Tuesday, September 02, 2025

Can I Grow 100 Year Old Tomato Seeds?



Eric posts videos about his hobby of restoring rusty antique tools, and has built quite a following over the years. However, the latest video on his channel Hand Tool Rescue, months in the making, veered off into left field. He had found a free packet of seeds distributed with a seed catalog issued in 1926 (so the seeds were actually formed from 1925 tomatoes). Could he get them to germinate? His regular viewers were shocked when he revealed early in the video that he has a PhD in plant science, sparking comments about this being the worst tool restoration video yet. 

The video is long, 24 minutes, but its funny and you can skip through if you don't want to learn all about his experiments with different germination media and his various failures and successes. But if you watch the whole thing, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat rooting for the survival of a (spoiler alert) single tomato seedling. (via Metafilter

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