Seed Saving experience, tips and tricks

windwalkingwolf · Post by **windwalkingwolf** » Tue Dec 13, 2016 8:50 pm

Another thread raised the question about best methods of preserving seeds for future use, and it's something I'm wanting to learn about. This year I planted a market garden for the first time and decided to use up all my really old seed, some from 2001, most from 2005. I didn't expect much to come up, so of course almost all of it did LOL, even some 15 year old spinach seed and 10 year old lettuce. I'm going to have thousands of mystery tomatoes popping up next year!
I don't do anything special with my seeds to keep them viable longer, except make sure they're thoroughly dessicated before I package them up. As a matter of fact, they've been somewhat abused...left in a hot greenhouse or freezing cold porch for months at a time, left in a damp cellar stairway for years, outside in direct sunlight for hours at a time...all with nothing to protect them but paper packets or a baggie, inside a cardboard boot box. Said box has been changed several times over the years as it fell apart from abuse...damp, crushing, general wear and tear. Melon, squash, cucumber and sunflower seeds also get folded up in foil so mice don't eat them. Logic says maybe damp cellar and direct sunlight are probably counterproductive to long-term seed storage, so surely if I can beat the crap out of seeds for 10 years and more, and still have them grow, there's a better way! So, how do you all save and store your seed?

TomK · Post by **TomK** » Tue Dec 13, 2016 9:50 pm

Jan...I just do what the various folks on youtube tell me to do to condition the seeds for storage, put them in marked paper envelopes and stash them in one particular drawer in a highboy chest of drawers we have where we save all kinds of stuff...as it is written, MJ gets the other 4 drawers..lol.

:running-chicken:

Post by **WLLady** » Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:26 am

Lol. Sounds like you are doing just fine actually. I just let them dry for a while on paper towel on the counter and then pop them into paper e elopes and put them into a box in a drawer.....

windwalkingwolf · Post by **windwalkingwolf** » Wed Dec 14, 2016 4:16 pm

Anybody have any luck convincing beets to go to seed?

Cuttlefish · Post by **Cuttlefish** » Thu Dec 22, 2016 8:03 pm

I bet beets would be like carrots. You have to carefully pull them at the last minute before the soil freezes, store cool and moist over the winter (like in damp sand), and then as soon as the ground thaws next spring get them back out there. Sometimes crappy spring weather can trick biennials into thinking a winter has passed, so they flower in year 1.
Not sure if beets have any relatives in Ontario, but carrots are a pain because they can cross pollinate with wild carrot (Queen Anne's Lace). So you have to build a screen box to keep pollinators out, but then you have to hand pollinate or introduce your own bees to the box......
Yuuuup. I still buy carrot seed. : )

Nickyn · Post by **Nickyn** » Thu Dec 22, 2016 8:30 pm

Yes, I gave up on carrot seed too. Parsnips work well for me. I just leave a couple in the ground and as long as there is decent snow cover, I get masses of seed.