Seed Viability

If you are like me, you buy too many seeds or get them as a "bonus" with your seed order. How do you know if these seeds are viable after some time has passed? Well, some seeds just cannot last more than a year, most notably lettuce and carrot seed. These are small seeds and smaller seeds have less moisture in them to keep them viable than do larger seeds. Tomato seeds can last for about 5 years, sometimes longer.

To determine seed viability, here's what you do: take two pieces of paper towel and dampen one with water. Place about 10 seeds on the wet towel on a plate. Cover with the top sheet of paper towel. Keep the paper towels moist, but not soaking wet. When the typical germination time has passed (check the seed pack for "days to germination") lift off the top paper towel and see how many have germinated. If none, you can assume the seed is dead. If one has germinated, that is a low, 10%, germination rate. If 5, that is 50% and you can use the seed, though you might plant it more thickly. 8 is a good rate of germination and the seed is considered viable. And, you can plant the germinated seed in most circumstances, giving you an early start! In fact, if the germination rate is low, you can do this with all the remaining seed from that pack to see how many you get, and plant the germinating seeds only.

Happy gardening!