Seed Vaults?

[TroubleShooter]

Anyone purchase any of seed vaults they sell online...? Or can recommend one.

[izzyscout21]

I am at a total loss on that one. You've stumped me.

[TroubleShooter]

I am at a total loss on that one. You've stumped me.

Survival Heirloom Garden Seeds Packaged For Storage - Open Pollinated Survivalist Seed Bank - MyPatriotSupply.com (http://www.mypatriotsupply.com/Survival_Victory_Garden_Seeds_s/56.htm)

Long term seed storage ....

[LUNCHBOX]

TS, I picked some earlier this year off Ebay. They have a few to choose from. For your plans and the price, its worth getting two orders and planting one batch just to test them out. I think mine cost around $30.00 for 20,000 seeds.

[bacpacker]

I've never tried one of them out. I looked at some of them, but there was a lot of stuff I didn't care for so I didn't choose to go that route. I went with just picking out the different veggies we like and the various varieties we wanted, all heirloom. I got them, packed them up and put them in the freezer. Most of my seeds any more come from Baker Creek Seed Co.

I have to say that for $30 for 20K seeds is a good deal even if you don't use 1/3 of them. I will probably purchase some of them to put back. The packaging adds to the value of these sets.

[ladyhk13]

I'm with bacpacker...there are a lot of stuff I don't like in the packs so I buy just the what I like. Seedsavers is one place to get them and I think the other one is heirloom acres. You can google heirloom seeds and look through the different companies and what they stock. Some places stock totally different items, some regular stuff and others more exotic.

[izzyscout21]

I may have to invest in some now. Albeit, if I ever use them, past history dictates that a hailstorm will kill it all.

[bacpacker]

That hail storm sucked this year Izzy, over half of the stuff I put out didn't make much if anything. Even some of the stuff I replanted didn't even do well.
Losing the blueberries (full crop and several plants) and cherries still bug me. Oh well bout time to order more trees and bushes.

[izzyscout21]

My carrots managed to make it. My sweet potatoes lived. Everything else, well I wanted to cry. It was a MAJOR ordeal making time to do all that, especially with our situation right now. Next time, I'm growing crops in a bunker.

[bacpacker]

Here's something I'm looking into.

SH Hydroponics, Inc. (http://www.stealthhydroponics.com)

I registered with them and get e-mails about some decent sales every now and then. They have a couple set up's I'm looking at for growing some stuff.

[ravensgrove]

A note on Seed Vaults

Just be sure a few things....a) what is in them actually fits your zone b) what is in them can be grown in your zone without commercial fertilizer or insecticides (which may not be available post shtf) c) don't for a second think if you've never grown a garden you will have success out of the gate. I run a small CSA here and have 6 garden zones. It takes years to build your soil to be subsistence level even with multi-species livestock manure. If you have no livestock, start now getting your soil ready to thrive without fertilizer/pesticides...otherwise you'll starve seed vault and all.

[bacpacker]

Very good points Raven. Welcome BTW!
It does take years to build the soil and really is never ending. I also have multiple beds and have started a rotation so I can keep part of the beds fallow each year. I do this so I can turn multiple green manure crops inthose areas that year. It a constant chore to keep th fertility level where it needs to be.

[ladyhk13]

I sent my DH to the neighbor a couple of years ago to get me some of his cow manure. I told him to get me the DRY stuff. He brought me "green manure" so I think he must have been reading some posts and thought it meant something else. He said "well it was dry on the outside"...ARG! I had the most beautiful lawn in my garden the first year and have been fighting it ever since.
This year I made raised beds (with wood) and brought in 4 yards of good soil, added vermiculite and then mulched all the plants and then laid straw down everywhere else and all summer we have been taking our very large amounts of grass clippings and dumping them on top of the straw. I still cannot get rid of the weeds though but hope that all straw and grass clippings will help the clay soil here. I have no idea how to soil test though. Does it have to be done somewhere or is there a kit? I have been growing by luck more than skill...I have a wicked tomato plant that I just can't kill! Really surprised at how much survived this year by accident.

[bacpacker]

Call your county extension agent. They can set you up with soil test kits and give advise on local issues (pest, disease, etc).

[ladyhk13]

Call your county extension agent. They can set you up with soil test kits and give advise on local issues (pest, disease, etc).

I'll try it but that would be the same people that told me to "just rip out" my 1000 apple trees instead of trying to prune and fertilize them to make them more productive because it would be cheaper for me to just buy them at the store. Retards.

[Grumpy Old Man]

While it sounds good in theory, in practice I believe that it is better to start a small garden and save your heirloom non-GMO seeds from year to year. The canning process used to storemay or may not be good for seed longevity. As others have pointed out, there are many things that I don't eat in these things. Also, seed viability begins to fall off after a couple of years. I planted some green chile seeds I got in AZ 5 years ago. Stored in a cool dry place I had a 20% sprout rate.

The Seed Exchange, Baker Creek, Amishland, Everlasting Seeds and Territorial Seeds are some of the people I deal with and have had good results.

Bear in mind that I live in Southern Kommiefornicastan and have a pretty much year round growing season. while this is good in some regards, I have to be careful of what I plant when, not so much from the cold but from the heat. I'm going to try collards this year but it is still a little warm to plant for good germination. I have several dwarf citrus that started bearing after one year, but they are still very small so my crop is small.

I also do container gardening for some of the herbs I can fool into being more than an annual when I bring them inside. All that stream-of-consciousness gardening talk aside, imho you can probably do as well purchasing what you want and storing it yourself.

[bacpacker]

Grumpy saving your own seed is the way to go IMO. Pick out the best plants and then the best fruit's from them. You should end up with the strongest most viable seed that way. I think freezing seed is the best way to preserve them. Viability does decrease rapidly.
I to get my seed from Baker Creek and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, among a few others. They both have good selections of many different varieties and I have had a good success rate with them.