Hello:
For all you lawn experts out there:
Just noticed a bag of Scotts grass seed that I guess I had in my garage (unheated) for two winters now, that I had forgotten about.
Under the house garage, but still getys pretty cold in there; live outside of Boston.
Think the seed would still be good if I used it this spring ?
Irrespective of the above, how long do seeds stay rerasonably potent ? Better if stored cold, cool, or warm ?
Thanks, Bob
The germination rate drops significantly when seed sit around for multiple seasons. No reason not to use it, but I'd at least double the application rate, and if you don't see germination within a reasonable time, go buy fresh seed.
Seed are best stored cool and dry.
Go ahead and use it. You have nothing to loose. What does not germinate will recycle into mulch.
Seeds are living thing that include a limited food supply. So you should be able to figure it out with a few quirks. For grass seed and the short term storage, cool is best, medium low humidity, oxygen available.
Quirkiness is that seed stored for a year may have a higher germination rate than fresh seeds. Also some seeds must endure a period of deep cold before they germinate. Usually after that first year, germination may reduce by 10-15 % per year. So, you really don't want to store seed longer than 5 years. If you have such seed, plant it anyway, just use a high rate of application.
For the average person, plant the seed the year that you buy it. That applies to all lawn and garden seeds.
You mean rot?
I agree with Joseph and Kyle.
2 years old I would expect a loss of about 30% per year. So twice as much heavy would be about right.Post back and let us know how close we were. In about 15 days?
In my garage, any grass seed left over the winter gets converted into mice.
If you are really concerned, take a small roasting pan, fill with planting medium / topsoil / , sow seed, water and place in sunny window. see how well ist germinates and srouts. You will make yourself a fne oiece f sod for patching something in your grass.
Otherwise just use it outside, at the double rate othr responders here suggested.
You could test it to get an idea of the germination rate.
Moisten a paper towel; put some seed > Hello:
Good answer.
FWIW:
Where seeds don't readily germinate immediately, usually its because they need one or more periods of cold storage--this is generally known as "stratification".....and something we seemingly experiment constantly here, what with bags of dated seeds in all the freezers, the attendant record keeping etc.
Suggest google if anyone's havin a further interest in this phonemena.
Seeds+stratification would likely produce numerous hits on the topic.
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