Shoutout to the lady who stopped me from tossing 10 year old seeds

I was about to throw away this bag of wildflower seeds I found in my garage from like 2013 and a customer at the bar grabbed my arm and said wait no don't. She told me to soak them in warm water for 12 hours and then plant them and I swear 7 out of 10 actually sprouted last spring. Has anyone else tried reviving old seeds like that or did I just get lucky?

2 comments

2 Comments

miles5419d ago

Wait hold up, 10 year old seeds?? That's wild lol I've got some packs from like 2016 sitting in my shed and figured they were toast. The warm water soak trick is actually legit though, my grandpa used to do that with his vegetable seeds from like 5+ years ago and they'd pop off. Maybe the 7 out of 10 sprouting was a fluke but damn that's impressive for decade old seeds, might have to dig mine out and give it a shot.

juliawalker19d ago

Honestly I'm gonna be the one to say this was probably just pure luck lol. Seeds that old have such a low germination rate usually, like maybe 10-20% at best if they were stored perfectly. Most people don't keep their seeds in ideal conditions either, garages get hot and humid af in summer which kills viability way faster. The warm water trick can help soften the seed coat but it's not gonna magically bring back dead embryos or whatever. I've tried that soak method with old tomato seeds from 2017 and got maybe 2 out of 20 to sprout. Your customer just got lucky with a hardy batch of wildflowers that happened to hold up better than most.