In this guide 6 sections
A seed packet can carry a packed for year, a packing date, a sow by date and a germination test date. The test date tells you most. Record every date against the lot number, and set your sell by rule from the set, not from the printed year alone.
The dates on a packet and what each one tells you
Packers use different wording. The same words can mean different things from one brand to the next, as you will see if you read three back panels side by side. What follows is the usual meaning. Check each supplier’s own terms.
Sowing months are not a freshness date. A line such as sow March to May describes when the crop wants to go in the ground, and it says nothing about the age of the seed. A hurried buyer reads both as one. Keep them apart on your page.
- Packed for: the season or year the packer expects the seed to be sold
- Packed on: the day the lot went into packets
- Sow by: the last point the packer stands behind the seed
- Germination test date: when a sample from the lot was last counted for sprouting
- Lot number: the link back to the supplier’s test certificate
The test date matters more than the printed year
Seed is alive. Vigour fades with age, and only a germination test shows how far the fade has gone in one particular lot of one particular crop. A packet marked for this year may hold a lot tested long before packing, while an older lot may have been tested again lately. The year cannot tell you which is which.
Ask for the certificate for each lot. It lists the variety, the purity, the germination figure and the date of the test, and each line is something you may have to quote to a buyer. File it by lot number, not by invoice. When a buyer complains that nothing came up, the certificate is the first paper you reach for, and the lot number is how you find it in seconds.
Storage can shorten the life the date promises
Heat and damp age seed faster than time. Sealed foil in a cool store keeps well. Paper in a sunny window does not. Walk the stock room, the spinner rack, the delivery van and the market stall, and note every place where packets sit in sun or damp for days.
Crops differ. Onion, leek and parsnip seed lose vigour sooner than tomato or cabbage seed, so one blanket rule will be too short for some lines and too long for others. Give short-lived crops a shorter sell by window and long-lived crops a longer one, so that the rule follows the plant and not the price list.
- Foil or paper packet
- Cold room, shelf or open spinner rack
- Crop type and its known short or long life
- Date of the last germination test
Batch records keep old seed from going out
Receive every delivery by lot. Record the supplier, the lot number, the packed for year, the test date, the quantity and the rack where it was put away. Without the lot you cannot tell new stock from last season’s leftovers, and neither can the person at the till, the picker or the buyer.
Set a sell by date on each lot, taken from the supplier’s terms and from the way you store the seed, and stop the sale after that date. That rule must hold on the web page, at the till and on the market stall, wherever a packet can change hands. Buyers sow on the label. They trust you to have checked.
At season end, pull the racks, count what is left by lot, and agree with the supplier whether to return, re-test or clear it. Never mix leftovers into next year’s display.
- Lot number and supplier certificate on file
- Sell until date on each lot
- Rack or bin location
- Quantity returned or cleared at season end
What to show buyers and what to check this week
On the product page, show the sow by date and the sowing months as separate lines, and say which lot ships if the dates differ between lots. Buyers read the packet. The page and the packet must agree. Pick from the oldest lot still in date.
Rules on what a packet must carry differ by country and by crop. Nothing here replaces a lawyer’s opinion. Check them with your seed regulator and with your supplier before you relabel, discount or reorder a single packet.
Take ten packets off your busiest rack and write down the lot, the test date and the packed for year for each. Mark each lot with no sell until date.
Seed lot register
A one-page grid, one row per lot. Columns run across for variety, packet size, supplier, lot number, packed for year, germination test date, date received, storage place, sell until date and quantity left. Returns are logged in a panel below the grid, and a second panel records clearance at season end.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Is the sow by date a legal limit?
Rules vary by country and by crop, so treat this as general information, not a legal opinion. Ask your seed regulator what a packet must show. Then ask your supplier for the lot certificate, which records the test behind the printed date and the variety it covers.
Can I sell seed after the packed for year?
Some sellers do, after a fresh germination test and with the supplier’s agreement, but the label must stay true to the packet. Do not guess. Relabel under the supplier’s rules, or clear the stock.
How long does vegetable seed stay good?
It depends on the crop and the storage. Onion, leek and parsnip lose vigour sooner than tomato or cabbage, and a cool dry store slows the loss for all of them. Your supplier’s lot data gives the answer for each line.
What should happen to unsold packets at season end?
Pull them from the racks, record counts by lot, and agree with the supplier whether to return, re-test or clear them. Keep them out of next year’s display.