Run of the mill seeds

As gardeners, most of you will know, that fresh seed, those collected in 2019, and planted 2020, if cleaned and stored correctly will have a germination success rate of 98%, depending on the plant species, if you keep those seed until 2021 the germination success rate drops to approx 68%. The next year it drops again, this is mainly true of annuals and perennials some veg.
There are species that this is not true, some plants, the seed can remain viable for 100's of years, and some have seed that is a shot in a million to germinate. Some seed needs to be stored differently, Delphinium for example, Pacific hybrids, and Aurora types are fine in packets in the draw, but the Dwarf types need to ge stored at under 5 degrees C to keep viable.
What I am about to divulge is the truth about seed sold by large companies, to the general public, not your smaller independant companies like Nickys nursery, premier seed etc, I have used those two on numerous occasions with very good results. This is the process by the big companies, you know the ones, in diy stores and GC, with the stands, and the pretty points of sale boards, with rows and rows of seed, priced at £3.95 for 20 seeds etc.
There are 2 really big seed producers and sellers for the ornamental and fruit and veg seed, that supply growers, that retail to the public, these are PanAmerican seed and Kieft seed, they are now the same company, they produce seed, and stock seed from major plant breeders from around the globe, the seed is stored in controlled storage facilities, and treated by either coating with a fungacide for seed like Lupins etc that are prone to fungal infection, pelleting small seed like lobelia so it easier to handle, and seed that is treated to speed up the germination time, the seed is not put through these processes until its ordered and shipped to the customer, so the seed in storage is natural. At the end of a 2020 season, the unsold seed is sold on to, the forementioned seed sellers, who package it, and sell it on a sale or return bases to gc etc, so the seed that appears in these packets, is generally over 12 months old.
At the end of the gc season, the unsold seed is counted, returned to these companies, who remove the outer packaging, and sell the foil packets to other companies, who re package it,band sell it for 99p or 89p in discount stores. You will see this in action by some of these larger seed companies have stopped putting plant by dates, or packaged dates on these packets, some just put an abbreviated name of the plant on the foil package inside.
So the next time you are thinking about buying seed, use a small independant, that has good recommendations or reviews, because its a rip off paying £2.99 for 12 Cucumber seeds that could be 2 years old, and at best 50% will germinate.

 

By the way, Wakehurst are not the only people to have a seed bank. National Botanic Garden of Wales have been working on a seedbank to store native seeds specifically. Wakehurst generally keep most seeds at something like 15% humidity and below 0 Celsius to maximise their lifespan. However I have been involved in sowing seed at NBGW that has built up over time. They were only stored in a fridge, and not at specific humidity. Yet seed from Fabacae (pea family) and pelargoniums germinated well, even when 20 years old! The new seed bank at NBGW will be keeping them much better than this...

 

Interesting post. Tenuous link here - seed that is still viable after 2000 years

Extinct date palms grown from 2000-year-old seeds found near Jerusalem

 

That's impressive @andrews - maybe the cave was cold and dry enough.

 

Conditions must've been perfect but its still amazing that the seed was still viable after all that time

 

I think this is the idea that T&M use, I'm sure I bought some seeds from them years ago that were nearly that old.

 

Never a truer word spoken, I told T&M to get lost, they wanted to take me to court, the judge threw the case out as a waste of time, they had no factual evidence to support their claim.