oldest seed to sprout this year is.............

[rxkeith]

yellow brandywine.


the date i had written on the small baggie was 2005.
there were only five seeds in the bag. well, what the heck, i'll plant them,
and see what happens. i now have three seedlings standing up straight, and
two more have just sprouted, i can see the stems poking up. 100% germination
on 16 year old seeds surprised me.


while digging through the bag o seeds, i came across anna marias heart. those
seeds are 7 or 8 years old. better plant them, heart seeds don't last as long.
so far, one seedling up, and another one has just poked through. i had planted
7 or 8 seeds. its been about two weeks since i planted some of my older seeds.
i also seeded, armenian, milkas red bulgarian, and todd county amish. each one was

12-13 years old. double sow, like carolyn would say. germination has been excellent.
i can't say 100% because i didn't write down how many seeds of each i planted, but
its pretty darn close to 100%. i don't get those results sometimes with fresh seeds.
i did nothing special with the seeds, no pre soak, no fertilizer boost, i just planted
them.




keith