While seed priming (controlled hydration followed by drying) enhances seed germination rates, the longevity of primed seeds in storage is often reduced. Post-priming treatments involving a slow drying process to cause a partial reduction in seed moisture content prior to complete drying can restore longevity in several species compared to rapid drying after priming. The goal of this project is to develop solid matrix priming and post-priming protocols that improve seed germination performance without penalizing potential seed quality or longevity after storage. A solid matrix-based priming protocol (10 g of seeds incubated for 2 days with 12 mL of water and 20 g of AGSORBR® clay matrix followed by rapid drying) was developed for two tomato seed lots that advanced germination timing, although it accelerated loss of seed quality during storage. Similar experiments with pepper and onion seeds encountered some initial complications, including low seed viability and susceptibility to fungal growth, so experiments were continued only with tomato seeds. For both tomato seed lots (T1 and T2), two days of priming advanced germination timing but had the maximum adverse effect on subsequent storage life. After the priming but before drying, post-priming treatments were conducted on the two tomato seed lots by adding additional amounts of clay matrix (2, 4, or 6 g) into the priming treatment to reduce seed moisture content and incubating for two additional days before drying to 8% seed moisture content (dry weight basis). Controlled deterioration tests (47% RH and 50°C) were conducted on control seeds and seeds exposed to different priming and post-priming treatments and seed longevities were compared. In this study, ASTEQ Q2 Oxygen Sensing Technology was used to measure the oxygen consumption of individual seeds at frequent intervals during the priming and aging process in lieu of manual radicle emergence observations. The results for determination of priming conditions showed a high correlation between respiration rates and radicle emergence rates in the same conditions. Potential maximum longevity (Pmax) values were estimated from the aging-time model using respiration time course data. Generally, the results of post-priming treatments did not accord with our expectations, for the post-priming treatments did not extend tomato seed longevity to match that of the unprimed seeds. Although some post-priming treatments slightly increased P[subscript max] values for the T2 seed lot compared to the conventional priming treatment, the differences were small. For the T1 seed lot, the restoration treatments did not result in any improvement in longevity compared with the priming-only treatment. Curiously, in some cases there was not a clear decline in germination rates or viability with increasing aging time. Thus, further optimization is needed for post-priming treatments of tomato seeds to restore longevity in storage.