year, I saved several kinds of seeds from the produce in my garden. I cleaned and dried them off really well. I put them in a cool, dry place. However, they still went bad in the plastic bags. I did not factor in humidity or the breathability of the storage bag. I learned my lesson!