This is something I've heard about but never tried.

Put your seeds in a wet paper towel to get an idea of viability, ie what percent will germinate.

I should do this because otherwise I'm guessing, as far as how many seeds to sow.

I'm trying it for the first time right now, with my Yvonne Salvia seeds.

The half-sprout I saw yesterday has bit the dirt. gone. :Last year I sowed Yvonne salvia seeds which were given to me, and they germinated at a very high rate. This year I did everything the same, and nothing, nada, zip.

So now I'm thinking maybe the seeds (which I collected) are to blame. Altho they look the same as the ones I sowed last year.

Maybe collected them too early, or too late.

Anyway, want to solve this mystery, so I'm testing the seeds.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Testing seed viability