From harvest to packet
Updated
On this page8
One: get the germination test done
By a laboratory, with the month and year of completion recorded. That date is the start of the clock, and for a hermetically sealed container the regulation requires the test to have been completed before packaging, not after.
Two: compare it to the standard for the crop
7 CFR 201.31 gives a minimum germination percentage for each vegetable kind. Carrot is 55, lettuce is 80, turnip is 80, pepper is 55. Your result either meets the figure for your crop or it does not, and that decides the label.
Three: decide the container weight
One pound or less, or more than one pound. Under the line and at or above standard, the percentage and date need not appear. Over the line, they always do, along with a lot number.
Four: decide whether to seal
A hermetically sealed container buys twenty-four months instead of five. That changes how much you can pack at once, how long a season you can sell across, and whether a retest is needed before the next shipment.
Five: print the label from the rule
Kind and variety, the germination percentage and date where required, "Below Standard" where it applies in type no smaller than 8 points, treatment disclosure where the seed is treated, and the name and address of the responsible person.
Then watch the clock, not the stock
The constraint is a date rather than a quantity. Seed sitting in a warehouse past its window cannot lawfully be shipped interstate until it is retested, which is an inventory decision disguised as a labeling one.
Keep the five answers together
Test result and date, crop standard, container weight, sealed or not, and label version. Any change to the packaging reopens at least two of the others, which is the recurring shape of every property here.