by Leslie Cox; Monday; January 25, 2021

seeds, seeds, seedsTime to check through your supply of seed varieties you have on hand and check the date on the packets. Not all vegetable or flower species have the same seed life. For instance, bean and pea seeds are viable for 3 years; lettuce, kale, cucumber and eggplant are viable for 5 years.

I have made up a chart listing vegetable species and their viability seed life. Click here to go to the page on my website.

Finding information on seed viability life for flower and herb seeds is a little more difficult. In the meantime, until I can cobble together a useful seed chart for these species, you can utilize a general rule of thumb where annuals and perennials are concerned.

  • Most annual seeds are viable for 1 – 3 years
  • Most perennial seeds are viable for 2 – 4 years

Of course, these viability parameters only apply to seeds that have been stored properly. All bets are off if you have left your seeds in the unheated garage or greenhouse where moisture could get to them.

seedsOkay. Now that you have sorted through your seeds and set aside the older ones, you could do a germination test to see if those older seeds are still viable. Before you throw them in the garbage. Seeds can be expensive, so no point in needless spending if those old pea seeds are still good.

Click here to go to my instruction sheet on how to do a germination test, if you have never done one before. The test is easy. You just need to invest a few days of wait time.

And if you live anywhere near our region on Vancouver Island, you will have days of wait time to invest in seed germination trials while the snow is still covering the garden.