“Blasphemy!” cries every homesteader everywhere. Listen, obviously you aren’t just going to chuck your lovingly seed saved, 10 year cultivated land race variety super hardy pest resistant AND tasty zucchini in the garbage. For Cripes sake, don’t do that.
What I am saying is, even though you may have spent oodles of cash on a bunch of seeds years ago, it might not behoove you to keep all of them. It might, in fact, cost more money to grow them! Whaaaat? Yes, my hardworking, busy friend.
Here’s my story
Six years ago, as of this post, my husband and I bought our little farm. At the time, we were both working full time desk jobs, I was very pregnant with our third child (I had her less than a month after closing), and we were completely renovating our current house which wouldn’t be sold for almost a year after. In my haste, I bought about a million seeds from a couple different heirloom seed companies. I had big plans and somehow thought that I would be working a huge new garden with a new baby during home renovations.
Spoiler, it didn’t happen.
Actually, I wasn’t able to use those seeds at our farm until they were two years old. Not only that but I had bought so many that I didn’t need to buy any more until recently! I also was given a quantity of seeds from a gardener friend who moved out of the country. The age of her seeds was questionable. I rolled with it for one more year after buying a few more packets of seeds which I knew weren’t germinating in my old stash.
Finally, I decided that NO MATTER HOW MUCH I HAD SPENT I WAS GOING TO HAVE TO THROW SOME AWAY!
But what ones? This is how I chose who gets to stay and who has to go.
Typical Seed Viability Timeline
Onion, Parsley and Parsnips have an average viability of only one year but Watermelon, Tomato, and Endive last 4-5 years. Weed seeds will last seemingly forever though. Totally not fair. This isn’t perfect science though, and a lot of this depends on harvesting and storage conditions. I separated those packets that didn’t germinate in the past and had a very low viability time.
However, now that we were down to one income and with three additional mouths to feed, I was still feeling attached to my old purchase. Here’s what I did next.
Test Germination
Most seeds only need moisture and heat to germinate. Label a plastic bag with the type of seed. Spread out 10 seeds on a paper towel. Fold it up so the seeds are in place and moisten the paper towel. Squeeze it out (you can also moisten the paper towel first but be sure to keep it away from your seed packets) and place it in a plastic bag or other container that well keep the moisture in. If the seeds require more warmth, you can put them on a heat mat. Note the germination time and be sure to check the seeds on time.
The percentage of germination can be determined by counting the seeds that have sprouted. Carefully open up your paper towel on a flat surface (it should still be moist). If one of ten have sprouted that is a 10% germination rate. If all 10 germinated, that is 100% germination. You can use this information to decide to THROW OUT the seeds or OVER SEED your trays at planting time.
Toss Those Seeds
If you have determined the seeds are not viable, throw them in the compost and recycle the seed packet if possible. DON’T donate them to a seed library or put them in a town “free section”. That will just cause some other budding gardener heartache. DO donate seeds that are viable that you don’t want to grow or you have an excess of. Any seeds that sprout that are edible can go in a salad or to the chickens (that is assuming you did this process ahead of time. If not, plant them).
Go into this gardening season with CONFIDENCE!
Testing your seed stores are the way to go. I hope my own experience encourages you to be mindful of your own time and resources. Wasting time and money is the doom of many a homesteader mom and going into seed starting shooting blanks ain’t the way to go sister. Test those seeds today.
With Love,
