How to know if last year’s seed is still good?

Usually, nearly every consumable thing has a best-before date. As a gardening lover, we tend to buy a lot of seeds at once, germinate a few, and end up putting them in a cabinet. After a year or so when we find them and wonder about whether we can still use the last year seeds or not? The answer is yes!

Yes, you can still use last year's seeds. If the seed is able to germinate, you cannot differentiate between the plant that came out of the old seed to a plant which came out of a new seed.

What aspects can affect the viability of the seeds:

• The viability of a seed depends on what type of seed you are willing to germinate. Some seeds, such as onion, parsley, spinach, corn, peas, beans have a short period of span. While some seeds like tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, muskmelons, endive, cauliflower, collards, and others can live upto 4 to 5 years. 
• Approximately, all the seeds can stay viable for at least around 1 year, some seeds can be viable for about 2 to 3 years. Afterwards the germination rate can start to fall. 
• The viability of the seeds relies on how you store them.

How you can know your seeds are viable

If you are worried about how you are going to understand if the seed is still viable, here are some tricks for you, so that you can understand.

• If the seeds are already dried up like a raisin, then you need to buy new seeds. 
• Take a damp paper towel and put the seeds on the paper towel, then fold the paper towel over the seeds. Then place it somewhere, where it can get enough warmth and sunlight. Check a few days later, good seeds usually germinate in a few days.

How to store seeds

If you want to germinate old seeds then you need to store the seeds minutely. First you need to dry out the seeds and store them in an airtight container or a mason jar. Try to store them in a cold or dark, dry storage area. Make sure to keep in a place where there is no sunlight and moisture. This suggestion can be useful for any type of seed.

Those are all the things that you need to know about old seeds. Seeds usually do not expire. However, their ability to germinate can deteriorate.