eli appleby-donald
In the final part of her special focus on jobs to get done during the colder months, Eli Appleby-Donald offers an easy way to check the vialbility of all those leftover, stored seeds.
At the start of the year, gardeners all over share a familiar ritual - cosied up indoors with a steaming cuppa and a biscuit, pouring over seed catalogues and websites, dreaming about what they will be growing in the months to come. It is a tradition that marks the beginning of a new gardening season and sparks enthusiasm for the potential show gardens they plan for the coming season - a definite highlight of the year.
As joyful as the anticipation of the growing season is, it is not without its conundrums. Most notably, what do you do with all those seed packets that accumulate as a consequence of these January seed-buying sprees?
If you have a box full of seed packets, some of which have passed their ‘sow by’ date, you might be faced with a dilemma. Do you:
(a) just use them – it will be fine, right?
(b) believe you have no other option but to buy fresh seeds?
Let’s unpack this. If you are leaning toward (a), you are not entirely wrong. Yes, you can use those seeds and you might even see some of them sprout. But, as seeds age, their germination rates tend to decrease, meaning you may end up wasting time, effort, and soil on seeds that do not make it. So, is option (b) the way to go? Well, honestly, no. It is obviously a bit wasteful to just throw away seeds each year and buy new. There is however, a smarter way to deal with things.
Rather than gambling with old seeds or resorting to buying new ones every year, there is a smart and cost-effective solution called the ‘Seed Viability Test’. It is remarkably easy to do, becoming a useful part of my routine every year.
The Seed Viability Test allows you to gauge the germination potential of a small sample of seeds and estimate the overall viability. In other words, if I sow these, how many will turn into plants? It is an easy thing to do, so here is how I do it:
1. Take your plastic bag or lid for your tub and write the seed type and the date on it. Flip it over so that you can see through it clearly (you'll find out why shortly).
2. Dampen the paper towel until it is thoroughly moist but not soaking. You can use a spray bottle to achieve the right level of moisture. Avoid soaking the paper towel because you do not want things so wet that they go mouldy, they need to be just moist.
3. Place the damp paper towel inside the bag or tub, then put 10 seeds on the towel, ensuring some space between them.
4. Gently press down to make sure the seeds make good contact with the damp paper.
5. Seal the bag or box closed.
Now, find a warm spot to place the bag that is not in direct light. The top of the fridge is an ideal spot.
Patience is your ally, as you wait for the magic to happen. If your seeds are still viable, you will witness some germination within two weeks (give or take, depending on the seeds and temperature).
As you have sown 10 seeds, it is easy to calculate the percentage which germinate. As a general rule of thumb, if 50% or more sprout (5 out of 10), they are worth sowing, we can say that those are viable. You will just need to plant enough seeds (factoring in the germination rate) to ensure that you get the desired number of plants.
There is also a bonus to this test, it offers a little bit of seed sowing fun in those cold dark winter days when we miss the garden the most.