Seed-Storage Times and Viability

Virtually all home-garden-supply seed houses supply seed in far too great a quantity for the average home gardener (even those that famously sell small packets at lower prices). The home gardener will thus often want to save seeds bought one year for use in a later year. The question that must arise, then, is how long can we keep seeds and still expect them to germinate and grow when planted?

There are no exact answers: seeds are living things. Moreover, much depends on how the seed is stored. And there is no drop-dead cutoff point either, just reduced percentages of germination, and what is "too low" a germination rate may vary from gardener to gardener (and even fresh, newly bought seeds will not invariably germinate 100%).

Before going on to numbers, let us give you a few links that explain storage principles:

• Giving Seeds What They Need In Storage - good, commonsense information for the home gardener

• Seed Storage Tips - the basics for home gardeners

In short, best storage conditions are those that are the exact opposite of what makes a seed want to sprout. Seeds "know" to sprout when temperatures go up, and fluctuate greatly, when exposed to light, and when warm; so we want to keep storage seed in the dark, very dry, at a low, even temperature.

Those conditions are pretty easily achieved--surplus "ammo cases" are widely sold at low price, they make a watertight (and probably airtight) seal, and are of a size convenient for storing a lot of seed packets. Stash your seed packets in the case, drop in a packet or two of a dissicant (moisture-absorbing agent, like silica gel)--a thing also widely sold inexpensively--and put the box where it will stay at a cool (circa 50° F.) and steady temperature (you can, at an extreme, always bury it a foot or two down in the ground).

(Those are approximate, not exact, instructions--read the web pages linked above for more detail.)

But that doesn't answer the question. What does is the Tables below. The first is by rough longevity, the second sheerly alphabetical by vegetable. The data are our combining of information from several sources: those sources do not always agree perfectly, but we have taken the most conservative (fewest years) figues for these tables. But, again: these are rough estimates for well-stored seed.

(Or see the list sorted by years.)

If you find this site interesting or useful, please link to it on your site by cutting and pasting this HTML:
The <a href="http://growingtaste.com/"><b>Growing Taste</b></a> Vegetable-Gardening Site

--Site Directory--

Search this site, or the web

	Web growingtaste.com

• Background Information about the purposes and design of this site
  • Site Front Page
  • Introduction
    • Our Climate--
      • Our Location (USDA Zone Map)
      • Daily Weather Table
      • Our Freeze Risks
      • Our Garden Design
  • An Apologia: why one should cultivate one's garden
  • Deep-Bed Gardening (forthcoming)
  • Container Gardening (forthcoming)
  • Vegetarian and Organic Considerations (forthcoming)
  
  
  
• Recommended Crops for a home garden, by variety
  • Vegetable Varieties
  • Herb and Spice Varieties
  • Fruit and Berry Varieties
  
  
  
• Gardening information and aids
  • Tools and Equipment
    • Garden Tools (forthcoming)
    • Seed-Starting (forthcoming)
    • Colored Plastic Mulches
  • A Garden Calendar
  • Suppliers for Recommended Varieties
  • Estimated Seed Life in Storage
  
  
  
• Miscellaneous Information of interest to the home gardener
  • Links:
    • Vegetable-Gardening Links
    • On-Line Vegetable Seed & Plant Sellers
  • About Oxalic Acid in Vegetables
  • About Induction Cooking [now at a site of its own: The Induction Site]
  • So Who Are We?
  
  
  
• Books on "Vegetables" and vegetable gardening, both new and used
  In reality, we have six bookshops, one for each of the six national divisions of Amazon books; the links farther below are to the U.S.-based shop, but you can visit any of the six:
  

  ·  U.S. ·  Canada ·  U.K. ·  Germany  (only books in English listed) ·  France  (only books in English listed) ·  Japan  (only books in English listed)

  
  In our U.S.A. Bookshop:
  • About Our Bookshop - including many specific book recommendations
  • "Vegetables" Books Available New Today:
    • "Vegetables" Books By Title:
      (vegetables book titles beginning with the word "vegetables" are broken out separately in the alphabetical title lists below)
      A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | non-letters
    • The "Vegetables"-Books "Master List" (a very large file!)
  • Search For Any New Book at Amazon
  • Search For Any Used Book at Abebooks

Since you're growing your own vegetables and fruits, shouldn't you be cooking them in the best way possible? Visit The Induction Site to find out what that best way is!

	This site is one of The Owlcroft Company family of web sites. Please click on the link (or the owl) to see a menu of our other diverse user-friendly, helpful sites.		Like all our sites, this one is hosted at the highly regarded Pair Networks, whom we strongly recommend. We invite you to click on the Pair link (or their logo) for more information on getting your site or sites hosted on a first-class service.
	All Owlcroft systems run on Ubuntu Linux and we heartily recommend it to everyone--click on the link for more information.

Click here to send us email.

---

So that you need not be a victim of the "Browser Wars," we have taken the trouble to assure that
this web page is 100% compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium's
XHTML Protocol v1.0 (Transitional).
You can click on the logo below to test this page!

Not every browser renders proper HTML correctly (Internet Explorer famously does not);
We strongly recommend the widely praised free, multi-platform Firefox browser.
Click on the image below to read all about it.

(It's free!)

You loaded this page on Thursday, 31 March 2011, at 15:40 EDT.;
it was last modified on Monday, 23 February 2009, at 21:28 EST.

All content copyright ©1999 - 2011 by The Owlcroft Company