[Hampshire Hog]

Hi all I want to sow some seeds for outdoor tomatoes but am wondering whether I can use any of the following from my seed box.
Gardeners delight ....sow by 2005
Moneymaker by 2006
Incas by 2009
Harbinger sow by 2014

Are any of these of use or should I invest in a new pack of seeds?

All wisdom appreciated!

Cheers HH

[miggs]

You have got nothing to lose by planting them.

[DD.]

Forget the Money Maker, if you have those other varieties use the space for them. Far better flavour.

[Gardener and Rabbit]

If you PM me I'll send you some Gardener's Delight that are sow by 2015, from my seed sort-out

[Fen]

Put a few seeds on damp newspaper, felt or similar on the kitchen window sill.
Cover with same and see if they germinate.

[Maarten]

I did just what Fen suggests  to test some older lettuce seeds I had trouble with. I put 5 seeds from a recent package and 25 seeds each from three different older packages on some wet tissue on the windowsill. It was an eye-opener; 4 out of 5 of the fresher seeds germinated, whereas none of the other 75 did anything. I am now sowing one whole package at the time and will pick out the germinating seeds, if any.

Best wishes,

Maarten

[Hampshire Hog]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Think I will try the suggested germination test first off as I have loads of seeds even if a bit (or a lot) past their sow by dates!!

HH

[Mum2mj]

I have near enough 100% germination with my many out of date packets of tomato seeds 

[ConfusedGardener]

I have near enough 100% germination with my many out of date packets of tomato seeds 

Ditto.

If they are stored well (kept dry and at a constant temperature) they should still do ok even many years after the "sow by" date. It can vary a bit depending on what type of seed, but so far I have found that in general larger seeds tend to store better than smaller seeds.

This is an interesting read on the subject of preserving seeds in the long term:
http://www.seedcontainers.net/a_guide_to_long-term_seed_preservation.html

[gobs]

Oh, yes. I got blessed with some 100 Marmande and Tigerella seedlings this year.