Most of what I planted came from unopened packets, a good bit of it being stuff that was going to be tossed in a dumpster by the missus' employer because it was past growing season. In fact, the stuff from the opened and older packets seems to have done better. However, we do keep the seeds in a plastic container with silica get packets to keep things dry. The missus is the store's primary for keeping all new product on display and getting the discontinued product out of the store, mostly in the dumpster. I've scored a few nice things there for pennies on the dollar, and collected quite a bit of steel from some of the displays that were decommissioned. The seeds she scored at the end of summer were all this year's inventory and priced at $4-$10 each packet. She got them for free, because there's no returning them to the supplier for storage and resale. Tell me there isn't something going on there. But, I'm a skeptical cynic, perhaps even a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but I've seen way too much in my career to be otherwise. There was at least $200 worth of seeds she brought home that otherwise were headed for the landfill. Sadly though, one usually gets what they pay for, and only about 10% of it was viable. Free things are sometimes worth exactly what they cost. I'm pretty sure it isn't the soil because it's growing some damn fine weeds and anything I put in as a seedling thrives in it. Just getting seed to germinate is the problem. Maybe too wet, dunno, it is that time of year in Alabama. Our winter isn't particularly cold temperature wise, but the coldest I've ever been was about 45F with a damp mist falling all day, and no way to get inside on the jobsite I was on. Alabama winter weather may be considered mild by most, but with the humidity that never freezes out of the air, it can be absolutely brutal. There's no getting warm once your clothes get damp from the humidity.
