Quote:
Originally Posted by carolyn137
Kath, please see my post above yours b'c I do think under certain circumstances, as I pointed out , it's OK to use a packed by date if germination tests are done and the seeds are OK.
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Yes, our posts crossed but I did see yours after mine was posted, Carolyn. I don't understand how just a packed by date insures that the germination tests actually were done and there's certainly no way to know what the results were.
Tania makes a good point in that even if the date and results of germination tests are shown, it still doesn't tell you how old the seeds are- an extremely important bit of information if you plan to store leftover seeds and continue to use them for years. So maybe the year of production is the key factor if we have to limit it to one.
Unfortunately, for a long time I made the mistake of assuming that vendors provided fresh seed each year and so one year when I got terrible germination for a favorite lettuce, I made the mistake of ordering the same seed the following year from the same vendor. I was completely at a loss when the germination was still terrible- later I realized that it was probably just more of the same old seed!
A packed by or packed for date is just misleading if old seed is just repackaged.