Seed Storage: Plastic baggies or kraft coin envelopes?

bower · March 11, 2017

Good point about paper envelopes being a two way street for moisture.
Living in a place where humidity varies a lot, I use a two step process for saving seeds. When they appear dry I store them in paper envelopes at first. In autumn when the heating season kicks in, we get to see how much moisture has accumulated in the indoor air over the summer and early fall - quite a bit of condensation on the windows. After mopping that off a few times over a couple of weeks, we stabilize at a much dryer condition for the winter. When the seeds and envelopes have had time to reach that dryer state, I repack them in plastic zips with labels, for the long term. I do expect plastic to be less permeable than paper, so the seeds will stay as dry as they are when we go into another cycle of humidity in the house.

I also agree that the advantage alone of being able to see the condition and number of seeds left is well worth using plastic, for me. It's too easy to forget how many you used or sent out.
Coin envelopes do have the advantage of being rigid, which makes it easier to store them neatly and also to thumb through them in a box, while the little zips buckle over on each other and slip around.... This gets more annoying as you keep adding to the collection and squeezing in ever more bags.
This winter I switched to a ring binder system for my tomato seeds which keeps my zips straight. Picked up clear plastic sheets with pouches at the dollar store, they are exactly right size for the zips or for a small coin envelope. This way I can see what I have at a glance, without having to take out, spread out and then put back packets... unless I want to.

March 11, 2017	#31
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,794	Good point about paper envelopes being a two way street for moisture. Living in a place where humidity varies a lot, I use a two step process for saving seeds. When they appear dry I store them in paper envelopes at first. In autumn when the heating season kicks in, we get to see how much moisture has accumulated in the indoor air over the summer and early fall - quite a bit of condensation on the windows. After mopping that off a few times over a couple of weeks, we stabilize at a much dryer condition for the winter. When the seeds and envelopes have had time to reach that dryer state, I repack them in plastic zips with labels, for the long term. I do expect plastic to be less permeable than paper, so the seeds will stay as dry as they are when we go into another cycle of humidity in the house. I also agree that the advantage alone of being able to see the condition and number of seeds left is well worth using plastic, for me. It's too easy to forget how many you used or sent out. Coin envelopes do have the advantage of being rigid, which makes it easier to store them neatly and also to thumb through them in a box, while the little zips buckle over on each other and slip around.... This gets more annoying as you keep adding to the collection and squeezing in ever more bags. This winter I switched to a ring binder system for my tomato seeds which keeps my zips straight. Picked up clear plastic sheets with pouches at the dollar store, they are exactly right size for the zips or for a small coin envelope. This way I can see what I have at a glance, without having to take out, spread out and then put back packets... unless I want to.