The classic time to plant a garden here is memorial day because we usually get some frosts in May. Anyway I put in some green house grown tomatoes and peppers, plus some seeds. I had left over zucchini seeds from 2018, and I bet they all germinate. I also found some retro 2004 cantaloupe seeds, so we sowed those. I wonder if they will germinate?
A few years ago there was a story in the local paper. A old timer found some heirloom tomato seeds he has saved in a jar for something like 30 years. He gave them to the son of the guy that originally grew them. Anyway the son planted the seeds and had a big variety of heirloom tomatoes. So the son became the local heirloom tomato grower just like his dad, and the son is pretty big time at the local ag fair. So the hobby was passed on with 30 year old seeds.

Seeds can stay viable a long time under the right conditions. Years ago I worked for a seed company. There was a large cellar under the building that they used for seed storage. One day the warehouse manager came in with a bag of about 20lb of carrot seed that he'd found in a back corner. The lot # showed that it was nearly 40 years old. The boss had me run a germ test on it and I got a 65% germination.

I’ve had seeds ten years, they came up fine.

I have bought and planted out of date wildflower seeds on my bank several times, and they didn't germinate either time. I guess they were older than the package said or were a scam from the company.

Grass seed, and soybean seeds lose gemmation fast. Corn, and weeds seem to last forever.

Keep them dry and bugs out of them and they will germinate forever. I put leftover seeds in a coffee can and store them in the chest freezer. They always come up.

Wildflowers can be very difficult to germinate. Many of the seeds need sunlight. In nature, they lay on the surface in damp soil while the sun gets them going.

I tried to find the original tomato seed story but I found articles on germination at 50 years. Another store said 80 years.

http://www.tomatodirt.com/old-tomato-seeds.html

I heard some seeds like that need frozen. We pick annual wild flower seeds and leave them in the shed all winter. We add that stock to a new bag or two of butteryfly/humming bird mix. We grow some big areas some years if I get an urge to till. This year I put in about a 1/4 acre. I plowed and seeded in april, and it looks like I have a good batch started. I don't know the germination rate on our recycled seeds because we mix them with fresh seeds. I should put some in a bowl and see the rate.

About 8 years ago, a 93 year old woman had me dig through her freezer for some seeds that her and mother used plant and save/plant and save, etc.

They were dried and dated 1979 in a Sanka coffee jar.

Speckled butterbeans.

They all did really well,

Kelvinator chest freezer by the way, old school with frost

My partner, who has a PhD in horticulture, tried for years to germinate elderberry seeds. He tried every trick in the book and never got a single one up. Yet in the wild, they're thick. They're also impossible to transplant because of all the rocks. The roots wrap around them. He wanted them to try to draw birds away from his fruit trees.

Still planting Collard seed from 1976 from a quart mason jar from my grandfathers sister. She gave to me and said they had been in family for over 100 years at that time and to keep passing them on. My son of 30 is still growing and leaves a plant for seed ever year to keep going. Yes they only see daylight to be planted out of freezer....

I found some old seeds in the shed when I was rearranging things. The radishes are up, the carrots are either taking their time or not planning on showing up.

I bought a pack of sweet 100 cherry tomato seeds off of amazon about 6 weeks ago. I planted about a dozen in peat moss planter cups and put them on shelves in the south facing windows of my garage. So far only 1 has come up.

The celebrity seeds I bought at a local store have all came up and so has my pumpkin, squash, and onion starts. Sweet 100s, bell peppers, and cucumber starts no luck.

Bb

Do Mary Jane seeds keep well?

Occasionally a story comes out about some seeds from ancient Egypt that are planted and grow. All of them so far have been debunked. A seed that's viable after 50 to 75 years is extremely rare. The only way to keep a seed longer than that is to freeze it in liquid N. While seeds are dormant, they're still living things and are using energy at a very slow rate. Sooner or later they run out.

The story of seeds from ancient Egypt is true as far as I know.

The seeds were a type of wheat . It looks like a cross between rye and wheat. It has been grown in north central Montana for many years.

Also there is a story about honey taken from a tomb that was still good.

Stranger than fiction. Maybe

Honey story might be true. Kept dry, it is basically anhydrous sugar and does not deteriorate.

It's called emmer wheat. The species is several thousand years old but what was thought to be actual seeds that old turned out to be false. It's still raised in a few locations in the middle east so none of the seeds are that old.

some seeds need to pass through a bird's digestive system to germinate, when I did my chili Pequin seeds I soaked them in a vinegar solution. only about 10% germinated.

Old pepper seeds do not do well.

That’s triticale.

the gray ones with tiger stripes do

There's several.
http://nerdymillennial.com/list-of-ancient-wheat-varieties/

That’s what I have!!

Tetrazolium or wet blotter?

wet blotter

Aight, them are good

Because that’s what I was gonna mail you 😃

One year an Oneida Indian sent us some traditional Iroquois White Hominy corn, an heirloom 8-row corn variety, kernels as big as beans and origins going back forever. Not the sort of thing you can find at Home Depot.

It grew and produced really well. Due to limited garden space at school I put some aside in the classroom, about 100 kernels. They stayed dry but four years later nary a one would germinate. I did get pretty warm in school over the summer vacation, but beans and squash kept under those conditions just fine. If I woulda known I woulda kept 'em in a refrigerator.

Judean date palm seeds have sprouted and they're off and running:

https://www.ancient-origins.net/new...resurrected-ancient-seeds-now-dad-002838

Ten years since the Judean Date Palm was miraculously brought back to life following the chance discovery of seeds in the 2,000-year-old ruins of Masada, the male date palm tree named Methuselah, the only one of his kind, has become a father.

For thousands of years, the date palm was a staple crop in the Kingdom of Judea, as it was a source of food, shelter and shade. Thick forests of the palms towering up to 80 feet and spreading for 7 miles covered the Jordan River valley from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the shores of the Dead Sea in the south.

So valued was the tree that it became a recognized as a symbol of good fortune in Judea. It is chronicled in the Bible, Quran and ancient literature for its diverse powers, from an aphrodisiac to a contraceptive, and as a cure for a wide range of diseases including cancer, malaria and toothache.

However, its value was also the source of its demise and eventual extinction. The tree so defined the local economy that it became a prime resource for the invading Roman army to destroy. Once the Roman Empire took control of the kingdom in 70 AD, the date palms were wiped out in an attempt to cripple the Jewish economy. They eventually succeeded and by 500 AD the once plentiful palm had completely disappeared, driven to extinction for the sake of conquest.

But all was not lost, because in 1963, the late archeologist Yigael Yadin began excavating Masada, a mountaintop fortress built over 2,000 years ago on the shore of the Dead Sea where King Herod built a spectacular palace. Masada was the last stand of a small band of Jewish rebels who held out against three Roman legions for several years before committing mass suicide in A.D. 73.

My neighbor became a father at 63 years of age.

My seed packs should come with a skull & crossbones. Can't grow chit. I buy seedlings.

I have some pot seeds from 1972.......

will they grow ?

Thats awesome.

I have a full tote crat filled with seeds that I grabbed from a Local HS exactly 10 years ago. They were purging their refrigerators for the summer and in typical wasteful fashion they were tossing a ton of plants and seeds. I took some plants and took every seed.

Lots of peas, but also grass seed (used it this year) tomoats, kale, brocoli, spinach, lots of basil, some alyssum and other flowres... I figured it was my 'just in case" stash.

Sealed in airless zip locked bags in a plastic tote crate, cooler and dry. Hope the ziplock thing was a good idea.

I buy all my seed at the end of summer. Our Co-Op puts out on the sidewalk for 90% OFF

about a 1/4 of a one my 14cuft freezers is nothing but bulk garden seed.

Walmart sacks of varieties of seeds. Several Walmart bags.

corn, beans, cukes, melons, spinach, lettuce, okra, collards, seven tops, kale,
When it’s 90% off, that’s practically free. I just buy a lot.

I have stuff I’ll probably never plant, like rattlesnake peas, purple hulls, got several lbs of that. Thought I’d plant that in a wild life plot.
Hulling/shelling peas is fuggin retarded and unproductive.

I've been to masada and it's a pretty impressive place. Most of the huge siege ramp the Roman's built is still in place. There are some huge cisterns cut in up top. Big spiral staircases going down into them. Its amazing to see.

Bb

What are good peas to grow? I've got to plant some in the next few days. I planted 20 tomato plants tonight.

Bb