Saving seeds from year to year

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Saving seeds from year to year

Posted by jenny in Growing Stuff on February 23, 2013 at 18:03

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How do other people keep their seeds from year to year? My packets are sort of lined up by approximate planting time in an open box, since they outgrew the sealed container I was keeping them in. Seeds from my own plants, like kale, I keep in aspirin bottles and similar. They're in a part of the house that's not heated, and they seem to do ok – but I'm wondering if I'd get better germination if I did things differently, and how much trouble it'd be to do.

How do you store your seeds, or do you get fresh every year, or what? Inquiring mind wants to know!

8 comments

Skud

Posted by Skud on 2013-02-23 22:32:23 UTC

Mine live in the packets they were originally purchased in (if purchased) or in small labelled ziplocs if from our own plants. Those packets are then organised into larger ziplocs marked with planting season: "early spring", "late spring/summer", "autumn (winter crops)", "all year round". Those larger ziplocs live in a drawer near the back door that leads out to the garden. The drawer also contains random small items I might want to use in the garden, eg. the paintbrush we use to hand-pollinate zucchini, and a pair of old tights that gets cut up to tie things to stakes.

jenny

Posted by jenny on 2013-02-23 22:55:29 UTC

Ooh, ziplocs by planting season sounds like an excellent idea, and would also make them less vulnerable to humidity (which we have lots of).

fe2h2o

Posted by fe2h2o on 2013-02-24 01:12:42 UTC

Ooh yes! The planting by season ziplocs! I can see that being really helpful!

inkstone

Posted by inkstone on 2013-02-26 22:37:27 UTC

It depends. Some of the seed packets I have are nicely resealable. If that's the case, I leave the excess seeds in there. Otherwise, I transfer the excess seeds into small ziplock bags and then pop them back into the original packaging so I can have the seed info at hand. If it's seed I saved from my garden, after letting them dry out properly, I transfer them to the (labelled!) ziplock bags.

I sort my seeds into bigger ziplock bags by crop type. So: herbs, greens, tomatoes/peppers, vines and a big bag i call "other vegetables" which includes stuff like okra and eggplant. These bags in turn are stored in a big plastic tub with lid which I then keep in a box with my gloves, markers, popsicle sticks (for labelling if I direct sow in pots), scissors, more ziplock baggies, and twist-ties.

I kind of have a seed buying addiction so I try to limit the packets I buy from year to year. This year I've only bought 3, which is really good for me! (I did buy 3 other packets but those were for my mother so they don't count!!)

Skud

Posted by Skud on 2013-03-19 04:30:24 UTC

This is a random test comment, please ignore!

fe2h2o

Posted by fe2h2o on 2013-03-28 02:50:23 UTC

Another random test:-)

fe2h2o

Posted by fe2h2o on 2013-03-28 12:19:42 UTC

and yet more tests:-)

amy

Posted by amy on 2013-08-21 14:58:02 UTC

I also use the original seed packets, and if it's not clear (some brands are better than others) I mark on them what year they were bought. I don't buy all new every year, but I also don't expect great things from seeds more than a few years old.

Mostly, I'm testing a new comment.

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