lots of good points.
Do you have a general location in mind where you want to re-locate to?
What about seasons? If someone showed up at my doorstep in the fall with nothing but some defensive skills and a handful of seeds that wont produce for 9 months. I would not be welcoming them in to eat my preps with nothing else offered.
And remember to rotate... seeds don't last forever!
Lots of good points. Evolver and BP are right. Seeds will have little value if they won't grow in your zone or conditions. If you made your way to my door with a bunch of seeds that can't take our heat or humidity, I might have to send you on your way.
I spent weeks researching Heirlooms. Most do not come with zone designations so I read every description of every seed and made the best educated guesses I could. I bought at least two varieties of everything (tomatoes and peppers many more). Some grew much better than others and some showed more tolerance to insects and disease than others so I record all that information for future plantings. Keeping growing notes is also important. I went back ten years and researched all the monthly averages of temps and rainfall and logged it all in a notebook. Now I log the daily conditions, how the garden is doing and a recap at the end of each month.
Go on line and order a Baker Creek Catalog. They are free but they run out fast. It's a good place to start and they have pretty good descriptions. You can customize your seed stash. If you're not gardening now, keep them in the freezer to extend their viability.
Really?? The first year after I planted a heirloom garden, I left all my extra seeds in the garden shack for the winter, and not one would geminate the following spring. I have been going the 'cool/dark' route since.Originally Posted by JustAPrepper
Do you put them in anything special in the freezer?
I to use a garden journal and keep track of as much info as i can think to enter. It has proven useful and suprisingly dates are starting to reapear for planting , 1st harvest etc.
Something i have tried as well to add some variety. I've picked up seed from colder climates, such as some tomatos that originated in Russia. I put them out a full month ahead of our normal planting time. They did well and were finished by the time our usual crop started coming in. I don't think this would work going to a warmer zone crop. But it did extend our harvest and probably would allow us to extend into the fall further.
The only reason I said that is because it doesn't appear that he'll be gardening anytime soon, just getting seeds for the future and I've read in multiple places, including gardening forums, the best place to seeds is in the freezer. There's controversy over the best way to do it but the ones I've stored in the deep freeze are in their original package tossed in ziplock bags and in a little bin that sits in the top of the chest. I've also read never to Vac Seal them because they actually need oxygen to survive.
This is worrisome. Is it possible your shed actually got *too* cold for them? Could they have gotten moisture on them then froze?
Believe it or not, it's almost time for us to start our Spring seedlings. Even though the garden is struggling I can still attempt to grow a few things until we get it solarized. Guess I'll have to do some germination tests of some things in the freezer ASAP!
That's essentially what I did... just put all the packets into a ziplock, then hung the ziplock with a binder clip off a rafter. The only moisture would have come from within, as it was going through the freeze thaw cycles in the fall, before we get into the cold.
I read that chest type freezers operate around 0 deg F. If that is true, then, yes, they might have gotten too cold. It is not uncommon for it to get to and stay around -40F for a prolonged period. with any kind of wind, it is also not uncommon to reach temps in excess of -70F.
Side note: in the Spring, when I went to plant, all the seeds looked fine, they weren't popped open or anything, nor were packets stuck together or anything that might indicate a moisture issue. But when I tried to germinate them in my indoor greenhouse. absolutely nothing germinated. and I tried multiple times, in multiple ways. I bought some new seeds and had them sprouting in days
Since then I store mine inside.
DO NOT FREEZE YOUR SEEDS. Seeds need oxygen.
I am sorry I vehemently disagree with this advice. As a commercial gardener and an avid gardener my entire life, I have never not saved seed.
1) do not vaccuum seal, they need oxygen
2) do not freeze they need oxygen
I store seed in empty spice jars with the hard lid off (so just the lid with holes open, brown paper bags, et all. You do not want to seal in anything that is not breathable for any length of time. This is why most seed packets come in paper envelopes.
I grow from saved seed predominantly every single year, unless I am trying some new variety.
Last edited by ravensgrove; 12-12-2011 at 08:16 PM.
Raven, not to disagree with you, believe me, I very much respect your knowledge, but freezing seeds does not elimate oxygen from the atmosphere of the storage vessel unless they've been Vac Sealed in a bag or jar. Even ziplock bags with all the air squished out are porous enough to allow pass-through air. I'm not sure that particular argument holds up.
Most likely what happened to yours is they got freeze dried due to your - double digit temps LOL For seed storage 24-28F is optimal.
-70? I thought time frooze around -10
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