Storing Seeds

What if you don't use all of the seeds in a packet you bought for this year's garden? Should you listen to the advice of the seed companies and toss the extras and buy fresh seeds in the Spring next year? Nope. Seeds will remain viable on average about three years, maybe a little longer if you are careful to store them in ideal conditions.

Conditions a seed needs for germination--moisture and warmth--are the very things that can shorten the life or viability of a seed in storage. Dry and cool conditions will extend a seed's shelf life.

We store most of our seeds in jars with tight-fitting lids to keep moisture away from our stored seeds. Plastic food storage bags will work, too.

The refrigerator is the best place to store seeds. In order to dry out the air in the jar and seed packets, place your seeds in the fridge with their jar or other container open for a few hours (even over night). Remember to put the lid on tightly once the air around the seeds has dried out. Avoid storing your seeds in that really cold spot in your fridge that sometimes freezes.

You could also place a desiccant packet (silica gel; from vitamin or medicine bottles, etc.) or you could make a small packet of powdered milk wrapped in three of four layers of facial tissue. Replace this every six months or so.

When you are ready to plant your stored seeds, take them out of the fridge, but don't open the container until the seeds come to room temperature. This is to avoid condensation which will make your seeds stick together (those little seeds are hard enough to control when dry) and may reduce shelf life if you store them again for next year.

If you are gathering and storing seeds from your own plants, let them air dry on a piece of paper towel or newspaper for about a week before putting them in cold storage.  They will probably stick to the paper, so you may be able to simply roll up the paper towel, fold over the ends, label it, and store it. Keep good records: variety, date, etc.

Even though you are careful to do all the right things to store seeds, some will not germinate the next year. Some varieties (corn, some onions, parsnips, for examples) have notoriously low germination rates. Some seeds may only store well for a year at most (onions). To make up for the lower germination rate over time, plant a few more seeds in each row or hill.