Well, a few results are coming in for my old seed germination project. And it is not encouraging....
Of the 50 varieties of seed I planted (between 21 and 17 years old, up to 25 seeds of each variety), there is life in two cells:
Mortgage Lifter Pesta Strain, actually from 1993, has two germinated seeds at 19 days (but with stuck seed coats) - March 12.
Verna Orange, from 1990, has one seed germinated on March 18 - 25 days, also a stuck seed coat.
In my general plantings, I have Cherokee Purple from 1993 that has a few successful (no seed coat) seedlings, and Brandywine from 1994 also with a few. This is 15 and 14 year old seed.
So, even given that I will keep the old seed flat in appropriate conditions to see if anything more develops:
With no presoaking, pretreatment, microwaving, etc - and no special drying or storage - the results of my experiment indicate the following guidelines:
Tomato seed germinates pretty well for 12 years (my 1996 seed is doing quite well this year) - then falls off to more of a challenge at 14 years, is touch and go at 15 years, and at 16 years or older, is likely to fail.
The next step for me, I suspect, is to take the same age seed next year and try some presoak or pretreatments to see if germination can be made to occur.
__________________
Craig
|