seed storage/organization

[yotetrapper]

Currently I have all my seeds in little ziploc bags and all the bags in a coffee can. Sure, it works, but when I need a particular variety, I have to go digging through piles of them to find it. I want to be more organized. I thought of a photo albums, with the sleeves you slide pics into, but i dont think that will work so hot. Now I'm leaning towards a baseball card album.

Any ideas? What do you use?

[amideutch]

When I started saving seed I had the same problem including the coffee can thing. What I came up with is CD/DVD storage boxes that are made out of aluminum, lockable and come in different sizes. The small box has 100 double sided sleeves that hang on a rail in the box and are numbered. The larger box has 200 double sided sleeves. When I add a new addition I annotate the sleeve number in my excel spread sheet along with the other info. Once a box is filled, I go to a new box and I follow the number with a * to indicate it. As you can see one side of the sleeve in the picture can hold one 4"x4" ziplock for larger amounts of seed, 2 standard seed envelopes or 3 small ziplocks. Works for me. Ami

[salix]

I keep mine alphabetically in a long narrow Tupperware container with desiccant packs. So far it works well, but I only have about 250 varieties...

I know that ContainerTed has some BEEYOOTIFUL storage containers.

[ContainerTed]

Thanks for the nice words. I make these boxes myself. I know I posted them before somewhere, but here they are again. Dimensions are for a standard coin envelope. They really are easy to make. A larger, two level box is in the works to handle the increased number of tomato varieties.

Since I don't grow so many peppers, the pepper box is the smallest of the three.
PepperBox3.JPG

The middle size was originally meant for flowers, but now contains tomatoes as well
FlowerBox1.JPG FlowerBox2.JPG

The largest size is the tomato main box.
TomatoBox2.JPG

And here is a size comparison pix.
PepperTom.JPG

[austinnhanasmom]

Last year, I bought a scrap booking storage box that I knew would fit in a fridge drawer. I cut cardboard rectangles and taped ziplock baggies full of alphabetized flower, tomato and pepper seeds to the cardboard. These rectangles were then alphabetized and "filed" in the box. Other edibles ended up in a gallon sized ziplock bag. The box and gallon bag were then stored in the fridge.

Flowers are still in the scrap booking box; other edibles in the gallon baggie.

But, after acquiring hundreds of pepper and tomato seeds, I adjusted my storage methods:

I bought 1"x1" and 1"x2" ziplock baggies (ebay).
I bought business card holders, 8x10 sheet that holds 12 business cards per sheet, in 3-ring binder format and a 3 ring binder - zip shut kind of binder in case a seed packet gets loose.

I cut paper to the size of business cards and "laminated" them using shipping tape.

The cards are "alphabetized" and the 1"x1" baggies are taped onto the cards. (If I have a quantity of seeds that requires a 1"x2" (or 2"x3") baggie, the baggie itself goes into a business card holder slot.)

I can fit 8 tomato varieties beginning with "A" on each side of one card, 2 rows of 4 baggies slightly overlapping. Keeping the tape going in the same direction, the cards can be carefully inserted/removed from the business card holder. The 3 ring binder easily fits in the produce drawer of my fridge.

The initial 3 ring binder set up was cumbersome, but now I can easily find varieties for trading and germination. I found I could store hundreds and hundreds of varieties this way. I also added herbs, anything small seeded, to this method.

[daylilydude]

[clara]

I keep my self-grown seeds in vials/test tubes with a small label IN the vial. If you are a bit tricky to fill in the seeds, it works well and you can see the label clearly. The vials are put into racks in wooden boxes, some self made, some bought, in alphabetical order. Of course in every box there is a sheet of paper with the content. The seeds I get in a trade are put into slightly bigger plastic bags with the name of the trader, then put into hard plastic boxes (one for each year). For every year, I have lists with pics (if I could find some) in my laptop. When I have a lot of time - some day - I will put all together in an excel file with year, trader, some comments etc., but this will be the work of several days I suppose. clara

[sfmathews]

I'm in the same boat as Yoletrapper, so it's wonderful to see all the excellent storage ideas! I need to do reorganize mine as I sort through what I have on hand.
Susan

[Zana]

Originally Posted by ContainerTed

Thanks for the nice words. I make these boxes myself. I know I posted them before somewhere, but here they are again. Dimensions are for a standard coin envelope. They really are easy to make. A larger, two level box is in the works to handle the increased number of tomato varieties.

Since I don't grow so many peppers, the pepper box is the smallest of the three.
Attachment 12036

The middle size was originally meant for flowers, but now contains tomatoes as well
Attachment 12034 Attachment 12035

The largest size is the tomato main box.
Attachment 12037

And here is a size comparison pix.
Attachment 12038

Ted,

I think you could make allot of money marketing those boxes. I know I'd sign up for some.

Zana