Do Heirloom Seeds Last Longer Than Hybrid Seeds?
Saving seeds so you can start a new crop the following season only makes good economic sense. Preserving the seeds from a tasty and bountiful vegetable, fruit, or herb harvest also helps you increase the odds of replicating the same flavor and yield the following year.
Typically, seeds will last between 1 and 5 years if stored properly, with certain heirloom seeds lasting up to 10 years. To prolong shelf life, store them in a cool, dry, dark place, in an envelope placed inside a plastic or metal storage tub.
Flower seeds are designed in basically the same way as non-ornamental and traditional gardening peers, and can last roughly the same amount of time.
Both how you save the seeds and the varieties that you are preserving significantly impact how long they will last.
While seeds may look like tiny and brittle hard pebbles, when you open up a packet, there is actually a lot of living going on inside each dry shell.
Every seed contains an embryo that, when preserved and tended to properly, can create a healthy plant that will produce delicious food or natural healing remedies.
The quality of the seed producing company or plant plays a massive role in how long any type of seeds will last, be it heirloom, a hybrid, or GMO. In my personal experience, heirloom seeds tend to last far longer than any other type.
A Gardening Channel report indicates heirloom seeds could be capable of lasting 10 years, when stored properly. Heirloom seeds also tend to maintain flavor and nutritional value longer than other types of seeds.
If you are growing a massive garden to feed an enormous homesteading family or group, hybrid seeds may be a good type to plant because of what many people believe is an ability for them to produce a vastly more robust yield.
Personally, the yield we get from the 5-acres of space planted on our homestead with heirloom seeds is significantly robust… and quite tasty.
Some folks firmly believe (I am in this camp) that heirloom seeds are far more hardy, pest resistant, and disease resistant than hybrid seeds because they stem from plant varieties that are at least 50 years old, and have had time to adapt to the weather, insects, and plant diseases.
The vigor and vitality of heirloom seeds should make up for any difference in yield time and weight you could garner with hybrid seeds.
There is nothing wrong with growing and keeping either type of seeds, or a little bit of both.
GMO seeds in a purchased and sealed pack should keep as long as hybrid seeds when stored properly.
Having never grown a genetically modified plant, I have no personal experience with the flavor or nutritional retention of GMO seeds when not used immediately after purchase.
When saving seeds you must not only remember to write a date on the container, but also know the approximate longevity of the variety to ensure you rotate them out of the container and into the soil to prevent wasted opportunity.
The seed keeping chart below provides the average storage years for seeds. But, the ripeness and preservation method will impact, either positively or negatively, the longevity.
Always check the date on the package of commercially packaged seeds to determine their age when sealed. The longevity clock starts ticking when the seeds are preserved and made ready for sale – not when you buy or open them.
Depending on where you purchased the seeds, they may have been sitting on a shelf for six months or a year. Ideally, seeds should be used within two years to ensure the highest possible vigor once they are planted.
The best thing you can do to ensure the seeds you are keeping will be ready to germinate and flourish when you need them,is to store them properly in the first place.
Before using stored seeds, do a germination rate test on 5 to 10 of the seeds. This sampling will allow you to get a good idea of exactly how viable the seeds are before simply tossing them into the ground and crossing your fingers to hope that they grow.
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Typically, all seeds should germinate between 7 to 10 days. The packet the seeds came in or a gardening guide can help you determine the average germination time if you are unsure.
If fewer than 70% of the seeds involved on the test germinated, you now know that supplementing the packets or containers of seeds from the same variety that you have, may be necessary to produce a robust harvest.
Ideally, you want a minimum of 70% to, hopefully, as much as 90% of the stored seeds to germinate during the test.
The seeds used in the germination test do not need to be wasted, they can still be planted as long as you do not allow the sprouts to break or dry out during the time they are removed from the bag and placed into the soil.
As long as the paper towel you use does not have any colored ink in the pattern, it is often less risky to just cut around the sprouting seeds while they are still inside of the paper towel, and plant the entire thing.
Sometimes, the root of the seeds actually grows through the towel. If this happens, it will be essential to plant the paper towel wrapped around the seed instead of attempting to separate it.
While a germination test is quite helpful and can save you time, effort, and space in your garden, there are several important factors the simple process will not be able to reveal.
The vigor of a seed is just as important as its longevity during storage or ability to germinate.
Vigor relates to the overall strength and health of the seed, the durability of its root system, and how fast and uniformly it will grow, as well as the seed’s capacity to produce flowers and produce.
A seedling that is strong and healthy enough to germinate may still only grow into a stunted or gangly plant. Seeds that lack vigor can develop a deformed look, and may be more prone to dampening off.
Tara lives on a 56 acres farm in the Appalachian Mountains, where she faces homesteading and farming challenges every single day. her homesteading skills are unmatched, she raises chickens, goats, horses, a wide variety of vegetables, not to mention she’s an expert is all sorts of homesteading skills such as hide tanning, doll making, tree tapping and many, many more.
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Do Heirloom Seeds Last Longer Than Hybrid Seeds?
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