Quote:
Originally Posted by shule1
@ContainerTed
So, what is different about old tomato seeds that are harder to sprout vs. new tomato seeds? What changed, and why? Do they go dormant or something to help prolong viability?
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I'm not any kind of expert on the science involved, but when we were gathering data on damage to seeds by the sorting machinery used in the U.S. Post Office, I found that I could see the germplasm inside the seeds. And this was with fresh seeds. In the microscope, I could easily see that the germplasm was not dry and hardened. On the contrary, it appeared moist and flexible. But, with some extremely old seeds (22 years old), many appeared to be dry and crisp when I purposely fractured the seed's outer shell.
So, my conclusion was that the germplasm had not only dried out, but probably had lost some of the chemistry needed to activate the seed's ability to produce a seedling. So, I felt that the addition of a small amount of very diluted NPK-type fertilizer might help the seeds by replacing some of that chemistry or at least making it easily available.
This year, as an example, I had some seedlings that were from seeds that took more than 6 weeks to germinate. BTW, did I say that patience is also a requirement? LOL !!! Many folks soak their seeds before planting them. And they use a long list of what they use to do the soaking.
This is just my theory and I have no scientific testing or data other than my germination numbers have gone up across the board. Hope there's something to help.