Seed Sorting Weekend

[jtjmartin]

I think with a couple more years here in Tomatoville that I will need to go with binders too!

Does it help to store tomato seeds in a refrigerator?

Jeff

[AlittleSalt]

I have read that some people store their Tomato seeds in a refrigerator - in a freezer - others store them on the dashboard of pickups. I have read that tomato seeds lost in a flood/natural disaster were found 50+ years later and they still germinated.

In 2015, I grew very healthy tomato plants from seeds saved in 2003. Those seeds were stored in normal household temperatures.

[MissS]

Originally Posted by jtjmartin

I think with a couple more years here in Tomatoville that I will need to go with binders too!

Does it help to store tomato seeds in a refrigerator?

Jeff

Yep you will. I used to store my seeds with their little bags or packages in baggies labeled alphabetically. It soon became impossible to find what I wanted even with a spreadsheet. Then I went to boxes with the packs all in a row. That lasted about one year until I went to the binders with the 1/2 index cards fitting perfectly into each game card slot. Guess what? I am in the MMMM once again and this year at the end of the buying school supply season I bought two more 4 inch binders hoping that Gary will send me another major bunch of seeds. Hmm...... and I just learned that I may have to be moving and just might be out of garden space next season.........

[tash11]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

....

I need to use one binder for seeds I have saved and pepper seeds. Another binder for those that I want to trade/give away. And the most difficult binder to sort is the one that has varieties that we want to grow eventually. That binder needs extra card collector sheets between each letter so I'll have room to put whatever I receive from the MMMM.

There are many threads here about how we store seeds. My way above is one way. How do you save your seeds? How do you categorize them?

I have binders too, also alphabetically sorted. Currently 3, and they need a bit of reorganizing. But I am waiting until after I get my trades in to do it all at once.

I also have spreadsheets, with far too much info on them. Variety name, most recent year I have seeds from, how many seeds (or the number '100' if I grew them), color, DTM, size, type, year introduced (if known), heirloom or F number or whatever, leaf type, notes, etc. Part of deciding what to grow is including things from lots of categories. Especially older seed or ones I don't have many of. And growing ones for other people is easy because I can filter out what they don't want in a tomato.

I use collectable card sheets. One variety per row, so three per sheet/page. The left is 'mine' and has a pack for each year (from me or others). The middle and left are ones I am ok with trading/giving away. On the left I also put an info thing with pic if I have time. Mostly for ones I have grown. I would guess only about 10% actually have that. (if you get a pack from me in the MMMM or Andrea's trade then you will have a version of that on the pack)

These are the sleeves I use. I got a 3 pack (300 total pages) on eBay recently to prepare for getting my trades back: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I get the binders at the thrift store, or sometimes at school supply sales. I think 2" is good. I have three for tomatoes currently, and 1 for peppers, and 1 for 'others'. Larger seeds are still in a box though, but I think I might get bigger sleeves someday, like the 4X6 photo sized.


Before the binders I had a box. I really like the binders, it makes going straight to a variety I want to grow or trade super easy and fast.

[ddsack]

I normally save several batches of seeds per variety each season, and I don't like to mix them together for various reasons, so I might end up with as many as 4 or 5 mini ziplocks or coin envelopes per variety (and previous years as well) which I need to store together. I came up with a storage system that works well for me.

I store my labeled mini zips and coin envelopes in large letter sized envelopes filed alphabetically. I have plenty of room for notes on the envelopes for sources, years, and fermentation notes. Easy to expand anytime by adding a 2nd envelope for overflow since I rarely throw any seeds away.

Stored in a low plastic 16" x 21" storage container with a lid - need to add some kind of cardboard center divider so the two sides don't shuffle together - mine is a cut open and stretched out envelope box. These old pics are when I first worked on the project, I have two full boxes now and have to start a third one soon.

The current year's use envelopes are pulled and stored in a separate small plastic shoe box until the end of the season, when any new seeds and notes are added. Incoming new varieties are first added to a computer database before filing. All correspondence is kept together in front of the "A"s.

[Raiquee]

Dee nice organization!

I'm currently putting peppers and tomatoes back into the baseball card slots. And also beans and peas....

[Jimbotomateo]

Originally Posted by MissS

Yep you will. I used to store my seeds with their little bags or packages in baggies labeled alphabetically. It soon became impossible to find what I wanted even with a spreadsheet. Then I went to boxes with the packs all in a row. That lasted about one year until I went to the binders with the 1/2 index cards fitting perfectly into each game card slot. Guess what? I am in the MMMM once again and this year at the end of the buying school supply season I bought two more 4 inch binders hoping that Gary will send me another major bunch of seeds. Hmm...... and I just learned that I may have to be moving and just might be out of garden space next season.........

MissS, hope you still have place for wonderful garden this year. Enjoy your thoughtful, kind, insightful, and patient posts! Sounds like your gonna be swimmin in seeds ! .Jimbo.

[Jarrod King]

Oakley have you seen the new Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them movie? I'm struck by the similarities between yours and Newt Scamander's case he keeps his exotic Beasts in.

[AlittleSalt]

It's no wonder that it took all weekend to sort them all out. Not including grow-outs, crosses, mislabeled bags, etc. There are 434 varieties.

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

It's no wonder that it took all weekend to sort them all out. Not including grow-outs, crosses, mislabeled bags, etc. There are 434 varieties.

Should read, "Not including grow-outs, crosses, mislabeled bags, the 200 varieties Tormato will soon be sending me, etc." 😄😄😄

[Father'sDaughter]

I go with playing card sheets and two binders -- one for eating varieties and the other for pastes. Pastes are alphabetized. Eating varieties are divided by cherry/small, early, and midseason and sorted alphabetically.

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

Should read, "Not including grow-outs, crosses, mislabeled bags, the 200 varieties Tormato will soon be sending me, etc." ������

I stand corrected

[AlittleSalt]

Bill and Dee, I like the envelope ideas. The box/holder would have to have a strong lid - otherwise our two cats would make a nesting area/playhouse there. Both cats are going on one year old. I could hide a box under the house inside another box, and they would still find it.

[b54red]

dd the way you store yours is almost identical to mine. The big difference is that once I determine a tomato is not a favorite that I will likely plant again I remove it so that I don't have so many varieties to sort through. I take the discarded envelopes of seeds with the data on them and just put them in the bottom of an old desk drawer and every few years permanently discard some of the older ones and occasionally I will take one out of retirement and give it one more chance.

If I had kept all the seeds that I saved in 40 years of gardening it would be a maddening mess. I am continuing to narrow my number of varieties that I plant each year and finding that some I thought were must plants just five or six years ago don't even measure up anymore. Now when I pick a fresh tomato I know I will at least like it and more likely love it. I still try a few new ones most years if they interest me but most just don't make the cut. Last year I tried four or five new ones but only Margaret Curtain and Rebel Yell deserve a replant either this year or next. I know what I like in a tomato and there just isn't any reason to be tempting myself with growing varieties that I don't really like for one reason or another.

Bill

[ddsack]

Salt, there's no getting away from helpful cats, inside or out!



Yes, those boxes have snap on lids. Last spring I had some open shoe boxes for non-tomato seeds, and the cat kept rummaging in them for fun. I think there was some herb seed smell that was particularly enticing for him because one box kept getting dumped more often.