seeds Germinating old seeds

S

SuburbanFowl

Hi. My grandma found out about my hobby and gifted me some old seeds. She bought them from Scotland in 1973 which makes the seeds about 45 years old (or perhaps even older).
 
What are the chances of them germinating?
 
I'm going to try a kno3/water soak before putting them on a heat pad.
 
Can I do anything else with seeds this old to maximise the chance of germination?
 
It would be really cool to give her a plant if the seeds germinate and I don't want to risk doing anything that could prevent them from germinating.
 
 
Here are some pictures:
 
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Thanks.
 
Omg. Monitoring this thread.

I’ve germinated nine year old seeds, that’s about it. If I were to try, I’d prob go moist vermiculite. Never been a paper towel guy but works for some.
 
boutros said:
Omg. Monitoring this thread.

I’ve germinated nine year old seeds, that’s about it. If I were to try, I’d prob go moist vermiculite. Never been a paper towel guy but works for some.
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I'll probably go for the paper towel method due to having a lot of success with it this season.
 
Thanks for the replies and support guys!
 
For now I'm going with the 3% KNO₃ solution soak and will take it from there. From the looks of the seeds if they are at all viable they won't need to be scarified and realistically wouldn't need to be soaked either, but it should help hasten up things.
 
Realistically speaking, they're unlikely to germinate. Optimistically speaking it's entirely possible.
 
It would be nice to have an "Ornamental pot plant" or two (hopefully they are indeed capsicums and not the other variety).
 
As for the seed being listed as annual and not perennial, that seems quite unusual but then again seed companies in my country list habaneros as capsicum annuum. If a company is selling a large variety of seeds they probably don't know that much about specific types.
 
@The_NorthEast_ChileMan
 
Thanks for the list of threads, I'll read through them and if the seed soak + paper towel method doesn't work I'll look into another method for the remaining seeds.
 
Mr.joe said:
Just sow in gentle heat and pot on, but seriously I'm no help here. I'll be following along hoping for success.
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Thanks! For now I'll try the paper towel method but if that doesn't work then I'll try other methods with the remaining 20 seeds.
 
Here's a picture of the envelope. It is dated 23 - May - 1973. It's strange that they used roman numerals for the month, lol.
 
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15 seeds on top of moist paper towels in a ziplock bag on top of a heating mat. The heating mat has a thermostat attached to it set to 85°F.
 
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Fingers crossed!
 
If and when you try again, get some Gibberellic acid (Ga-3) first. Some Chinese sellers sell it cheap on eBay. Use the powder kind. 0.25 g of Gibberellic on 1 quart of distilled water. I also add 1 g of KNO3 powder, but this is not necessary IMHO, although it might catch some of the seeds which don't work extremely well with Gibberellic. Both agents have been proven to work - they enhance germination and they shorten the length of time seeds need to germinate. IMHO, Gibberellic works even better than KNO3. Although different seeds behave differently and there might be some that work better with KNO3 or even pure distilled water. Distilled water works a lot better than regular tap water - this was proven in many experiments.
 
To my understanding, preventing GSOD/hypoxia is the biggest challenge in germinating old seeds that have retained some level of viability.  The second is providing simple sugars, but this isn't always needed and it can easily create a contamination disaster outside sterile conditions.
 
Hyper-oxygenation versus hypoxia can best be achieved by an 18-24 hour soak in a diluted H2O2 solution.  Gibberellic acid will accelerate germination in seeds that are viable, but TMK it won't increase viability, i.e., you'll get the seeds that would have germinated anyway, sooner, but not necessarily more.  Logically, sooner is better, at least generally, in that there's less time for mistakes like seeds drying out or for pathogen development that might hinder germination.  KNO2 treatment has a chemical scarification effect, which can be helpful with certain types of seeds, and TMK it can assist with breaking dormancy.  My only concern with these methods would be using them instead of addressing hypoxia or if they created additional stress on the seeds in some fashion. 
 
If I were trying to germinate these, I'd give them 20+/- hours in a solution of 3% H2O2 to distilled water at somewhere around a 1:9 ratio and then put them in a rockwool cube in a container to maintain humidity and provide as sanitary an environment as possible.  Scottex isn't bad, but it's more prone to sub-optimal air/moisture conditions, dry-out, and probably pathogens, too.  I have nothing against the KNO3 or even the GA, though I never use GA, I just don't think they directly address the key challenge of old seeds so they wouldn't be at the top of my "must do" list.  
 
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