Seed storage/organistion

[peanut]

Hello folks,

I may have got a little carried away this year. I seem to have quite a lot of packets of seeds (100's), veg, salads, herbs and flowers.
At the moment they are in various boxes, but this is unorganised and I have no idea what I have anymore!

So, my question to you organised lot is, how do you store/organise all your seed packets. I can't decide on the best way to sort them all.

[nickdub]

The main thing is not 'what' it is 'where'. That is, will the seeds germinate after being stored for 1, 2 or more years ? This is a complicated question to answer because different seeds have different natural life spans, but put simply most seeds need to be kept dry and cold to last as long as possible. The ideal temperature is roughly that of a cool box in a fridge and the dryness is as dry as possible. Even then some seeds like parsnip will give very disappointing germination results if stored for more than 12 months, others like poppies will last a hell of a long time.

To the ordinary gardener I'd say store what seeds you have in the best conditions you practically can, but before you commit a lot of time and effort trying to growing plants from these seeds, after they have been stored for a while, do a small germination test of 10 seeds or so in a small plastic box, with damp kitchen roll in it on top of a radiator.

[Bren In Pots]

Peanut I keep mine in a cool-ish room in sealed plastic storage boxes everyone seems to have their own ideas heres an older thread for you to have a look at. :-

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...-storing-seeds

[Jungle Jane]

I"™ve got four boxes/tins with a mixture of seeds in each,I go through them at the beginning of each month (not the winter) one box at a time,pick out the seeds I want for that month & put the rest away,it doesn"™t take that long & it"™s nice looking at everything I"™ve got. If I was trying to be organised,I might separate the flowers from the herbs & the tomatoes because there"™s a lot,then the last tin could have the fruit & veg seeds but I like them all mixed together

[Penellype]

I keep mine the salad box from an old fridge, on a shelf in the cloakroom (the coolest room in the house). I arrange the packets in alphabetical order, but when I have sown something I put it at the front (before A) under "waiting to germinate". I then put it back in its place when the seeds have germinated, or if the packet is empty it goes on the list to order more.

I used to sort the packets into sowing order, with the ones to be sown first at the front, but I found I was getting confused with successional sowings and this got a lot worse when I got my allotment, when I was sowing the same thing in 2 or even 3 different places (some at my friend's too), so I ditched that method.

My method is supposed to be infallible, but last year I managed not to order one of the varieties of melons, with the result that I was a fortnight late sowing them and only got 3 melons from that variety compared with 9 last year.

[mothhawk]

I have a 2lt ice cream tub for flower seeds, and a big biscuit tin for veg seeds, then a separate ice cream tub for self saved seeds.

I also keep a list of all the seeds, split into veg and flowers, on excel. As I sow them they are deleted from the list or changed to "half pkt" if I don't sow all the seeds.Then before I buy new seeds I can have a quick check to see if I already have them. This stops me ending up with too many pkts of one type. A couple of years ago I found myself with 30 pkts of sweet peas as I find them hard to resist, but only growing space for about 4 pkts

[mothhawk]

I threw my hat over the windmill yesterday and ordered a load of flower seeds and some veg seeds from DTBrown as they were doing them for £1 a packet plus I had a 10% off code.

[SimpleSimon]

I use one of these, it"™s great. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Novelinks-T...xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

[burnie]

I have an old tin like a treasure chest, it had a bottle of whisky in it, it's over flowing, I really should sort it out and maybe give some seeds away, I have way too many lol.

[peanut]

Thanks everybody, It took ages but I have now got them all sorted. I've put them in a wooden box with a divider in the middle separating salads and herbs from veg, all grouped by type and a rough sowing order. I have another box for flowers.
I've got so many seeds, now I need a bigger garden to sow them all in!

[Chestnut]

I've got so many seeds, now I need a bigger garden to sow them all in!

Have you got an allotment yet?

[nickdub]

All sorts of common ground around which might benefit from a few seeds sowed in it. Watch out for the traffic if you decide to sow stuff on your local roundabout though :-)