Storing unused heirloom seeds

[ricklynchcore]

Question, I have unused heirloom and pelleted hybred seeds remaining from this years sowing. Should I use a food sealing device and seal them away for use next year?? Or do they not keep.

Rick

[robin303]

I put mine in coin tubes and stick them in the freezer. Also they fit perfectly in one of those Index card plastic boxes.

[nctomatoman]

Tomato seeds store fine at room temperature for up to 12 years or more. Key is keeping them dry - I use snap cap plastic vials.

[ricklynchcore]

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

Tomato seeds store fine at room temperature for up to 12 years or more. Key is keeping them dry - I use snap cap plastic vials.

Thanks all for the reply. I will store them away.

Rick

[dice]

The scientific approach:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archiv...8/seed0998.htm

Informally: dry is good, dry and cold is better.

Edit:

Keeping them dry with an indicating dessicant:

http://www.drierite.com/default.cfm

(You can mix the cheaper non-indicating stuff with the
indicating kind to save expense.)

[nctomatoman]

Cold and not sufficiently dry is detrimental - the dessicant is important.

I've stored them in my office, we have a heat pump, so temp varies from 62 through about 72. No special treatment - just stacked boxes of vials. I've had 12 year old seed that is 70-80% - it varies due to the fermentation conditions of a particular batch of seeds. Last year I did a big test looking at seed from 1986, 1987, 1988, (20 years or beyond), and it was a complete failure. I think that somewhere around 15 years without special storage or drying the viability falls off a cliff.

This year I germinated 14 year old Cherokee Purple seed at 60%. One issue is that with older seed you get some odd looking seedlings - failure of a growing point between the Cotyledons, etc. But you can coax enough good ones to take them on. I am getting 100% germination and great looking seedlings from 9 year old seed this year.

[amideutch]

I store my seeds in small ziplock bags. I use those small aluminum CD storage boxes that have 2 compartments with 50 double sided plastic sleeves with a metal bracket top that rests on a metal rail on each side. Each sleeve is numbered and can hold up to 3 small ziplocks each side or one large ziplock when I have a large quantity of seeds. I make up an inventory sheet in excel and use the sleeve number to indicate location and variety. Easy to sort and the boxes can be locked. I pick them up for $10-$15 a piece. Ami

[carolyn137]

All of my saved seed from about 1990 to 1995 is stored in plastic screw cap vials in 100 place scintilltion boxes I liberated when a new scintillation counter was ordered.

Those from about 1995 onward are stored just in plain white envelopes at ambient room temp which can vary from maybe 65 to 80 plus in the summer.

For seeds less than 5 yo I just sow as is, for those from about 5 yo to maybe 10-12 yo I double sow and often am surprised at the high germination rates for some varieties. Beyond maybe 12 yo I usually soak the seeds for about 12-18 hours with a pinch of MG or Peters or one can use a few drops of liquid fish or seaweed emulsion, and that's to increase the nitrate concentration which is known to be important in seed germination.

Several of us have noted that heart shaped varieties lose viability faster then non-hearts.

My current record is waking up 22 yo seed.

The documented record is waking up 50 yo tomato seed. That occurred when all seeds at the Cheyenne, WY station, a precursor to the USDA stations, was moved from Cheyenne to Ames, IA and when testing tomato seed viability that's when they found that the 50 yo seeds were still viable. The seeds were stored at the Cheyenne station in a file drawer at ambient temps with nothing special being done.

I can see freezing for long term, and I mean long term viability and that's what several seed banks do, but unless a person has just a few seeds I can't see home gardeners doing that. And if one freezes seeds they've got to get the moisture level down to about 6-8% before doing so.

[ContainerTed]

My woodworking hobby has its benefits. I made some boxes to store seeds. In the pictures below, the middle sized one (picture #4), which I use for flower and herb seed, was the prototype. They are all made of "Bass Wood" (sides) and 1/8" hardwood plywood. I made the smaller one from leftovers after making the large one and decided it was perfect for peppers. Some mini-hardware (hinges and hasps) from Hobby Lobby or Michaels and the job was done.

I use the small ziplocks and put those inside coin envelopes to better facilitate stacking and identifying them. I write the variety name, total number of seeds, the source of the seeds, and the age if known on the coin envelope. I also keep an extensive Excel spreadsheet, and I wrote a custom Visual Basic program that runs in windows and tracks seed trades and give-aways and freebies. Picture 9 is of one of the screens and shows the information kept. Both the "Seeds To Send" and "Seeds To Receive" areas scroll to accomodate larger amounts of data.

The larger seed box holds about 100 of the little coin envelopes in each of the four rows. All three boxes have an area for those miscellaneous items we seem to collect when buying and trading. The tomato seed box has enough room to put the larger envelopes and such until I feel like "processing" them into the inventory.

Storage is at ambient room temp of about 70 F.

Ted

[BattleOfBennington]

Ted - those are some great boxes.

do I see a second source of income for you?

Originally Posted by ContainerTed

My woodworking hobby has its benefits. I made some boxes to store seeds. In the pictures below, the middle sized one (picture #4), which I use for flower and herb seed, was the prototype. They are all made of "Bass Wood" (sides) and 1/8" hardwood plywood. I made the smaller one from leftovers after making the large one and decided it was perfect for peppers. Some mini-hardware (hinges and hasps) from Hobby Lobby or Michaels and the job was done.

I use the small ziplocks and put those inside coin envelopes to better facilitate stacking and identifying them. I write the variety name, total number of seeds, the source of the seeds, and the age if known on the coin envelope. I also keep an extensive Excel spreadsheet, and I wrote a custom Visual Basic program that runs in windows and tracks seed trades and give-aways and freebies. Picture 9 is of one of the screens and shows the information kept. Both the "Seeds To Send" and "Seeds To Receive" areas scroll to accomodate larger amounts of data.

The larger seed box holds about 100 of the little coin envelopes in each of the four rows. All three boxes have an area for those miscellaneous items we seem to collect when buying and trading. The tomato seed box has enough room to put the larger envelopes and such until I feel like "processing" them into the inventory.

Storage is at ambient room temp of about 70 F.

Ted

[clara]

Me, too, I like working with wood as a hobby and my seeds are stored in self-made wooden boxes. Inside there are test tube racks with vials (I could have made this for myself by drilling holes into a fitting wooden board, but I got the racks at a real low price). Every vial is labeled and there's a sheet of paper with infos in the box, too. And there are small bags of desiccant, too. All the boxes are too big to put them into the fridge, so I store them at room temperature. It seems to work well.
clara

[amideutch]

Here are the boxes I use as explained earlier. The last picture I took today playing with my new camera. Beautiful weather we are having in Germany.Ami

[Mischka]

As Craig said, keeping moisture out is paramount for successful long term storage.

You can find pre-packaged silica gel dessicant online or do what I do and make your own for a whole heck of a lot cheaper.

I bought heat seal tea bags from an Ebay seller:

http://cgi.ebay.com/500-Small-Heat-S...3286.m20.l1116

but you can just as easily do what this person does:

http://www.alpharubicon.com/prepinfo...ntpacksgvi.htm

I seal the seeds in a foil barrier envelope along with a pack of dessicant.

You can buy foil barrier envelopes from SSE.

[Wi-sunflower]

So far I've just stored my seeds in a large file cabinet. If the seeds are purchased, they go into a "zip-lock" baggie. My own saved seeds are also in baggies. I usually use the freezer weight baggies as they keep the air out better.

In the winter it's the coolest room on the main floor. In summer it can be a bit warm but usually not to bad. As we heat with wood, our house tends to be bone dry most of the year.

As I've saved larger amounts lately I'm thinking of taking some of the seeds and putting them in a fridge or freezed so they would keep longer.

As it is right now tho, my own seed seems to do OK for at least 4-6 years. I have had some commercial seed do some germination for over 10 years. Tho the seed I've gotten lately is lucky to germinate after about 3 years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the silica, if you have some of the larger size crystals, using an old piece of panty hose works well to make packets. I use 2 layers and just tie knots in each end. You can even put them in the oven to dry them as long as you don't have the heat on too high. It doesn't work with the really fine "flower drying" stuff tho as that will go right thru the mesh of the hose.

I don't know if they still carry it, but I got some bulk color indicating crystals from Southern Exposure many years ago.

Carol

[Polar_Lace]

I've been using basket sized coffee filters cut in half for the silica packets. I guess if I were more adept, I could use them cut into thirds.

And my mom has very many silica packets from her vitamin jars. Her doctor switched her over to a Vitamins, because the strong meds she was taking, were having bad effects to her body; she's 79 now.

~* Robin