This spring the seed situation in my home became overwhelming so I came up with a storage solution: old photo albums. They are the kind with pockets to slide in 4x6 photos, tall skinny three-ring binders with three pockets running vertical on each page. Slip the packets in and voila, all seeds are neat and visible.
I have two albums, one for ornamental and one for edibles and herbs.
It's made my seed collection more useful becau i can actually see what i have. Because of this Ive come up with some great gifts;I used some seeds in home-printed seed packets for birthday gifts. Many of my family and friends have reached a point in their life where they are really hard to shop for, but they loved getting a gift of my home garden seeds with instructions on how and where to plant.
Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas?
BTW there are some nice printable seed packets on DG, have them saved on my laptop which I don't have with me right now.Anyone have any other ideas?
Ideas for storing and organizing seeds
I use empty prescription bottles...air tight and small enough to store in a fishing lure box!
I use 2x3" plastic Ziplocs, with a two-sided paper label inside it.
Then I bundle those into bigger Ziplocs or glassine baggies, or even fold-over sandwich baggies.
Then I pack those into plastic tubs with screw lids. I used to put a small coin envelope into each plastic tube, with a tablespoon of silica gel inside, to keep the humidity low. However, if I didn't open the tub for weeks or motnhs, the humidity went below 10%, which might be drier than is ideal.
One I put a bunch of 2x3" Ziplocs into a "trading card sheet", like a photo album page, to make a gift for someone.
I also have shots here of some of the packets inside one tub spread out.
When one tub gets too full for convenience, I split it into two tubs.
Virgo a fishing lure box, that's a good idea. So Im guessing you don't have any fishing equipment to crowd out the seeds?
And I love the idea of the trading card sheets, that would be even better than the photo albums I'm using. But the photo albums were practically free at thrift shop, and I'm cheap about my gardening habit.
I use the 2"x3" small ziplock type baggies and then place them in a larger one and mark it with how many packs are in it.
The baggies idea is what I was doing, but where to put the baggies? Mine were all crowded together in a box. As I started to accumulate nearly 100 different packets it became impossible to get my hands on seeds when I wanted them. Maybe you have a way of organizing those bags?
I don't have a clue unless you do the binders with pockets. I have 10 plants that give out seeds and find some seeds in the area. I really want to apologize as I have a couple hundred package of different seeds and have yet to figure it out except by flower type, cone flower, vine, and so on
Sorry :)
So far my photo album pockets are doing the job great, just wondering what everyone else does.
>> The baggies idea is what I was doing, but where to put the baggies?
>> Mine were all crowded together in a box.
For a while, I used one-gallon baggies in a box, and each gallon baggie held many 2x3 inch Zipocks. Usually the Ziplocks were also categorized into sandwich-size baggies.
Or you can use dividers.
I use medicine bottles stuffed in this jewelry organizer. The pockets are on both sides.
Oh THAT is cute
Great idea the photo album pages. I have some of those around here somewhere. I have just been doing a plastic shoe box in the refrigerator, but I can find a box that will hold the pages, or even an album in a plastic box (to keep the moisture out).
I use the pill bags from Walmart. I figure they should be fairly airtight to keep the pulls/seeds dry. They are 59 ct for a few dollars. :) Judy, I liked your photo album idea...it was fun to look through at the RU. :) I like the baseboard card sheet idea, too. I actually have extras of the sheets. Thx! :)
I have 800 seed varieties so I needed a good way to keep them organized and safe. I use Lock and Lock containers - the 38 cup rectangular size. I have a couple of smaller ones that hold ornamentals. They are great to keep moisture/bugs out.
I have a cardboard divider down the center to keep the rows, sort by families and then put dividers between types of seeds. I have nearly 300 varieties of Tomatoes so I have those alphabetized - the rest are just grouped by type for the most part.
I have one that has a handle as well that I use to take seeds out to the garden to keep them safe from spilling and moisture.
I discovered (one of those good news/bad news things) that these containers keep bugs IN when some seed I stored in one apparently was contaminated before storage. The critters were confined to one container and I just put the whole thing in the freezer to kill the little buggers. Since the container is air/water tight condensation damage to the seeds isn't an issue as long as you leave it closed during the gradual warm up to room temperature time.
I purchased a bunch of self sealing seed envelopes from Johnny's a few years back that I use for saved/swapped seeds. Larger seeds go in a snack size ziploc bag.
The third pic shows some of the dividers I made early on when most of my collection fit in one large lock and lock.
Wow, that's a lot of seed! I just bought 4 pencil boxes from WalMart for sorting some of my seed. I have a box for seed I am saving to plant, a box for seed I can share, a box for seed I'm collecting for specific trades, and a box for large or bulk seeds. I can keep these and my "seed binder" in one of my refrigerator drawers. And there is still room for the flour!
Great tubs, I'm envious! Do you ever use silica gel?
Something that size could take a tablespoon or more of silica gel without worrying about over-drying.
Ever try gaskets? When I stored cigars in a huge tub with loose-fitting lid, I used thick, soft plastic film as a "gasket" to keep more humidity in. Once I kept in too much humidity, and had 50 moldy cigars.