Old seed

onefarmer · Sep 6, 2013

Last year I found a bag of clover and timothy seed my dad bought at an estate sale years ago. The sale was for my grandfathers uncle back around 1975. The bags were tagged with the years 1950 and 1955. So for fun I planted it.

Any bets on if it grows?

jon f mn · Sep 6, 2013

I bet it grows fine.

Bill(Wis) · Sep 6, 2013

Egyption wheat seed found in the pyramids grew just fine.

Richard G. · Sep 6, 2013

I think the clover will be fine. I have my doubts on the timothy. Hard seed holds up well.
Richard in NW SC

teddy52food · Sep 6, 2013

If it is anything like garden seed , it won't grow.

Mark W. · Sep 6, 2013

Share you results.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 6, 2013

It won't grow, at least the clover won't from my experience. I planted several bushels some several year's ago just to get rid of it. It wasn't that old and never got a seed to sprout. Of course different storage condition's has some effect on the seed.

DairyFarmerInMA · Sep 6, 2013

don't forget inoculant to give it a real chance.

El Toro · Sep 6, 2013

Those years bring back memories as I was in high school until 1951 and was discharged from the Army in 1955. I was rehired back with the government as a returning vet. I was married too.
Hal
PS: I was furloughed for the draft in 1953.

Ken Macfarlane · Sep 6, 2013

I planted some 10 year old triple mix just to test the repaired meters on my brillion, the clover was the only stuff to germinate.

RodinNS · Sep 6, 2013

I suspect a good deal of it will grow... Some things are more viable than others... but when you see weed seed that's been in the ground around here for 80-100 years... and you stir it up and that grows... tells you that some seed can stay dormant a LONG time.

Rod

IHRedRules · Sep 6, 2013

At Michigan State, they have had the Beal Bottle Experiment going since 1879. Dr. Beal buried a variety of seeds in bottles, and would dig them up every so often and see if they still germinated. The most recent dig was 2000 and they still had some species germinate. So some seeds have kept 120+ years and are still viable. I guess the only way to know for sure is to plant it and see what happens.

showcrop · Sep 6, 2013

There are various seed banks around the world that insure that plant species don't go extinct. I read a book on one probably fifteen years ago. They not only keep them they plant them and renew the seed on a regular basis like maybe every 25 years. Every year they do so many thousand varieties.

JerryS · Sep 6, 2013

My Googling efforts told me that the story of Egyptian pyramid seed germinating was a hoax. It did say that the oldest mature seed that has grown into a viable plant was a Judean date palm seed about 2,000 years old, recovered from excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada in Israel. It was germinated in 2005.

36 Coupe · Sep 6, 2013

The common seed that we use has a short life span.While beans seem to have a long span parsnips are good for 1 year.Corn gets iffy after 5 years.At 75 I dont have many more gardens in me so I wont mess with old seed

onefarmer · Sep 6, 2013

More info on the old seed.

I have no idea how it was stored up until my father got a hold of it 1975ish. Since then it was stored in a kind of attic, between a steep insulated roof and a partition on a plywood floor, not cooled in the summer so probably got quite warm, and not heated, but not so cold as to freeze.

I'm not holding out much hope of any germination, but it'll be fun to see.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 6, 2013

if you don't give a sh!t, and throw it out into your lawn, every darn seed will sprout. If you plant it in a field, carefully prepared, none will sprout. Meet in the middle, just broadcast it on a pasture, what can it hurt?

teddy52food · Sep 6, 2013

Sprinkle some on a paper towel. Roll it up & fasten with a few rubber bands. Wet the towel & put it in a plastic bag to keep it from drying out. Check it in a week or so to see any sprouts.

onefarmer · Sep 6, 2013

Hey guys it's already planted! I put it on what was a wheat field this year. It didn't go far but it's fun just to see if 50+ year old seed will grow.

On a side note. The next field over about 30 years ago we let a clover field go to seed and harvested it. Even though it's been in soy, corn, wheat production ever since, it will still come up clover after every wheat harvest. So apparently clover seed will stay viable, in the soil, for a long time too.

showcrop · Sep 7, 2013

(quoted from post at 17:35:29 09/06/13) The common seed that we use has a short life span.While beans seem to have a long span parsnips are good for 1 year.Corn gets iffy after 5 years.At 75 I dont have many more gardens in me so I wont mess with old seed

Hey Coupe could you share your source for that??

36 Coupe · Sep 8, 2013

60 years of gardening.My wife wont use corn over 3 years old.

Old seed

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