Life expectancy of vegetable seeds

[jcrous]

I have recently started seeds again to maintain my vegetable seeds only as I was inactive for three years due to surgery. I cannot squat or bend properly, not to talk about walking. I had my expected last surgery 6 weeks ago and expect to be mobile with on crutch withing another two months and off both still this season.

I have read at several web pages that seed life expectancy is based on the figures given at this web page:
https://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07221.html

I do not agree with this figures as my melons of 2006 germinated, my cucumbers of 2005 and later germinated, as well as my 2006 tomatoes.
The cukes were therfor 8 years old. I believe they will germinate for the next few years as well. They are however slower than new ones, but still growing.

I am still waiting for my peppers to see what happened there. It is still too early for them to germinate.

I dry my seeds properly, and seal the withing a ziplock type of pouch with a pinch of Dithane M45 (wettable sulpher powder and Bexadust (worm powder) to prevent insect eggs to hatch or fungus to grow. I store it in a cool store room, inside a black, light tight plastic crate.

I am therefore looking for more information in this regard. Several other web pages, fact sheets or notes give more or less the same exact figures. Therefore I find it as incorrect. The book Seed to seed give different figure and I feel it is more correct. I would appreciate references to more information or reading.

[digitS']

Johan, there is a tendency amongst academics & "industry" to cite research again and again. That's probably okay.

This information, at least, credits the original authors of, what I believe to be, those numbers that CSU has put out: "Lorenz and Maynard, 1980"

They also cite "Vilmorin-Andrieux, 1856" for "average life-span." What do you think, do you want to reference research from the mid-19th century?

Seed Processing and Storage, Syngenta pdf

"Organic" advice, it says . . .

Steve
who has now used up his daily quota of quotation marks

[rainbowgardener]

I think all of us around here have experience of successfully germinating seeds that are 5 - 10 yrs old. It does depend on seeds of what (some plant seeds hold their viability better than others) and how they are stored (cold dry storage works best). In my experience, after the first say three years, germination rate does start going down. Seeds that would give near 100% germination when fresh may get down to 50% by five-six years.

And of course we all know the stories of seeds that archeologists have found in desert or arctic conditions that have germinated after millennia.

[hendi_alex]

I use my seeds for years and have never noticed any significant decline in germination except for spinach and cilantro. And even with spinach and cilantro, I'm not sure that the poor germination was related to viability of seeds or planting/growing conditions. We keep our unused seeds in the freezer, in plastic bags.

[jcrous]

My 2006 sweet peppers came up toaday (1st one) after 12 days. very early but still there.

After I have saved the new seed, I am going to keep the old seed and test how long they will last!

The temperatures I store my seeds at is between 10 and 25 degrees of Celcius.

[jcrous]

The majority of newly bought peppers came up between 10 and 12 days.

[jcrous]

I have made another observation. I monitored for a few days befor making this reply. The cucumber seeds of the 2009 year are about 4 inches hing, where the ones from 2006 are about 2 inches hing. However the seed lobe leaves are of equal size and also the first true leaves. After transplant, both progress the same.

However the 2005 seeds of the Soyu variety are now only half an inch high and the seed lobe leves ar a quarter inch long. They grow very slow.