Why Test Results Are a Starting Point and Not a Finish Line.
An article from the team at 20/20 Seed Labs Inc.
Once seed testing is completed in the lab, its test results represent a snapshot in time. While the data provides confidence for decision‑making, seed quality can continue to change during handling, storage, and conditioning.
Seed testing provides a clear, controlled measurement of quality and health at a specific point in time. What happens next depends on how that seed is handled, stored, transported, and managed until it reaches the soil. It’s equally important to understand what can influence seed quality after testing as understanding the results themselves.
Laboratory testing answers four critical questions. Is the seed viable? How strong is its vigour? Are seed-borne pathogens present? What is its physical and physiological condition? Once the seed leaves controlled storage conditions, it re-enters a dynamic and ever-changing environment.
Temperature fluctuations, humidity, mechanical handling, time, and storage conditions all begin to influence quality; sometimes gradually and sometimes quickly. This doesn’t make test results less valuable; it makes the context of the results more important.
When it comes to handling and movement of seed, augers, conveyors, bagging systems, seed treaters, transport between locations, each movement has the potential to introduce mechanical damage. Cracks, splits, and internal fractures are not always visible, but they can significantly impact vigour and emergence. Seed that tests well at the lab can still underperform if it experiences stress between testing and planting, this is where gentle handling and team awareness of seed condition are essential parts of protecting quality, especially for crops more sensitive to damage such as pulses.
Seed is a living system, and even under good conditions in storage, quality naturally declines over time. Temperature, moisture, airflow, and length of storage all influence rate of deterioration, disease development, loss of vigour, risk of heating or spoilage accelerating the decline of the seeds performance. Testing early and revisiting results closer to planting when conditions or timelines change can be an important risk management step.
The time between testing and planting also matters; seed tested shortly after harvest and planted months later has lived a very different life than seed tested closer to seeding. The changes may seem subtle, but in marginal conditions small differences in vigour or health can influence stand establishment and uniformity.
In season, diagnostics provide an additional source of insight, and once the seed is planted, lab results don’t disappear. Early season diagnostics help answer new questions when it comes to matching emergence expectations, patterns that support handling or storage stress, and at what point is disease or nutrient stress showing up. These observations help connect what was known in the lab to what is unfolding in the field and close the loop between prediction and performance.
Taking time to understand what happens after seed leaves the lab will help ensure test results are used appropriately as a foundation for decision making rather than a guarantee of performance. Seed quality is shaped by a system that works together and includes testing, storage and logistics, handling and treatment, environmental exposure and most importantly time.
The most effective use of seed testing is not to file results away, but to treat them as a reference point that informs ongoing decisions. When results are paired with good handling practices, thoughtful storage, and seasonal diagnostics, they become part of a system, one that supports consistency, learning, and better outcomes over time. Seed quality doesn’t end at the lab’s door; this is where the next chapter begins.
At 20/20 Seed Labs, we see seed testing as one part of a much larger system that continues long after results are reported. Our role is to help ensure those results are understood in context and revisited when conditions change and connected back to what’s happening in storage, handling, and in the field.
When questions arise along the way, we’re here to help interpret what the data is telling you and how it fits into the next decision.
Book a consultation today: https://2020seedlabs.ca/contact-us/
