How do you store your seeds?

[Maggiethecat]

In the last few years I’ve become quite keen on saving seeds and have quite a bit of flower and veg seeds.

I have them in their original packets or in little folded paper envelopes and keep them all in a big paper bag. Locating seeds usually requires a bit of a rummage through the bag!

I’d like an efficient and attractive way to store seeds and have considered reusing biscuit tins (not sure how to compartmentalise) but would like to hear what you do.

I keep them in take-away food boxes. In spring I sort them by month of sowing (latest month at the bottom, piece of paper with the month, next latest month, etc), then, as I sow them, I move the remainder either into a box labelled “reserve” or into “succession”.

I have a stash of little brown envelopes for storing seeds I've harvested in, then I write the plant name and date on the front and they go into a seed storage tin in the greenhouse. I also have a wooden wine box which is a bit more chaotic for stuff I've just grabbed loads of and doesn't fit nicely into the tin!

This sort of thing: https://www.museumselection.co.uk/garden/planters-supports/seed-storage-tin/?SKU=28574&srsltid=AfmBOoovWkyp8RzBojj4bRbARCoHJwCOmS2hsEoQJ2uWQJ3qcTrwT7w8Bb0

I'd love to be more organised and you can get seed storage by month which looks very organised...maybe one day!

I use old spice glass jars, give them a good clean and disinfect with boiling water. Write the seed name on sticky labels on the lids.

For tiny seeds, I use those little plastic containers which the disposable gloves come in in hair dye packs. If the seeds are in paper/envelopes, I put them in an airtight container. I never label anything though - I just presume that I'll know.

In the packets or envelopes, on their edge in a shallow tupperware box (no lid), so they are a bit like a card index. Keep them in my potting shed in spring /summer and bring them into the house in autumn, they just go on a high shelf in the kitchen till next spring. It's really easy to sort through them this way.

Sounds a good idea! I have so many to sow in some months I’d probably reserve a whole container or 2 for those and could probably organise alphabetically.

I like the index card arrangement!

That is a nice box.

I wonder if for the price a few seeds are expected 😂

@Maggiethecat I'm hesitant to keep seeds in the greenhouse because of the wildly fluctuating temperatures. Do you find it OK? I usually keep mine at the back of the top shelf of the fridge where it's usually difficult to store food because you can't see it or get to it easily. But it's probably not good to keep Mediterranean seeds that cool.

I could keep them in the cellar, but that's not very dry (even though they are in sealed plastic boxes.

I store mine envelopes in a tupperware at the back of the fridge - top shelf, like @MereDintofPandiculation . I sort them into months in February when I do my garden planning with apost it to divide them.

If I don't have enough room in the little tupperware container they go in a larger padded envelope with several of those dessicating sachets that come in handbags to protect from damp.

When I kept mine in the greenhouse and garage, the ones in the greenhouse had a poor germination rate (I'm assuming temperature variations impeded them) and damp rotted too many of the packets in the garage.

@MereDintofPandiculation - I keep mine in our indoor under stairs storage so cool but not cold.

I generally have a good germination rate.

I don't have an understairs because under the stairs is the stairs to the cellar. And under the stairs in the cellar is dampish - it's excellent for storing apples because they don't dry out and shrivel up.

Oops - I quoted wrong - it's @Boutrosboutros who keeps them in the greenhouse - what sort of germination rate do you get? I'd have expected it to be poor, like @JustinThyme

I have a similar storage problem with moss specimens, also in paper packets, and one of my best storage boxes is a little plastic chest with lid and clippy fasteners that came with some cheap Christmas fairy lights.

This, but in one of those ikea tins with home made month dividers made from cardboard boxes. Good tight fitting lid. I chuck in any silica gel packs I get too.

Same here, although mine live in the cupboard under the stairs all year round.

Funnily enough it's not too bad. I tend towards native plants and generally autumn sow where possible anyway. The greenhouse is very shaded in winter so it rarely gets hot. I'm very much a 'survival of the fittest' type of gardener so love the stuff that's hardy enough to cope!

Ah - I don’t have much space to sow anything, so keep seed packets for years. Summer in greenhouse wouldnt be a good idea.

I've had them in every different arrangement and the one I had to concede on last year was to buy a photo storage box and use that. It means you can write on them what's in them, and then just take the smaller box out and sow those when ready and keep the big box indoors or wherever cool and dark you keep them.

I had so many at one time I had 2 of those wheels trolleys and had beans and peas in one, and everything else in ziplock bags in another. When I left the UK I donated most of mine to a community garden or 5. So having just what I want to grow and getting rid of the rest has made things so much easier.

I still have too many peas and beans in jam jars and zip lock bags but everything else is in the photo box.

I was thinking yesterday after posting on here that photo stirage boxes would be good. I have transformed my stationery drawer with them them this year and can now find a paperclip or post-it note or whatever without having to rummage any more and they are just the right size for seed packets.

It is a great system, I resisted for years and years and am so glad I went for it!

I am with the stationery too, it is so satisfying having it all sorted and labelled. I never knew there was such a thing till I saw them on a decluttering instagram page.

I use a photo storage box like other pp have mentioned.

This one is just for my cutting patch, I need another one for my veg seeds.

I also need to relabel the boxes.

I use paper bags, marked up with year of harvest and seed name then put them in Really Useful Boxes with the clip lids. It keeps them tidy enough. The good thing about lidded boxes is that I can store them in the garage and the mice don't get to them.

I wish I was the kind of person to have it all properly organised. I have an ikea draw organiser with plastic punnets that you buy fruit in, so it should all work. Any seeds I save tend to be on kitchen roll pieces, zip lock bags, or balled in in tissue. None of them labelled of course, and the tissues regularly get chucked out by accident. Other seed packets can often be found in pockets, bag, on the side of the kitchen worktop by the back door and in the car boot. Somehow I achieve plants despite this.

Photo storage box here too

I didn’t even know that photo storage boxes was a thing!!