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cold storage of prairie seed

Carl:

We still have seed left over from our restoration planting this spring.  The
seed was collected in mid-October 2000 (last year), sat in an old barn over
the winter and has been there ever since.  We would like to use in at the
University's reconstructed site in Omaha this fall after some drainage work
is completed.  My question is this, if we put the seed in cold storage, will
it still have some viability in the fall -- a year after it was harvested.  
In the end, is it worth putting the remaining seed (approx. 40 seed bags) in
cold storage and paying the charges for the chance of some germination next
year?  If we cold storage this stuff, could we get 40% germination after this
long of period?

For background, the TZ test came back very high >90% for most seeds analysed,
and we have had about 2 weeks of 85 degrees or higher this spring.

George R. Cunningham
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