I have a bunch of seeds left over from this year. Is it worth saving them for planting next year? Are there seeds that are known to be good next year, and seeds known to not be good next year? Or should I just chuck all of them and get fresh seeds next year?
I keep them in the freezer, and just today I ate cabbage planted this year from seeds bought in 2000. I have also planted two years old parsnip seeds successfully, even though they are supposed to last one year only. In the freezer, they keep indefinitely.
Here's some info, and a chart. As for the other person's comment on freezing, this won't work for all seeds, although some will actually germinate better after freezing. Too long a subject to go into here.
seeds and didn't plant half of them, so I think I'll hang on to them. However, for critical plants, I think I'll get new seeds. Would not want to wait 3-4 weeks to find out my tomatoe and pepper seeds were bad :(
Right. In places where you only get one chance per year to plant certain things, buy fresh seeds.
Here's a google search to investigate:
Pepper, tomato, and squash seeds last for several years. I just tested the germination of some 15 year old okra seeds that I found (I was gonna throw them out, but I was curious) and all of them sprouted in about 2 days. I will plant them next spring.
Onion seeds OTOH will give very poor germination after just one year.
Bob
Do you mean "regular" onions, or green onions?
No need. Do a paper towel test or sand test on a few seeds... damp but not wringing wet substrate, warm spot, wait a week. Dead seeds will mold in that time and be ishy-squishy.
If you want to try this out this winter, grab some dried beans from the kitchen, and rehydrate them in something like damp paper towels overnight. Take half the beans and dunk them in boiling water and wait for the water to cool. Plant both the boiled and unboiled... and pay attention to how easily you can tell them apart just with a finger squish after a day or three.
Kay
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