Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[yarrow@sfo.com]

At 8:44 AM -0800 1/20/10, Debbie Mcdonald wrote:
> If you use older seeds, are the resultant plants inferior? I have 
> some ten year old seeds I thought I could share with strangers if 
> need be? or use some myself but they were not kept air tight or 
> cold, just house temp, not hot ever. They've been dry also. I know 
> not all seeds keep as long as some others. These are heirloom open 
> pollinated varieties.
> _______________________________________________


If the seed germinates, the plant will be good. Older seeds may be 
harder to germinate or may have lost vitality, but it depends on the 
species.

Tomato seeds, for instance, are harder to germinate once they get 
5-10 years old, but iirc people have germinated tomato seeds as old 
as 50 years.

Some references (including Suzanne Ashworth's book, iirc) give 
guidelines on seed longevity.