I found some packages of seed in the closet , mostly marigolds they had a date of 2004 on them. I opened about 4 or 5 packs and put them in some pots . I was about a month and almost none came up.
So just wondering do seeds expire ?

How long seeds remain viable depends very much on how they are stored.
Marigold seeds do not last more thatn a year or two for me when they are stored at house temperatures.
Different plants will have different viability.
There are lists of seed viability times on line.

Ok so that answers my question since they were 12 years old no wonder they did not grow.

When ever you see claims for long storage (or very long storage) of seed, your 12 year old seed should come to mind.

Carolyn Male and others spent a good deal of time and left a long cyber-trail trying to germinate 50 year old tomato seed given to them by GRINS. Oh perhaps a dozen years back.

I've grown some pretty old tomatoes, but I agree with Caroline--marigolds and some other herbs need fresher seed. Storage conditions will also be a factor.

I found them in back of a closet so no loss had about 8 packs left so just opened them and left the seeds in a pile for the birds or whoever wants to eat them.

Yes, most seeds seem easiest to germinate as soon as they drop from the plant. Many which will later require cold strat don't even need that if they're plucked from the plant and thrown on the ground. They sprout quickly. But the older they get, the harder they get to sprout.

Karen

---bumping this up

The biggest factor in increasing the storage lifetime of seeds is getting them very dry, and keeping them uniformly very dry.

After that factor, it's nice if they stay at a steady temperature, especially if that is a COOL temperature.

Dark storage is slightly better than light storage.

"Very dry" means 15 % RH to at most 30% RH. Desiccants are helpful if you want to double or quadruple seeds viable lifetime (but not all seeds can be kept for many years).

MAYBE some old seeds germinate better after an overnight soak in dilute hydrogen peroxide (0.1% H2O2)
http://garden.org/ideas/view/R...

Also, to avoid soil rot setting in before a "slow" old seed germinates, you can germinate seeds on a coffee filter in a plastic bag. Use hydrogen peroxide as above to further reduce fungus and bacteria and possibly "stimulate" the seed embryo. Put LOTs of stale seeds onto the paper towel, and inspect it daily. Pot up each seed as soon as the baby root (radicle) emerges. Even if only 1% of the seeds germinate, and they take twice as long as usual, if you start with 100 times as many "old" seeds as you needed, you can still get a crop.

"Seed life span approximately doubles for every 10% reduction in seed eRH. "
<... during storage. "seed eRH" = Equivalent Relative Humidity>

"Once transferred to the seed bank, collections can then be dried to around 15% eRH
(4-7% moisture content depending on seed oil content),
the recommended moisture level for long-term conservation of orthodox seeds"
http://www.kew.org/sites/defau...


http://garden.org/ideas/view/R...

http://garden.org/ideas/view/R...
http://garden.org/ideas/view/R...

Good afternoon everyone! I usually plant last years seeds that I've saved and stored! This year I found a package of zinnia seeds I purchase 3 years ago.. I planted 25 seeds and 12 made them...so fresher seeds the better... good luck..

Monika! Isn't it exciting when we can get older seeds to germinate?

I've grown tomatoes from seeds that were 7 or 8 years old. I enjoy the challenge of it

Old in a seed is relative. Tree and woodland seed never ever quite go to sleep, so they need damp storage, need to be planted out for the following spring.

Vegetable seed that do prosper from drying also have variable storage success. Earlier posters encourage very dry conditions and storage away from light. All of the above may not help onion seed. Plant them as soon as you can.

Most seed have a 2 or more year shelf life.

Even rugged seed like tomato, have declining germination rates after the tenth year.

Very old, (as in) hundreds of year old seed are only viable after being blessed by the Easter Bunny.

The oldest known germination being from "Methuselah"at 2,000 years. http://news.nationalgeographic...

I think you're right, that date palm is the oldest seed germinated.

This 3,000 year old campion didn't come from a seed, more like tissue culture. Some squirrel buried plant parts in permafrost, and Russian botanists did the rest.

>> "the Russian researchers tried to germinate the campion seeds, but failed. They then took cells from the placenta, the organ in the fruit that produces the seeds. They thawed out the cells and grew them in culture dishes into whole plants."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02...