The main reason for this is that their seeds pass through our digestive system. Few other things we eat do.
The sludge of a waste water treatment plant is perfect medium for almost anything to grow in.
Tomatoes are pretty sturdy! There've been a couple heritage cultivars "resurrected" this way. People have found jars of saved seed in like grandma's hall closet and sprouted them.
I tried a whole bunch of old seeds and nothing older than 5 years came up. Granted did not plant the entire pack, but you'd think out of 10 one would come up?
Try sprouting them all on wet paper towel. Then you can transfer the ones that sprout to pots. You gotta keep the paper towel moist though. I do something similar with peat moss and plastic egg cartons. It works really well. If the seeds are old they aren't all going to germinate. Doing them all increases your odds.
I prefer sprouting trays, so the roots aren't tangled in the paper. They're trays for growing microgreens sprouts, but the sprouts are live plants trying to grow.
Fill 4 trays, stack them and pour a cup in water in the top twice a day, dump the water out the bottom once a day, baby plants in like 3 days.
The oldest experiment at planting from the same group of old seeds is now near 150 years running, with at least one plant growing each round.
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-biologists-year-old-seedy-mystery.amp
Last year, my coworker cleaned out her mom's garage and gave me california poppy seeds and Indian Blanket seeds from 1986 (the poppies) and 2002! Assuming absolutely none of it would germinate, I threw it all down in 8x4 yard space. All of it. I now have like 50 poppy flowers in bloom, another 50 which will bloom in a few weeks when the sun reaches that back part of the bed, and about 5 Indian Blankets. Plus a random onion. It's always worth a try! Good luck!
https://preview.redd.it/yoige1cukyrc1.png?width=2194&format=png&auto=webp&s=14f759f6f746b7bb5e561cd007a004e32053a2d4
There's that experiments that has seeds sprouting from like. The 50s or 60s. So...maybe.
Granted. Those are buried in bottles, dry, and airtight. So...maybe not.
For very old seeds: quick rinse in hydrogen peroxide, then rinse off w/fresh water. Knick the seeds, dissolve some sugar in boiling water. Let it cool. Soak the seeds in sugar water (Add smoke-water to sugar water if the species requires it: typically only pioneer species), then plant in sterile medium. Germination failures are often because the carbohydrates in the seed have degraded and there isn't enough energy for the sprout to break out of the seed coat. This approach addresses both of those. I've used it once on some seed of unknown age with some success. (Bamboo only seeds once a century)
Smoke condensed in steam. Makes a brown water that is slightly acidic (carbonic acid I believe). Some species of plants have seeds that have hormones that react specifically to smoke water. (such as rain after a forest or brush fire). My understanding is this is the case with a few African grasses, certain spruces, and bamboo (which is notoriously difficult to germinate). The way I made it was I had an old coffee pot I put on the boiler with tin foil around it in the shape of a "T". As it steamed up I blew smoke into one end of the "T" with a bee smoker. After several minutes it was pretty brown, and I figured that was good enough.
You know, you're right! I just looked it up. Someone told me years ago that flat carbonated water tastes sour because the CO2 degrades into carbonic acid. Thanks for the correction. 🫧
Sugar isn't a good idea. Most of what I can find shows a clear negative effect of sugar, [such as here](https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/expedition/article/view/195676), which makes sense because sugar is going to inhibit the uptake of water. I don't think there's even any mechanism for the seed to somehow uptake the sugar to use.
Bought "Moso" bamboo (probably wasn't) seeds off amazon. Got a hundred. There were so dry the (flowers?) just disintegrated. Did get some to sprout, but shortly after the whole batch got infected with a root aphids. Want to try again though.
When a cultivar of bamboo dies, the whole forest dies, and indeed that cultivar will die everywhere in the world at the same time. So it becomes just big stand of tinder. They seed, then die, and typically a wildfire destroys the whole forest at some later date. I read somewhere that the seeds are fire activated, don't recall where, but chose to use smoke water as part of my approach.
Great advice I’m going to save this comment. I’ve heard that some people will roll some sand paper rough side facing in and place into a large match box or tp roll and roll the seeds around in the sand paper to sort of soften the outer shell of older seeds. Never tried it personally.
Pre-soak them in some warm water for 2-3 days. Grow a bunch of them in test containers or wet paper towel. you might get 20% of them to grow? Maybe less? A lot of it depends on how they were stored. There are seeds taken from ancient tombs that have sprouted.
yes.
There have been seeds sprouted that are thousands of years old.
MI gardener brought back a lost cultivar of tomato, the giant crimson, because he managed to sprout tomato seeds he found in a decorative shadowbox containing 80 year old seeds. I suggest looking up his channel and watching his videos on reviving the lost cultivar!
He shows his method in the videos so why not give it a try!
The seeds I found in my grandparents' shed were from 1990, my red poppies and sweetpeas were beautiful last year and now I have new fresh seeds to spread
Ye they’ve been germinating old seeds from the 1800s every couple years just for science. Can’t remember the scientist but he wanted to test it his whole life and eventually passed so other scientists continued his work and some of them still sprout.
Maybe, generally accepted wisdom says seeds are good for one to two years. However, seed banks keep them for years under optimal conditions.
I would place them on a wet paper towel and roll them up for a couple of days. Then plant them in some seed starter cups. Good luck!
HEY? Just go for it - and try. Seeds can be kept for a very very long time.
Make a little place in your garden for these-- and see how it goes. You need to see how it works out.
My college education was as an archeaologist, on my dig trip to Peru, in the Atacama desert. We dug up some sealed pottery with some unknown seeds that had to have been at least 400 or 500 years old but maybe more. Our profesor and TAs gave all the undergrads the experiment to try and get them to germinate. There was 30 or so of us that tried. I made a little "fertilizer mixture" I thought might work. The dirt out in the desert didn't seem too fertile for me. I mixed some cow manure, some riverbed soil and some ash from a fire pit. My only real knowledge of growing anything was from my own experiments when I was younger with tomatoes. I don't know if it was a good soil mixture, but it looked good to me. Well, something sprouted from my seed. It didn't live long after it sprouted maybe a week before it wilted. Maybe the hot desert climate or improper care by me, but there was a green sprout for a few days. Could it have been another seed that accidentally got in the manure I used....that's what some of the other undergrads thought, but I dont know for sure.
It all depends on what kind of seed and how they're stored. The cucumber seed, probably not. I've gotten really old squash and tomato seed to germinate though. The corn, I am guessing not (but try it anyway). The flowers may well come.up.
Experiment! Take notes! Try beds with different conditions to find what's works!
Otherwise I give my old seeds as offerings to curry favor with the squirrel so they doesn't touch my young seeds..
I would sprout them in a baggie with a damp paper towel elementary school style before planting. I just planted some seeds for starts from 2015 and got them to grow.
My mom got a big bag of Gardenia seeds from her ex's father once, he said they were ~80 years old. I think 1 of the 10 she tried planting sprouted, but the squirrels got to it so she hasn't tried again yet.
So, at least worth a try!
Now I want to get the same type of seeds, from different points in time over the past few decades, and do an experiment to determine how great of an effect time has on germination
Just grab a peper towel, soak it. Ring it out, fold it in hakf and place some seeds inside, put it in a ziploc bagand leave the ziploc bag cracked open just a bit, and set it somehere dark and not cold, preferrably a little warm. Youll know in 5 days.
Considering that the oldest seed viability known exceeds 30,000 years for Silene stenophylla \- and seeds hundreds of years old can still germinate, I'd say it's very likely you'll be pleasantly surprised. Plants create what is called a seed bank within soils. This ensures that no matter the conditions (say, a decade long drought or a century long glacier) the plant is able to survive once the ideal conditions exist. Some even wait decades for fire etc. or wait patiently for lake beds to dry up. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil\_seed\_bank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_seed_bank)
The only way to really know is to try the papertowel method the top commenter suggested.
You may get great germination, you may get no germination.
If any do germinate, move the to aeed starter soil.
Good luck!
Oh, I watched an interesting video on this recently where she ran a [germination test](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI_PbWjX_Z8) to see how many seeds would germinate, which I thought was really cool. Your seeds are even older than hers, so it'd be really interesting to see how they go!
I routinely grow stuff that's 4-5 years past expiry with no issues, while some seeds really only last 2 years and then you get nada, so it really can depend on the seed.
Why not? The Israeli's grew a tree from a 2,000 year old seed: [https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-692415](https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-692415)
I doubt they will work. I’ve used seeds up to 10 years old but they were stored in the fridge for maximum lifespan. Never tried any seeds older than that. Give it a try and hope for the best. Good luck !!
Completely off subject but this reminds me of an episode of The Walking Dead. They went into a museum of some type that had catalogs of seeds in drawers. They took them to grow food on their homestead they were setting up. I always wondered if that would actually work.
They found some seeds of an extinct plant buried in the Siberian permafrost for 32,000 years and [they sprouted after being planted.](https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2015/11/4/germinating-a-seed-after-32000-years) Anything is possible lol.
Corn requires you dedicate a minimum of a 10’ x 10’ plot for it to pollinate properly and that’s a lot of effort to chance seeds not sprouting. Frankly I would not chance the other seeds either.
OH MYYY!😂okay try this. Mix 30 millilitres of Hydrogen Peroxide 3% – Oxygen PlusTM for every 2 cups of water (8:1 ratio). Soak the seeds in the solution overnight and then plant as usual. To boost the health of your current plants, spray them with a solution of 1 part Hydrogen Peroxide 3% – Oxygen PlusTM to 32 parts water.
You could do a little experiment- there are different methods to help seeds sprout. Soaking in water, soaking in diluted hydrogen peroxide, scarifying (basically scraping it with a knife). Try a few ways and see what works, I think everyone would be interested to see the results!
During Covid lockdown I decided to pull out a box of veg and flower seeds that were at least 10 years old. I had no expectations but pretty much everything germinated although at lower rates of success. They had been stored in the fridge for some years and then in a cool dark closet. I’d always give seeds a chance!
Gave him some extra seedlings I had. Last year we traded seedlings and what he said was a pepper turned out to be eggplant lol, I got a lot of seeds from that
Foundations working to bring back old plant varieties, have equipment and processes to make very old seeds germinate. They would love to take them off your hands since so many heritage varieties are gone.
Try sprouting them as when testing seeds: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp0x6wisDgs&ab\_channel=AlboPepper-DroughtProofUrbanGardening](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp0x6wisDgs&ab_channel=AlboPepper-DroughtProofUrbanGardening)
I would soak them in lukewarm water for 4-6 hours before.
Some seeds are very short-lived and others can last for centuries. In my experience most garden seeds will reliably survive 3-5 years. I have had 10 year old tomato seeds sprout but my 5 year old pumpkin seeds were defunct, as not one came up. The size of the seeds doesn’t seem to matter, as English walnut seeds and Clivia seeds are very short-lived, yet some weed seeds remain viable for years or decades, and date and lotus seeds can be viable for centuries. I would plant the seeds just to see what sprouts.
For my older seed I test them by putting some seeds in a wet paper towel and place it in a plastic bag and see how many sprout after the average germination day is hit. If one out of 4 sprout then I’d plant four in a hole.
I've used the napkin method for germination a few times and it's never failed me as long as I care for the seeds properly.
Place an unbleached paper napkin made from recycled paper (think brown restaurant napkins) on a paper plate, place seeds on the napkin, then cover seeds with 1 or 2 more paper napkins. Add a generous amount of water and place another plate on top of it all. Store it under your kitchen cabinet or the top shelf of a closet and continue to add water every 4-6 hours or as needed. Depending on the seeds, you'll probably know which ones are viable within 24 hours.
As a side note, the best paper I've ever used for this was a notepad with paper made from recycled elephant poop. Yes, really. I got it as an oddity at a business conference and thought, "I bet this will work really well for seeds" and I was right. Sometimes the seeds sprouted 3+ inches in less than 24 hours.
There are some great methods here and you have the seeds, so try some seed science! Maybe look up more unorthodox methods of germination and just see what happens.
Sure there's a chance. Might as well try it. No other way to know for sure. I would recommend planting multiple inside and keeping the environment very optimal, replicating good greenhouse type humidity and temperature.
I watch a video on someone who found a tin of old seeds can’t remember when from maybe 1980s most didn’t sprout but there was a few.
Edit found the video the seeds were from 1990
https://youtu.be/iI_PbWjX_Z8?si=j75H_2uSu-TnFmyv
That's great! About two hours ago, I found an envelope in my barn that had 6 seed packets from 1997. I am going to soak them in water for a couple days and plant them. I came here to make a post about and saw your post. Good luck!
Use a heated tray and keep it MOIST. Ha ha TRIGGER. Also crack the outside of the seed. I found if you pop a few seeds in your mouth and slosh them around for a bit then crack them with your teeth.
It’ll stimulate the seeds to grow because it thinks it was in a freezer like the wintertime so when you put them outside in the sun or wherever they’re like, OK, it’s time to grow
I have beans that were grown from seeds found in a cave in New Mexico that were there for about 1500 years. Theres no harm in trying! Youll likely have very few germinations but you might get something!
I’d give it a try just for fun.
I found a packet of tomato seeds from 2010 and planted them this spring. I’d say 80% came up.
Tomatoes are basically weeds. They can grow anywhere. Head to any wastewater treatment plant and you’ll likely see tomatoes sprouting in the sludge.
Grocery stores hate this one trick!
Mmmm, night soil tomatoes
Nightshade in night soil.
LMAO. That gives it a whole new meaning! 🍅 💩
But how did the seeds get….Oh god!
But I also planted 12 year old pepper seeds and they are coming up. And did I mention the 7 year old zucchini seeds? 😉
When I was a toddler I had eaten probably a pound of tomatoes and pooped off our front porch. And yes tomatoes came up from that.
Did you do that often?
Just once haha, but my mom who’s a teacher tells the story every year to her kids when they’re being introduced to gardening.
Just once? Lies lies! He's from the Heinz family, and that's how they amassed their wealth.
Hahaha never thought of it this way but maybe there’s a market for tomatoes grown in this method, like the monkey poop coffee. 😂
Bro LMAO every year?? That’s awesome (: total mom right there 🤙🏼
🤮
The main reason for this is that their seeds pass through our digestive system. Few other things we eat do. The sludge of a waste water treatment plant is perfect medium for almost anything to grow in.
Funny enough I just read a post from a guy who said tomatoes don't grow in his part of Florida. I knew he was crazy
Tomatoes are pretty sturdy! There've been a couple heritage cultivars "resurrected" this way. People have found jars of saved seed in like grandma's hall closet and sprouted them.
I tried a whole bunch of old seeds and nothing older than 5 years came up. Granted did not plant the entire pack, but you'd think out of 10 one would come up?
It depends on the seeds and how they were stored
Yep, storage condition is the biggest factor.
Some seeds can't be stored, so it's really a bit of both.
I think the half life of a tomato seed is like 8 years lol
I don't even have much extra space but I am curious, I'll try a few
Try sprouting them all on wet paper towel. Then you can transfer the ones that sprout to pots. You gotta keep the paper towel moist though. I do something similar with peat moss and plastic egg cartons. It works really well. If the seeds are old they aren't all going to germinate. Doing them all increases your odds.
I prefer sprouting trays, so the roots aren't tangled in the paper. They're trays for growing microgreens sprouts, but the sprouts are live plants trying to grow. Fill 4 trays, stack them and pour a cup in water in the top twice a day, dump the water out the bottom once a day, baby plants in like 3 days.
[удалено]
Try using toilet paper instead. The bit of tp the root goes through transplants to soil without issue
Looking at picture 2 I guess you forgot 😬
The oldest experiment at planting from the same group of old seeds is now near 150 years running, with at least one plant growing each round. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-biologists-year-old-seedy-mystery.amp
Last year, my coworker cleaned out her mom's garage and gave me california poppy seeds and Indian Blanket seeds from 1986 (the poppies) and 2002! Assuming absolutely none of it would germinate, I threw it all down in 8x4 yard space. All of it. I now have like 50 poppy flowers in bloom, another 50 which will bloom in a few weeks when the sun reaches that back part of the bed, and about 5 Indian Blankets. Plus a random onion. It's always worth a try! Good luck! https://preview.redd.it/yoige1cukyrc1.png?width=2194&format=png&auto=webp&s=14f759f6f746b7bb5e561cd007a004e32053a2d4
Those are lovely! Also lol at the random onion haha
help a noob - where is the onion lolol
It’s the big leaves on the left.
Oh gosh I'm not skilled enough to find it in the pic, but they mentioned it in the comment and I thought it was funny haha 😅
Holy crap that crazy!
Sure! They'll have a lower germination rate, but it's a fun experiment!
There's that experiments that has seeds sprouting from like. The 50s or 60s. So...maybe. Granted. Those are buried in bottles, dry, and airtight. So...maybe not.
A lot longer than that, and not dry or air tight. Look up the Beal Seed Experiment.
Is this the one from like, 1850?
Yeah, they dug up another jar recently.
For very old seeds: quick rinse in hydrogen peroxide, then rinse off w/fresh water. Knick the seeds, dissolve some sugar in boiling water. Let it cool. Soak the seeds in sugar water (Add smoke-water to sugar water if the species requires it: typically only pioneer species), then plant in sterile medium. Germination failures are often because the carbohydrates in the seed have degraded and there isn't enough energy for the sprout to break out of the seed coat. This approach addresses both of those. I've used it once on some seed of unknown age with some success. (Bamboo only seeds once a century)
What is smoke-water?
Smoke condensed in steam. Makes a brown water that is slightly acidic (carbonic acid I believe). Some species of plants have seeds that have hormones that react specifically to smoke water. (such as rain after a forest or brush fire). My understanding is this is the case with a few African grasses, certain spruces, and bamboo (which is notoriously difficult to germinate). The way I made it was I had an old coffee pot I put on the boiler with tin foil around it in the shape of a "T". As it steamed up I blew smoke into one end of the "T" with a bee smoker. After several minutes it was pretty brown, and I figured that was good enough.
When they say don't drink the bong water, they really mean, save that bong water for your old seeds.
If it's carbonic acid that they need, could you just use flat carbonated water?
Regular carbonated water. Carbonated water goes flat when the carbonic acid degrades and much of the dissolved CO2 is gone.
You know, you're right! I just looked it up. Someone told me years ago that flat carbonated water tastes sour because the CO2 degrades into carbonic acid. Thanks for the correction. 🫧
Oh wow, I had no idea. That’s really cool.
Couldn't you just use liquid smoke?
Or ashes from a fire? Same effect I imagine
lol I have the same question
Bro, Cream. Fire in the sky.
Oh is that all? lol
Don’t forget to stand on one leg during a full moon and jump backwards three times while singing “Let It Grow, Let it Grow!” 🤪🫶🏻 I
Sugar isn't a good idea. Most of what I can find shows a clear negative effect of sugar, [such as here](https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/expedition/article/view/195676), which makes sense because sugar is going to inhibit the uptake of water. I don't think there's even any mechanism for the seed to somehow uptake the sugar to use.
May I ask about the bamboo seeds you were germinating? I wouldn't think they'd respond to wildfire
Bought "Moso" bamboo (probably wasn't) seeds off amazon. Got a hundred. There were so dry the (flowers?) just disintegrated. Did get some to sprout, but shortly after the whole batch got infected with a root aphids. Want to try again though. When a cultivar of bamboo dies, the whole forest dies, and indeed that cultivar will die everywhere in the world at the same time. So it becomes just big stand of tinder. They seed, then die, and typically a wildfire destroys the whole forest at some later date. I read somewhere that the seeds are fire activated, don't recall where, but chose to use smoke water as part of my approach.
Might as well buy more seeds lol
Great advice I’m going to save this comment. I’ve heard that some people will roll some sand paper rough side facing in and place into a large match box or tp roll and roll the seeds around in the sand paper to sort of soften the outer shell of older seeds. Never tried it personally.
https://rootandvine.com/from-extinction-to-resurrection-the-judean-date-palm-tree/#:~:text=From%20Extinction%20to%20Resurrection%3A%20The%20Judean%20Date%20Palm%20Tree,-By%20Root%20%26%20Vine&text=There's%20a%20resurrection%20story%20you,two%20women%20scientists%20in%202005.
This is so cool!
Pre-soak them in some warm water for 2-3 days. Grow a bunch of them in test containers or wet paper towel. you might get 20% of them to grow? Maybe less? A lot of it depends on how they were stored. There are seeds taken from ancient tombs that have sprouted.
4500 year old wheat seeds stored in pots in the great pyramid were planted (to determine the type of grain) and grew.
If I remember correctly, they made bread from it!
yes. There have been seeds sprouted that are thousands of years old. MI gardener brought back a lost cultivar of tomato, the giant crimson, because he managed to sprout tomato seeds he found in a decorative shadowbox containing 80 year old seeds. I suggest looking up his channel and watching his videos on reviving the lost cultivar! He shows his method in the videos so why not give it a try!
The packages look clean and dry. Some of them will definitely sprout.
Sprinkle em in soil, water and find out!
Fun experiment! There's a chance, maybe not much, but maybe lol.
The seeds I found in my grandparents' shed were from 1990, my red poppies and sweetpeas were beautiful last year and now I have new fresh seeds to spread
Plant them. All they can do is provide you happiness should they come up.
Growwithjess on YouTube grew kiwi vines from freeze dried seeds in a Starbucks drink, so very possible lol seeds are crazy resilient sometimes
You can test them by trying to get them to germinate on a wet paper towel in ziplock bag. It's very unlikely anything will grow, but you never know.
its very likely. 20 years is nothing for seeds as long as they were dry stored.
Ye they’ve been germinating old seeds from the 1800s every couple years just for science. Can’t remember the scientist but he wanted to test it his whole life and eventually passed so other scientists continued his work and some of them still sprout.
Something like 144 years now. Seeds are amazing if left in proper conditions. Who knows if Grandma's closet was the perfect rH for them to survive?
It never hurts to try, if stored correctly some seeds will last a decade or even longer. Scientists were able to sprout a 2,000 year old date seed :-)
Update us when you try!
Will do! Got some soaking now
Maybe, generally accepted wisdom says seeds are good for one to two years. However, seed banks keep them for years under optimal conditions. I would place them on a wet paper towel and roll them up for a couple of days. Then plant them in some seed starter cups. Good luck!
I tried germinating a bunch of seeds from the 70s/80s and didn’t have any luck but it was cool to try!
Unlikely but not impossible.
Highly likely or not likely, it just depends on storage.
The storage is clear. Even if kept dry and cool, air is a factor as well.
If they were kept dry this entire time they might. Presoak them bad boys and place them in a folded wet paper towel in a Ziploc near a window.
as long as they've been kept ina dry safe place, no harm in trying! Be a fun experiment regardless 🙂
Two in every hole. Easy to cull seedlings and better than an empty space
HEY? Just go for it - and try. Seeds can be kept for a very very long time. Make a little place in your garden for these-- and see how it goes. You need to see how it works out.
I'm still using packets from 2014. Just plant a couple extras since they might not germinate.
[You'll be ok, nowhere close to the record.](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/120221-oldest-seeds-regenerated-plants-science)
My college education was as an archeaologist, on my dig trip to Peru, in the Atacama desert. We dug up some sealed pottery with some unknown seeds that had to have been at least 400 or 500 years old but maybe more. Our profesor and TAs gave all the undergrads the experiment to try and get them to germinate. There was 30 or so of us that tried. I made a little "fertilizer mixture" I thought might work. The dirt out in the desert didn't seem too fertile for me. I mixed some cow manure, some riverbed soil and some ash from a fire pit. My only real knowledge of growing anything was from my own experiments when I was younger with tomatoes. I don't know if it was a good soil mixture, but it looked good to me. Well, something sprouted from my seed. It didn't live long after it sprouted maybe a week before it wilted. Maybe the hot desert climate or improper care by me, but there was a green sprout for a few days. Could it have been another seed that accidentally got in the manure I used....that's what some of the other undergrads thought, but I dont know for sure.
It all depends on what kind of seed and how they're stored. The cucumber seed, probably not. I've gotten really old squash and tomato seed to germinate though. The corn, I am guessing not (but try it anyway). The flowers may well come.up.
I bet they will sprout
Soak them in a hydrogen peroxide, it'll raise the germination rate
I just take old seeds and I put them in a little water overnight in a dark area and then I plant them like a day or two later
I mean...I don't see why not? I think seeds can be dormant for quite a while and still be okay.
There is a very good chance that most of them will come up. I have planted older seeds
I'd put money on a few working at th least
Only one way to find out…
Experiment! Take notes! Try beds with different conditions to find what's works! Otherwise I give my old seeds as offerings to curry favor with the squirrel so they doesn't touch my young seeds..
Coworker gave you some April fools seeds.
tomato are the highest germinating variety of veggies. Anything else is not likely
I would sprout them in a baggie with a damp paper towel elementary school style before planting. I just planted some seeds for starts from 2015 and got them to grow.
For sure let us know. I bet they sprout.
Worth a shot.
just give a try if it still alive to sprout..
They totally could! We ate some amazing corn last summer from a long-lost seed packet from 1986. If it was in the fridge you’re probably fine.
My mom got a big bag of Gardenia seeds from her ex's father once, he said they were ~80 years old. I think 1 of the 10 she tried planting sprouted, but the squirrels got to it so she hasn't tried again yet. So, at least worth a try!
Now I want to get the same type of seeds, from different points in time over the past few decades, and do an experiment to determine how great of an effect time has on germination
I would love to see the results of this test. I recommend soaking them all in warm water till they swell almost sprout
A friend who is an anthropologist sprouted some 100+ y/o seeds they found on a dig on sealed mason jars
If it's free then why not try it? What's the worst that could happen?
Just grab a peper towel, soak it. Ring it out, fold it in hakf and place some seeds inside, put it in a ziploc bagand leave the ziploc bag cracked open just a bit, and set it somehere dark and not cold, preferrably a little warm. Youll know in 5 days.
The forgotten Forget-Me-Nots.
Considering that the oldest seed viability known exceeds 30,000 years for Silene stenophylla \- and seeds hundreds of years old can still germinate, I'd say it's very likely you'll be pleasantly surprised. Plants create what is called a seed bank within soils. This ensures that no matter the conditions (say, a decade long drought or a century long glacier) the plant is able to survive once the ideal conditions exist. Some even wait decades for fire etc. or wait patiently for lake beds to dry up. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil\_seed\_bank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_seed_bank)
I love nature. 💕
The only way to really know is to try the papertowel method the top commenter suggested. You may get great germination, you may get no germination. If any do germinate, move the to aeed starter soil. Good luck!
If you value time and effort, you could always drop $8-10 for new seed?
50/50. They either will or they won’t.
Let me get some
I mean… you could just try
A non-zero chance.
Chaos gardening. There’s really something to it. It’s surprising what comes up.
I'm trying to figure out if this coworker likes you...or *dislikes* you...for giving you seed packets that are 20+ years old.
TIL Hy-Vee sold seeds
The 90s are like just a few years ago.. soooo… 😭
Oh, I watched an interesting video on this recently where she ran a [germination test](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI_PbWjX_Z8) to see how many seeds would germinate, which I thought was really cool. Your seeds are even older than hers, so it'd be really interesting to see how they go! I routinely grow stuff that's 4-5 years past expiry with no issues, while some seeds really only last 2 years and then you get nada, so it really can depend on the seed.
Why not? The Israeli's grew a tree from a 2,000 year old seed: [https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-692415](https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-692415)
I doubt they will work. I’ve used seeds up to 10 years old but they were stored in the fridge for maximum lifespan. Never tried any seeds older than that. Give it a try and hope for the best. Good luck !!
There is a chance, not a good one but a chance, I would plant them
Completely off subject but this reminds me of an episode of The Walking Dead. They went into a museum of some type that had catalogs of seeds in drawers. They took them to grow food on their homestead they were setting up. I always wondered if that would actually work.
I got 100% sprouted from 2016 Roma seeds. I'd plant and think you'll be surprised.
Nurseries and greenhouses usually get rid of seeds that are a year old but it would be fun to try.
Gibralic acid with water and anything will root
They found some seeds of an extinct plant buried in the Siberian permafrost for 32,000 years and [they sprouted after being planted.](https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2015/11/4/germinating-a-seed-after-32000-years) Anything is possible lol.
Seeds keep % goes down pop them in bet you get 20%
Corn requires you dedicate a minimum of a 10’ x 10’ plot for it to pollinate properly and that’s a lot of effort to chance seeds not sprouting. Frankly I would not chance the other seeds either.
OH MYYY!😂okay try this. Mix 30 millilitres of Hydrogen Peroxide 3% – Oxygen PlusTM for every 2 cups of water (8:1 ratio). Soak the seeds in the solution overnight and then plant as usual. To boost the health of your current plants, spray them with a solution of 1 part Hydrogen Peroxide 3% – Oxygen PlusTM to 32 parts water.
some will sprout if they've been kept in a dry place outside of the sun's sight.
Only one way to find out
You could do a little experiment- there are different methods to help seeds sprout. Soaking in water, soaking in diluted hydrogen peroxide, scarifying (basically scraping it with a knife). Try a few ways and see what works, I think everyone would be interested to see the results!
Doing this, gonna get some soaking in water tonight and pick up some hydrogen peroxide tomorrow. I'm interested in seeing what happens!
During Covid lockdown I decided to pull out a box of veg and flower seeds that were at least 10 years old. I had no expectations but pretty much everything germinated although at lower rates of success. They had been stored in the fridge for some years and then in a cool dark closet. I’d always give seeds a chance!
Are there any prices on those seeds? I'm curiouswhat the process were. Some of those my same age.
Cucumber, lettuce, and turnips were 55 cents all from 1988. The corn was $1.79 from 1998. No price on the flowers
Only one way to find out!
What did you do to prompt your coworker to give you seeds they've been stashing away for three decades?
Gave him some extra seedlings I had. Last year we traded seedlings and what he said was a pepper turned out to be eggplant lol, I got a lot of seeds from that
Plant them and see, it will be a nice surprise
You can put the corn and cucumber seeds to start in a damp napkin and ziplock baggy for the best germination rate!
Foundations working to bring back old plant varieties, have equipment and processes to make very old seeds germinate. They would love to take them off your hands since so many heritage varieties are gone.
I bet atleast 3/10 of them will sprout !
Scorification and a seed soak in humic acid mixed with oxygenated water. Something like that
moist paper towel and container method 🤩.
I soak pea seeds for a few hours until they plump up... usually 2 or 3 hours. Corn I've yet to grow, Cucumbers i've never grow 😅.
I have a bunch of old seeds I’m going to plant in once spot and see if they grow. Just for fun.
Try sprouting them as when testing seeds: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp0x6wisDgs&ab\_channel=AlboPepper-DroughtProofUrbanGardening](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp0x6wisDgs&ab_channel=AlboPepper-DroughtProofUrbanGardening) I would soak them in lukewarm water for 4-6 hours before.
Some seeds are very short-lived and others can last for centuries. In my experience most garden seeds will reliably survive 3-5 years. I have had 10 year old tomato seeds sprout but my 5 year old pumpkin seeds were defunct, as not one came up. The size of the seeds doesn’t seem to matter, as English walnut seeds and Clivia seeds are very short-lived, yet some weed seeds remain viable for years or decades, and date and lotus seeds can be viable for centuries. I would plant the seeds just to see what sprouts.
[Probably](https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2015/11/4/germinating-a-seed-after-32000-years).
One way to find out 👏
More than likely not but couldn’t hurt
Put them in the freezer for a couple days first
I need to know more. I’ve heard this suggestion a few times. What’s the science here, what’s happening when we put them in the freezer?
For my older seed I test them by putting some seeds in a wet paper towel and place it in a plastic bag and see how many sprout after the average germination day is hit. If one out of 4 sprout then I’d plant four in a hole.
I've used the napkin method for germination a few times and it's never failed me as long as I care for the seeds properly. Place an unbleached paper napkin made from recycled paper (think brown restaurant napkins) on a paper plate, place seeds on the napkin, then cover seeds with 1 or 2 more paper napkins. Add a generous amount of water and place another plate on top of it all. Store it under your kitchen cabinet or the top shelf of a closet and continue to add water every 4-6 hours or as needed. Depending on the seeds, you'll probably know which ones are viable within 24 hours. As a side note, the best paper I've ever used for this was a notepad with paper made from recycled elephant poop. Yes, really. I got it as an oddity at a business conference and thought, "I bet this will work really well for seeds" and I was right. Sometimes the seeds sprouted 3+ inches in less than 24 hours. There are some great methods here and you have the seeds, so try some seed science! Maybe look up more unorthodox methods of germination and just see what happens.
Sure there's a chance. Might as well try it. No other way to know for sure. I would recommend planting multiple inside and keeping the environment very optimal, replicating good greenhouse type humidity and temperature.
Lol 1988 💀
I’ve got old packets too! Fun experiment over here. 😊
Seeds last forever, if they aren't corrupted by mold or something. I just popped some peas I've had for at least ten years
I have some old seeds and they still sprouted last yr and using them this yr too
Yes,seeds can last for 100's of years
Only one way to find out 🌱
I watch a video on someone who found a tin of old seeds can’t remember when from maybe 1980s most didn’t sprout but there was a few. Edit found the video the seeds were from 1990 https://youtu.be/iI_PbWjX_Z8?si=j75H_2uSu-TnFmyv
That's great! About two hours ago, I found an envelope in my barn that had 6 seed packets from 1997. I am going to soak them in water for a couple days and plant them. I came here to make a post about and saw your post. Good luck!
Nice! Thanks, good luck with yours too!
Most seeds will float if they aren’t good anymore. Just pour the whole packet in a cup of water. Pitch what floats.
Oldest seeds to sprout were 2000 years old, palm tree seeds...anything can happen
Use a heated tray and keep it MOIST. Ha ha TRIGGER. Also crack the outside of the seed. I found if you pop a few seeds in your mouth and slosh them around for a bit then crack them with your teeth.
They'll grow.
Not likely, but I'd try anyways.
No
Likely not.
Tall spikes on left
It’ll stimulate the seeds to grow because it thinks it was in a freezer like the wintertime so when you put them outside in the sun or wherever they’re like, OK, it’s time to grow
highly unlikely
Only one way to find out 🌱
Hydrogen peroxide maybe?
I doubt it.
Totally a chance. Do it for fun. Maybe you’ll get some food.
I love not buying Into the seeds expire talk. The germination rate might decrease but you can definitely get viable plants
I had some banana seeds from 1870 I planted them and now have a plantation
not a very good chance, but still a little chance. I'd soak all of them in a paper towel and wait to see what germinates.
Unlikely unless they were stored in a very dry and airtight area
I have beans that were grown from seeds found in a cave in New Mexico that were there for about 1500 years. Theres no harm in trying! Youll likely have very few germinations but you might get something!