Storing seeds

baggins11

I have loads of seeds and want to ensure they last as long as possible. I know the advice is a cool dark place in a sealed container but I don't really have anywhere that maintains temperature over the year.

Over the winter they were in the garage and I guess I am more worried about them getting too hot than too cold. I have had them in the house recently for ease of access but is this too hot for them?

The garage is probably the most suitable place for them but it is a faff to get to them. The greenhouse would be ideal for me but I guess that suffers from v hot temperatures at times so not suitable.

What do the experienced gardeners do??

Farway

Usual place, if allowed, is in fridge salad drawer

DigForVictory

And (where not allowed) in an insulated cool box (think picnic carrier for beer) in the coalshed.
That said I have biscuit tins with envelopes of seeds shoved on top of my computer monitor & they appear to survive and germinate with a similar success percentage to ones excavated from the coal shed.

Knowing what you have & roughly when you are supposed to get it into the ground are almost as important as storage!

baggins11

Never enough room in our fridge! But I do have a big cool box so will look it out. Good to hear that they survive a bit of warmth though. I have invested in a heated propagator and so far had a good success rate so I haven't killed any off yet!

Davesnave

Low humidity is more important than a really low temperature, though the drier and cooler, the slower dererioration happens.


Some seed, like parsnip, wo 't keep long and other seed bought after it's a few months old is next to useless, but that doesn't stop people selling it!

baggins11

Does anyone know if its just germination that's affected with older seed? Or might seeds germinate but the quality of plant be lower and less productive? I bought loads of seed at the end of last summer in the sale but wonder if its a false economy to do it this way?

Davesnave

If it grows, it'll be fine.


I'm just on a germination test now with some 5 year old cucumber seeds. They grew last year.

youngie

germination rate does decrease with age but if stored in a cool dry place most seeds will be fine it is always cheaper than buying plants so you can afford to sow a few extras

Davesnave

youngie wrote: »

germination rate does decrease with age but if stored in a cool dry place most seeds will be fine it is always cheaper than buying plants so you can afford to sow a few extras

It's not as simple as that once you move away from veg.

Some seed goes dormant within a few months, while other seed may go double dormant and need two years or more outdoors to germinate.

Seed can remain viable for a long time. e.g. Common dock will germinate for up to 70 years.

Anyway, this is why if people buy seed of some plants in spring, they'll fail miserably to see anything grow in a season. Hellebores are a good example; if they are dropped at Whitsun and planted straight away, they'll come up like weeds. Wait till September and you'll wait a long time!

baggins11

Very interesting, thanks davesnave.

Davesnave

baggins11 wrote: »

Very interesting, thanks davesnave.

Just as a final note on this, my 5 year old cucumber seeds have come up!