[Yana]

Lured by new varieties, new colours and critics write ups of veggies, I've tended not to use old seeds but give them to a local school for their gardening  projects and buy new ones.  I don't know if the seeds ever did well, but this year I forgot to do this and so have a lot of left-overs. I know parsnips don't keep well, but I've had great results so far with old chilli and pepper seeds as well as broad beans and tomatoes. I'm hoping carrots will do well as I seem to have loooooooads of packets of seeds.
What has been others experience of keeping seeds?
I'm sure it must be worth it as the packets say 'packed year end ...' And 'use by ......' So they should be useable by the use by date at least?
Thanks 

[Salmo]

Most seeds are OK for a year or two.

Quite often the seeds continue to germinate for many years but as they get older the speed of emergence and the vigour of the seedlings will reduce.

What this means in practice is that they are OK when conditions are perfect but fail as soon as they are not. eg fungal attack, soil capping, nibbling pests, cold soil.

[JayG]

Many garden centres have glass roofs and by mid summer their racks of seeds have probably been baked and cooled dozens of times - not good! 

How they are stored afterwards affects viability too, especially if the (usually) foil inner pack has already been opened - sheds are probably one of the worst places for long term storage.

Here's John Harrison's guide to the average longevity of some popular veg seeds, and tips about storing and testing:

http://www.allotment-garden.org/seed-saving/seed-storage-life.php

[BabbyAnn]

If you have plenty of seed, you can always do a viability test - basically you "chit" the seed in a bit of damp tissue placed in a warm place.  If after an acceptable period of time there is no show, then you can assume viability is poor.  If you do get germination (and it tends to be quicker to see than when sowing in compost), count how many (out of say, 10 seeds) and give yourself a rough % success rate.  Of course, with a small number of seed then this really is just to give you an idea    

[Goosegirl]

I have successfully germinated many old seeds including year-old parsnips, so trial them as BabbyAnn says.

[Fairy Plotmother]

I have successfully germinated many old seeds including year-old parsnips, so trial them as BabbyAnn says.

Same here! 

[AnneB]

I have successfully germinated many old seeds including year-old parsnips, so trial them as BabbyAnn says.

Same here! 

And here!  I had a bumper crop of Tender and True parsnips from 4 year old seed this year.

[Yana]

I have successfully germinated many old seeds including year-old parsnips, so trial them as BabbyAnn says.

Same here! 

And here!  I had a bumper crop of Tender and True parsnips from 4 year old seed this year.

What a marketing ploy then to get you to buy fresh parsnip seeds every year.

Lots of great advice, thanks. The chitting on damp tissue will save time and effort as you say as I can see whether the seeds have germinated or not.

[JayG]

Traditionally parsnips were one of the first seeds to be sown outdoors, mainly because they require a long growing season. Unfortunately they germinate very slowly at the sort of soil temperatures usually found in March, and many don't make it. Fresh seed gives you the best chance, but like many others I have got year-old seed to germinate successfully - just not outdoors in March (and not sown singly!) 

[azubah]

Carrot seeds seem to remain viable for years past the date. You can even eat tomato seeds and they will still germinate!

[3 allotments]

True, we had a chicken once we fed them scraps of food, tomatoes left from salad the chickens time had come that day i had to kill it and buried  the guts within a few weeks  there were several tomato plants growing where i buried it so i put chicken wire and plastic round them as they was in a field where we drove the tractor over  we had lots of toms off them they were delicious must have been the blood and manure in the gut 

[BabbyAnn]

You can even eat tomato seeds and they will still germinate!

they even germinate after composting    You only ever put whole tomatoes (presumably over ripened) into the compost just the once, then learn that it wasn't such a good idea the following year while weeding out the seedlings out of the beds

[gremlin]

They don't suddenly stop germinating.  The "guaranteed" 97% (?) germination rate is reached on the use by date.  Thereafter it steadily declines year on year.   I have posted here before that I have had anything from  0-50% germination rate of 10 year old tomato seeds.  And they had been stored at room temperature, rather than the recommended 2 or 3 deg C.

Old seeds- chuck em in the soil, rather than the bin, and see what happens. For a commercial grower 5% germination would be a disaster.  For us - not really.  I already over-sow 100 seeds when I need 5 plants, and then have to put most of the resulting seedlings in the compost bin.