Do You Keep Your Seeds in the Refrigerator/Freezer?

[Setec Astronomy]

As the title suggests, how many of you do this? For those that do, any tips/tricks as far as bagging/containerizing?

I've been keeping my seeds in a plastic ArtBin, but I'm thinking now that I should put them in some sort of "cold storage" if I can find the room. I think if I drink some beer out of the basement refrigerator, I should be able to make room for the seeds if I repackage them. And when I say repackage, I mean taking the seed envelopes out of the plastic bin and putting them in freezer bags or something.

[steve ok]

I keep my tomato seeds in a gallon freezer bag, behind the crisper drawer, in the bottom of the refrigerator. I don't know if it helps, but I always know where to find them.

[Setec Astronomy]

I keep my tomato seeds...

Do you have other seeds that you don't refrigerate? The seeds I have that take up the most space are pea seeds.

[steve ok]

I only refrigerate my tomato seeds. I am not willing to give up the space in the refrigerator that my other seeds would need.

[Toomanymatoes]

Freezer and room temp. Although, the majority of my seeds are not in the freezer since I have no space and need to make some. My goal is to put half my seeds in the freezer for longer term storage and the remaining half at RT. I use desiccant packs to dry them before I freeze them.

[habitat-gardener]

I don't have any refrigerator or freezer space, but if I did, I'd probably put the seed envelopes in mason jars. To use the seeds, I'd take the jar out and let it come to room temperature before opening it.

In fact, I'm trying to figure out if I can move my seeds from plastic bins to mason jars. (But they would still be stored in the closet.)

I have herbs and spices I bought in bulk about 30 (!!) years ago, stored in mason jars (mostly unopened as I stored them while I moved here and there) that are still fragrant and have retained good flavor. I use them to fill the small spice jars in the kitchen as needed.

[rxkeith]

i have the bulk of my seeds stored in freezer bags in an upstairs closet area.
the individual seed varieties are either in their original packet if purchased or small plastic bags
if they are my own saved seed. i have a few varieties of tomatoes stored in repurposed
foil tea packets. some of those seeds are close to 15 years old, and still germinating like they
are fresh seeds. works for my needs.
freezing might be better for long term storage when many varieties are involved. i don't need to keep
something frozen for 20 or 30 years. i would be pretty dang old by then.


keith

[Pleepleus]

General rule of thumb is keep seeds in the refrigerator you plan to use in the next 5 years, freezer for anything past that. I have a mini fridge just for seeds. It's amazing the germination rate after 5 years out of the fridge. Just like they went in.

When freezing seeds make sure they are dry and add some rice as a desiccant.

[bower]

Tomato seeds keep very well at room temperatiure if they have the right moisture content. I had trouble with seeds that were left in paper during a winter home heating season right after harvest (got too dry). Tomato seeds in ziplocs or even seeds in paper that were inside a container have kept as good as new for a decade. That is in a house without AC that can be very hot on occasional days in summer, but stored out of direct sun.
Some seeds keep more poorly than that, brassicas for example are starting to fare poorly after 3 years and need N ferts to get seedlings out any later than that. In a freezer they would keep, in the fridge probably longer, but at this point I'm just trying to grow things out for fresh seed when they start to get old.

[Tormahto]

For now it's been room temp, other than freezing possibly insect infested beans for 48 hours.

In the fall, I'll decide if I want to split up seeds with some for room temp, some for the fridge, and some for the deep freeze. I figure that using all three methods would give me the best results, short and long term. That includes taking into account that I could mess things up, like putting seeds into the freezer at the wrong moisture content.

[Pleepleus]

The rice added to the containers of seed for long term storage wick up any last moisture if you get them room temp dried. I just avoid putting them in too fresh out of the fruits.

[Tormahto]

The rice added to the containers of seed for long term storage wick up any last moisture if you get them room temp dried. I just avoid putting them in too fresh out of the fruits.

I've been doing that with the salt shaker, of which in a near 10 year hunt for a good one (that doesn't pour out too fast, or the cap doesn't corrode), I finally found it a month ago.

[GoDawgs]

I keep seeds in both an old metal bread box at room temp and in the freezer. In the bread box, packs of relatively new seeds are grouped by kind and are in ziplock freezer bags. When I get new seeds I usually divert some automatically to the freezer stash. Those seeds have been transferred to small coin-type envelopes, placed in ziplock bags and stored in snap top plastic containers in the freezer.

Last month I did a germ test on some 3 year old Silver Queen corn seed from the freezer and it germinated 100% so I'm going to use that up this year and have already bought enough to supplement that for what I need to plant and to replace the old in the freezer.

[Amateurinawe]

No, not in the fridge, and to make sure I don't misplace them I keep them in the blue box. The green box is for screws and nuts.

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