Seed storage

We have had a container (two actually) full of seeds that has been lurking in the back of our fridge for years. This is where we store our seed packets and there must be dozens of them, many dating as far back as 21 years old. In an attempt to try and make room for new seed packets in the already bursting Tupperware container we went through the seeds picking out the more recent seeds, making a pile of the old ones to get rid of. But in the end I could not bear to get rid of any seeds and ended up saving them, forming the second container of seeds. In an attempt to keep the older seeds moving along their way though, I decided to try out an indoors winter garden (I will write more about this soon). As it turns out, not throwing out the seeds was a great move for as I soon found, the seeds were incredibly viable despite their age. I regret that I did not record the amount of seeds that I planted (I plan on doing so in the future through!) but a vast majority of them sprouted without any lack in vigor noticeable to me. Intrigued I looked up the estimated date at which these seeds were supposed to have lost enough of their vigor to be deemed useless and the results were amazing. We had great success with these 21 year old Burpee seeds that according to multiple resources should have expired many years ago. Here is a list of the successful of 21 year old seeds I have tried:

• Basil
• Parsley
• Lavender
• Radish
• Peas
• Swiss chard
  

This says a bunch of things: that by storing your seeds in your fridge will greatly improve their viability, that the estimated dates that mark the limit of the seeds shelf life are under exaggerated and that Burpee sells high quality, long lasting seeds.

Fluorescent Lights

In our basement we have a stand with fluorescent grow lights. They're kept on nearly all year except for a two or so months in the summer and have been fantastic. I use them for just about everything from starting seeds to reviving any unhappy plants elsewhere in the house. Just yesterday we went out to the hardware store to get some new lights for the upper tier of the lighting system which we just opened up the other day after totally running out of room with just the bottom one. The shelf was made so that a second level of grow lights could be installed but we had never needed to use it before. When the upper lights were turned on we noticed the lights were the kind of you would find in an office and were not as suited for plants as the ones made for "plants and Aquariums". Upon doing a little researching I found that the only kinds of light plants really need is blue and red. Blue promotes leaf growth and vegetation while red combined with the blue promotes flowering. The special tube fluorescent lights defiantly have a noticeably redder, warmer and in general much more pleasant hue to them. We got these kind of lights for the bottom level of lights a few months earlier and while I don't have any real evidence that they helped the plants I highly suggest switching to this kind of lights if you haven't already.