once your seeds sprout, and start to show normal growth, you can expect to get a plant that will grow, and produce like normal regardless of the age of the seed.
the only thing i have noticed with old seeds is perhaps a greater tendency
for mules; plants that don't have a central growing tip. they stay at two or three leaves forever. my oldest seeds to grow this year were from 2005. my hand written label said yellow brandywine, but the tomatoes were all red. i may have mislabeled them. i gave away five plants to church members, and kept two for myself. two or three other plants were small, and not thriving, so did not make it into a garden.
germination was still very good.
another issue i just remembered is more helmet heads. some seedlings may have
damaged cotyledons that can't push the seed coat off. sometimes you can save them,
and sometimes you can't.
if you have any heart varieties, those seeds don't keep for as long for some reason.
germination was low for the two hearts i grew from seeds that were about seven years old. they were anna marias heart, and sheryls red portuguese heart.
keith
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don't abort. we'll adopt.
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