TOPIC: Seeds dried out

Hi everyone, I'm new here but I've been \"lurking\" this site for quite some time. I've enjoyed reading the post here and have learned a lot. Very informitive. Awhile back I bought some seed. 1 pound. I planted some around the house here (NE PA) which come up fine, well was doing fine untill a thunder storm destroyed \"my garden\". No big deal. I replanted with three year old roots I bought from WildGrown last October.
Anyway,
Most of the seed I had bought went with me while hunting wild seng and was planted with hopes that it will take hold. Anyway I just found that I have seed left over that has dried out. My question is, Will this seed still germinate if I plant it out in the woods? I'd hate to just throw it away. Thanks,

Jack

Unfortunately Fieldwalker the seed in dead if it dries out. If they have been in a sealed ziplock bag in the refrigerator or even not in the frig, it may appear they are dried out on the outside but still viable on the inside. If you float test them and the outside is dried out they may rehydrate and sink after a while. Let them soak for a couple of days. If they sink they may be good as long as the inside did not dry out originally. It just depends on how they were stored and how much they dried. You can also take one or two and cut them open. If the inside in solid white and has moisture in it it is still alive.
If it is spongy, brown or dried out it is dead.
Latt

I agree with Latt. I had a friend back in the fall who showed me a dried pound of seed he bought a couple years prior for $100 and said he planned on planting them this year. I hated to break the news to him but there isn't any sense in waisting the time and effort if they are dead.

Hillhopper

Thanks for the replys so quickly. I thought so to. At least there wasn't much left. I had them in the frig at first. Some kind of mold started growing on the seeds so I put them out to dry and forgot about them. Any idea why the mold started growing?
fw

I grow nursery stock as well and always treat my seed with a fungicide before stratification in a fridge. Any carbon based element will rot in time given a moist environement and especially without adequate ventilation. Nature takes care of these things in the wild but still loses the majority of the battles, thats why a mature plant produces thirty seed instead of just one every year. Im assuming since a thunderstorm destroyed your seedlings last year that you bought them the previous fall,winter or spring. That being the case, what wasn't planted by a reasonable time to allow for germination in early spring last year were ruined anyhow, so the ones you planted while Seng huntin this past year.....you probably wont see up this coming season.

Hillhopper