what are the oldest seeds you've planted successfully? last year some of my best turned 3 years old. the first planting, i sowed 12 and only two sprouted. then i planted 16 more and 15 of them sprouted.
I've used seeds that were about 10 years old. Maybe a third of them popped but they produced inferior plants that grew much slower than the 3 fresh seeds I'd planted at the same time and they also took much longer to germinate. I don't think 3 years is too old. After my dad died and we were cleaning out his barn I found a sack of barley (?) seeds that must have been at least 15 years old. I dumped them in the field next to the barn and after the first rain that spot looked like a huge chia pet and those seedlings looked healthy enough.
I found a film case full of seeds cleaning out my grandpa house after he died. He hadn’t grown for 8+ years. I soaked 4 at a time cus that’s all I had the space for. for weeks they never sprouted or if the seed did crack when it sprouted there were no leaves. Eventually one grew not sure the strain but I know it was sativa.
10 -15 years old is the ones I've been germing out of the freezer Strange: the biggest issues I have is with 'fresh' new bought seeds Dry? ... few ever germ
I just started brand new seeds the other day and after a 24 hour soaking They germed in record time and when they hit soil they came up really quick..
I've popped 15 year old seeds. But only with a 5% success rate. 5 out of 100 seeds opened and showed a tap root. I've also had seeds that were less than 3 years old that had a very low success rate because they were stored in a garage where summer temperatures exceed 110*F Seeds that are kept at room temperature in a dark place inside the house should be viable for up to 5 years or more.
I had a friend that schooled me on how he kept seeds 20 years ago. When he told me what he did I didnt believe him. He took me inside pulled out a tupperware container that was full of old 35mm film canisters from his freezer . Each canister had seeds in them and each canister was numbered. He had a master sheet he kept in the bottom of the tupperware container that had a brief description of what was in each canister with a date of when he put them in the freezer. He pulled out one canister and showed me some seeds that I had given him 10 years earlier and they were still viable because he had used them in his latest grow. From that day I've been keeping my seeds in the freezer. I have noticed a difference in germination rates in some of the older seeds but its nothing I can't live with. I have some old school genetics that are from the late 70's . Every so often I'll drop 5 or 6 of them just so I can keep the strain going by producing more seeds the old fashioned way. When the seeds are ready I'll harvest and put the new seeds in my freezer. TBH I do that once every 2 or 3 years with all of my old school strains just to produce new seeds . To answer the original question the oldest seeds I've germinated is probably 17 years old plus or minus a year or 2 .