Saving Seeds

[Volvo]

Daresay this had been brought up before and remember some talk about seed saving for lasting awhile but thought ide re-ask again due to failure with seeds ive saved to strike after a year or so with some seed.
In the past i ferment the seed and used to keep my seeds in old 35mm film containers , then in little brown envelopes .
Some lasted some didnt strikewise ??..
In the meantime ive read on forums where people freeze their seeds .
So how long have most succefully saved seed via freezing method , or other means succesfully.
Hope im not going overboard on previouse posts with this ey..

[Whwoz]

How long do you ferment for Volvo? In your climate you would not want to leave them in the water for more than 4 days unless totally unavoidable as they will start to germinate.

[Volvo]

Originally Posted by Whwoz

How long do you ferment for Volvo? In your climate you would not want to leave them in the water for more than 4 days unless totally unavoidable as they will start to germinate.

Yes Mate , normally three days..
Mate of mine does his in Hydrochloric acid n water .
Im just looking at more follproof ways of seed saving so they can last..

[Volvo]

Soooo in short Hydrogen Peroxide should do as well but what % of Hydrogen Peroxide to water i would like to know??...

[slugworth]

I never ferment seeds

[kath]

Originally Posted by slugworth

I never ferment seeds

Me neither...make sure fruits are nice and ripe, use OxiClean method on seeds & juice, done in 30 minutes, dry on paper plate in dehumidified basement for a week and put in paper, plastic, or containers; keep in fridge, freezer, or at basement temp- have done it all and germination is near 100% and still good after 7 years, which is as long as I've tried growing from the same seeds that I saved. Easy, peasy. Not organic, but no resulting disease so far for lack of fermentation- works for me.

[rxkeith]

i ferment.


i squish the seeds into small mason jars, we have a bunch. if they need a little liquid
i had a small amount of water. put lid on loosely so no fruit flies get in causing you
to deal with fruit fly larvae. i leave them for 5 to 7 days depending on temperature.
you want them in there long enough for the gel to come off the seed.

i then rinse them with water like panning for gold. add water, dump water, and debris
and repeat until there are just seeds in the bottom of the jar.

pour them into a small sieve, shake off excess water, and dump onto a paper plate.
i leave them on the plate until very dry. label the plate with the variety of seed, and maybe the date you put them on the plate.
i know its dry in the house when i have to fire up the wood stove we use for heat in the winter time.

next i package them up. small plastic bags. coin envelopes, the little foil packages
that some teas come in work too. i planted 10 year old seeds of pervaya lyubov
packaged in a twinings tea packet. all 10 seeds came up.


i have never frozen seeds. what i have read on here is the seeds need to be really dry. maybe 6% moisture content otherwise the seeds will be damaged when frozen.
when you take the seeds out of the freezer to plant, let the package come to room
temperature before opening it.
did i get that right everyone?



that's what i do.
i almost always get better germination of my seed than from any other source.
one notable exception is the mama helen line of the anna russian cross i am
working on. poor germination for some reason with that one.




keith

[Volvo]

Originally Posted by kath

Me neither...make sure fruits are nice and ripe, use OxiClean method on seeds & juice, done in 30 minutes, dry on paper plate in dehumidified basement for a week and put in paper, plastic, or containers; keep in fridge, freezer, or at basement temp- have done it all and germination is near 100% and still good after 7 years, which is as long as I've tried growing from the same seeds that I saved. Easy, peasy. Not organic, but no resulting disease so far for lack of fermentation- works for me.

Oxiclean method ?? Please

[kath]

Originally Posted by Volvo

Oxiclean method ?? Please

There is a description in this thread, post #8:

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...xiclean+method

There are sure to be others if you search, along with the pros/cons, comparing it to fermenting, using TSP, etc.

[slugworth]

I took the lazy way out one year and froze the entire tomato.
I paid for that mistake.
0% germination and 4 years of work down the drain.
I was growing round speckled roman,normally a plum type.

[Father'sDaughter]

I've had good results with fermenting, a brief soak in a bleach solution, and allowing them to completely dry before packing them in small ziplock bags and keeping them in a dark, cool location. Last year I had 100% germination with seeds I had saved in 2012.

[mcsee]

Ferment your seeds for 3 days - simple.

[slugworth]

Originally Posted by mcsee

Ferment your seeds for 3 days - simple.

unless you get distracted and forget about them.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by mcsee

Ferment your seeds for 3 days - simple.

Agreed, no chemicals so no possibility of errors that would kill the seed, all natural saprophytic fungal action to clean the seed before rinsing and drying.

[Volvo]

See if these pics upload ?? , Pics of my homemade soil blocks ..