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.

Padio Hybrid

I am new to growing tomatoes as this past season was my first so when I visited our local nursery I was unsure of what to look for. After inspecting various packets of tomato seeds I ended up choosing a Patio hybrid based on the brief paragraph on its back. As it turned out my choice was a great one and while as I mentioned I don't have the experience with tomatoes to compare this hybrid to past ones I can say with some confidence that this is one of the best! Throughout the summer it managed to stayed very compact, never growing more that a foot and a half tall and instead of growing viney and leggy like other tomatoes plants I have seen, it simple grew bushier. Yet dispite of its small size it was surprisingly productive, giving off 14 tomatoes between our two plants and due to its compact nature it didn't need to be staked or caged. Because of this positive experience I this past year with the Padio hybrid I'm definitely going to use it again in this upcoming year's garden. I have collected around 20 seeds from its tomatoes and plan on planting them so that with each passing year the plants become more and more productive. I am unsure if this technique will actually work with tomatoes though and if the seeds I have collected are going to grow true and produce plants like the ones I had last year. If you know anything about this I would love to get some feedback from you to help me answer this question. In any case I'm certainly going to try it out and I'll be sure update this in a few months with the results!