The Seed Packet Audition: Test Before You Buy This Autumn
Photo: National Photo Company Collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Late autumn is when the seed tin turns into a lucky dip. There is a half-used packet of parsnip, a tomato variety you meant to grow properly, and three unlabelled envelopes that might be cosmos or might be cabbage. Before the new catalogues land, spend an evening giving those packets a paper-towel audition. It is cheap, quick and oddly satisfying — and it stops you buying duplicates you do not need.
Why bother testing seeds you already own?
Seeds are living things, but they do not come with a use-by alarm. A packet that has spent two summers in a warm shed may still germinate well, while a bargain box from a charity stall might be mostly dead. Testing a sample tells you what is worth sowing. That means fewer gaps in the row, less wasted compost and a clearer shopping list. It also suits the slower pace of November: this is a job you can do at the kitchen table with a mug of tea while the garden is too wet to dig.
What you need — and what you do not
You do not need a propagator, a heated mat or a laboratory. You need kitchen roll, a small plate or a freezer bag, a marker pen, water and a warm spot such as a windowsill or airing cupboard. A pair of tweezers helps, but fingers are fine. The only real rule is to label everything. An unlabelled row of damp paper is just a science experiment with no conclusion.
The kitchen-paper test, step by step
- Count out ten seeds from each packet. Ten makes the maths easy and leaves plenty in the packet if the result is good.
- Write the variety and the date on a strip of kitchen roll, or on the bag if you are using one.
- Dampen the paper with clean water. It should be moist, not dripping. Squeeze out excess water if it pools.
- Space the seeds across the paper, then fold it over or slide it into a labelled bag. Leave a little air inside.
- Put the paper somewhere warm — roughly 18–21°C is fine for most common garden seeds. A cool spare room will slow things down.
- Check every day from about day five. Keep the paper damp, not soggy. Note the first sign of a white root tip.
Some seeds are quick: radish and lettuce may show within a few days. Parsnip, carrot and some herbs can take two weeks or more. Give each packet a sensible window before you judge it. If the paper grows mould, start again with fresh paper and less water — mould is usually a sign of excess damp, not bad seed.
Reading the results without kidding yourself
A count of ten makes the result easy to read. Eight to ten germinated seeds is excellent: use the packet normally. Five to seven is decent: sow a little thicker than the packet suggests and accept that you may need a second sowing. One to four is poor. Use those seeds only if the variety is rare or sentimental, and sow them thickly in a pot rather than straight into the plot. Zero means the packet has had it — compost it and move on.
Do not test every packet in the tin. Save the effort for older seeds, expensive seeds, saved seeds and anything you are unsure about. Fresh packets from a reliable supplier can wait. The point is to reduce doubt, not to turn your kitchen into a seed laboratory.
A rough shelf life for common UK seeds
These are guides for dry, cool, dark storage — not guarantees. A cool tin in a shed is not the same as a warm kitchen drawer.
| Crop | Typical shelf life | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Parsnip | 1 year | Sow fresh where possible |
| Onion and leek | 1–2 years | Poor germination is common when old |
| Carrot | 2–3 years | Test before sowing |
| Pea and bean | 2–3 years | Store cool and dry |
| Brassicas | 3–5 years | Usually generous |
| Lettuce | 3–4 years | Quick to test |
| Tomato | 4–6 years | Often still good |
| Cucumber and squash | 4–6 years | Warmth helps germination |
| Herbs | 1–3 years | Varies widely by type |
What to do with the survivors — and the failures
Use the good packets first this coming season, and sow them a little more thickly if the test was middling. Write the test date on the packet so you are not guessing again next autumn. Failed seeds can go on the compost heap unless they were diseased or mouldy. Do not try to rescue them with heat or a soaked kitchen roll left for a month; dead seed does not come back.
Then make your shopping list with a clearer head. You will know which varieties are genuinely finished, which are worth replacing and which are still perfectly usable. That is the quiet money-saving bit: you are not buying less for the sake of it, you are buying only what you need.
Shop smarter, not sadder
A paper-towel test will not tell you whether a variety suits your soil or your cooking, but it will tell you whether the seed is alive. That is enough to stop you ordering a third packet of carrot you already own, or relying on a faded envelope of parsnip that was never going to perform. Give the old packets an audition this month, bin only what fails, and go into the new seed season with a list that means something.
