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Updated October 2026

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What this covers The number with an expiry date Unless the container is hermetically sealed And the statute says why in those terms The container weight decides the label So two packaging decisions drive the paperwork What we can and cannot tell you References

If you sell seed across a state line, your germination test has an expiry date and your package sets it.

What this covers

Seed storage and seed packets, which is where the Federal Seed Act lands. Bulbs, cuttings and seed starting share this group in the taxonomy and want three different things, which the containers section deals with honestly rather than pretending otherwise.

The number with an expiry date

Where the germination percentage has to be shown, the label shows the month and year the test was completed, and no more than five calendar months may have elapsed between the end of that month and shipment in interstate commerce.

Unless the container is hermetically sealed

Then it is twenty-four calendar months, from a test completed prior to packaging. The same seed, the same test, nearly five times the window, decided by what it is sealed in.

And the statute says why in those terms

The Act lets the Secretary designate a longer period for seed packaged in such container materials and under such other conditions as will maintain the viability of the seed under ordinary conditions of handling. The package is doing the preserving, and the rule credits it.

The container weight decides the label

A packet of one pound or less whose germination meets the standard in 7 CFR 201.31 need not show the percentage or the date of test at all. Over a pound, every variety must show both. One line in a table, two different labels.

So two packaging decisions drive the paperwork

Sealed or not, and over or under a pound. Neither is a chemistry question and both are settled before anything is printed, which is why this property is organized around them.

What we can and cannot tell you

We publish the material, the neck finish and the liner on every closure, and 64 of the 235 closures on this shelf carry a heat-induction-seal liner. Whether a finished package is hermetically sealed is a question about your package and your sealing process, not about a part number.

References

7 CFR 201.30a, Date of test, which allows no more than 5 calendar months between the last day of the month the germination test was completed and the date of transportation in interstate commerce, except for seed in hermetically sealed containers, where it is 24 calendar months from a test completed prior to packaging. law.cornell.edu

7 U.S.C. 1571, the Federal Seed Act’s prohibited acts. Subsection (b) sets the label content for vegetable seed by container weight and by whether germination meets the established standard; subsection (c) sets the five-month test window and lets the Secretary designate a longer period for seed "packaged in such container materials and under such other conditions" as will maintain viability. law.cornell.edu

7 CFR 201.29 and 201.29a. Vegetable seed in containers of 1 pound or less that equals or betters the 201.31 standard need not show the germination percentage or date of test; below standard it carries "Below Standard" conspicuously in type no smaller than 8 points plus the percentage and hard seed. Over 1 pound, every variety shows the germination percentage and hard seed. law.cornell.edu

Written from federal statute and regulation, not from a seed bench. Every state also runs its own seed law, and the Federal Seed Act reaches interstate commerce, so a local sale can answer to a different set of requirements. Nothing here certifies a package as hermetically sealed; that is a question about the package and the sealing process.