A Seed's Life

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Good beginnings can equal a great garden

These lima bean seeds pop out of the soil with vigor and promise.

I'll never forget the year I ordered seeds for a new variety of yellow tomato. Having never tasted a tomato that wasn't red, I looked forward with mouth-watering anticipation to plucking the first ripe fruit from the vine. That summer brought the perfect sun for growing tomatoes just bursting with flavor. Sure enough, by early August my plants were covered with green fruit, all beginning to turn a vibrant shade of ...red!

Seeds are tested for viability against government standards. These flats are labeled to prevent any misidentifications.

Sound familiar? Unfortunately, seeds don't always produce what their packets promise. And while the discrepancy may be less blatant than alternately colored produce, the results may be no less disap pointing: plants that quit before they get started; entire packets of seed that refuse to germinate; a vegetable touted as disease-resistant that nevertheless succumbs to a devastating blight; a tried-and-true varietal that fails to perform as it had in years past.

Though it's tempting in the face of such flops to hang up your garden gloves, take heart: It may not be your fault. That seed likely passed through many hands before it reached yours, with any number of factors affecting its viability and vitality along the way.

Mark each true or false

Before we take you on a journey into the life of a seed, take this quick quiz to see how seed-savvy you already are. You'll find the answers throughout the article. so when you finish here, read on.

Life Expectancies

Okay, so our quiz begins with a trick question. The answer to #1 is neither true nor false, but rather "it depends." A seed's life span can range from six months to more than ten years, depending on how the seed stock was grown (seed saved from poor-quality stock generally won't live as long) and under what conditions it was stored.

Also, certain types of seed just don't live as long as others. Leek and onion seeds are notoriously short-lived, even when stored under the best of conditions. Their life spans range from under six months to maybe two years, if you're lucky. On the other hand, I've seen tomato, pepper, sunflower and bean seeds that have remained viable even after ten years.

And even within a seed type there will be some varieties that naturally outlive others. The usual life expectancy for cauliflower seed, for instance, averages three to four years. Yet, White Rock cauliflower - while a personal favorite for its dependability, earliness, yield and tremendous flavor - seems to lose viability after just one year.