Seed storage ideas

Glad you got alot of ideas from this thread, Brittany! May they work for you as well as they do for me and others here! :-)

I don't shove the binder into a bookcase or anything. It is sitting on a bottom shelf in my computer desk and is open halfway like an accordian. I let the pages expand as my seed collection expands. :-)

It is very convenient for me to just sit, turn pages, and look at what I have. I probably need to put the seeds in some kind of order to make it easier to find a particular cultivar. Maybe alphabetically or by species or something. Not sure...

Oh boy, my stuff doesn't look that great, but it works for me.. I have about 6 of these that contain three square boxes each, that can be stacked together with lids on top. (12 of the square containers are all mgs) a couple others hold supplies, ect. this is a crude photo of mine while I was sorting some for mailing out last month. They are not all in this photo.

most of the seeds are double enveloped and then put sideways... all in alpha, by I. nils, purps, species.. each one has it's own box/boxes. These, I believe were the I. nils, then I have more with the crosses. I have to tell you all, I hate going thru them because it is so hard to decide which ones to grow. I use the same system for collecting seeds.

I line up several 3x6 yellow manila coin envelopes, in alpha according to what I am harvesting, then let them dry in the paper envelopes, then transfer those seeds into baggies, then put the baggies in other yet a new 3x6 coin envelope and store it away into the box it belongs (purp, nils, etc). The envelopes used for collecting seeds are reused (i post the names in pencil so I can erase after that plant is done producing seeds),


Waving hello to everyone,

good to see you Frank!

A.

Holy Smokes, Antoinette! I think you hold the record for the most seeds! LOL! LOL!
Your filing system sounds similiar to mine. I also have the same problem ... deciding what to grow. I wish I had space to grow them all! I need a bigger window and more areas in my backyard and more raised beds and more pots and ... lol

Wouldn't it be cool to go outside into a jungle of Morning Glory Vines growing and blooming everywhere. :-) I would truly enjoy that! MG Heaven! :-)

Ummm, A., you have an awful lot of seeds. But boy, do they look organized. LOL!!!

Joanne

Doesn't she, Joanne? All of my seeds would fit into one of her containers, and I think I would need a few lifetimes to plant them all - let alone how many lifetimes I'd need to plant all the ones in her pic!

lol...Well, you all have most of what do, only I grow more plants than you all do, lol.. which is why I sent a bunch out in the last month, I down sized! Believe me, those envelopes take up a lot of the room, some only have a couple of seeds in them now. I have to grow some this year to stock up for next year, that is for sure. I am hoping that the old seed from 2003/2004 that is left will germinate and I am hoping to grow more this coming year of the older stock before it is lost.


edited: correction



This message was edited Jan 5, 2009 8:44 AM

A - I recently grew some seeds from 2004 and they germinated earlier that the seeds I just collected and planted! LOL! That sure surprised me! Maybe they had waited a long time and were ready to become vines! :-)

Thats right Becky. The dormancy was closer to expiration. I see now that GA3 is available on ebay in small amounts, and it is currently being used to break dormancy. Geez, maybe that would make a good experiment for someone with lots of seeds. Wouldn't it be nice to find that a 3 hour soak in 125 ppm GA3, broke the dormancy of all the seeds at the same time. Or imagine putting 25 kinds of mgs into a good soak in GA3, and getting a 100% take.??? Got the book yet. Get the newest one, it will have the most up to date info on the Gibberelellins. Frank

deleted my post as it was meant for someone else.

This message was edited Jan 5, 2009 1:04 PM

Thanks, Frank! It would be an interesting experiment to see how older and newer seeds compare in germination. I don't even soak mine. Just stick em in dirt and water em! :-) I get about 90 - 95% germination rate that way. :-)

Becky, that is just astounding that you get such a high germination rate. You are
doing something right, so figure out what it is and let us know when you can. We might all benefit from your experience.

It is so interesting that the casual gardener can just enjoy the gardening and, without even knowing it , experience waves of information they don't notice.

Buy the book Becky ............ You may then appreciated the scientific value of the things you so casually notice, and think are not worth mentioning... Frank

This message was edited Jan 6, 2009 2:22 PM

Frank - My success secret ... I don't have one. I think what helps with the germinating of seeds here is the heat and humidity. Most seeds do germinate under those conditions, right? Zone 10a is probably tropical and aren't MGs considered tropical vines? Seems like most would be.

I can't purchase the book right now, but will definitely try to borrow the book from the library. My budget is shot this year until my husband finds a job. This recession has not been kind to our community or to us personally. :-(

... or the whole globe....

so sorry to hear it Becky.
I hope something comes up soon.

Thanks for the thread. It has given
me inspiration to get organized.

Becky, I hope things get better job wise.. it has been hard here also, there are almost no jobs to be found here either, we've got three family members without jobs now. It seems to be affecting everyone lately.

I have no problem germinating seeds.. they are popping up everywhere dwn here and I didn't even plant some of them sheese! I have alwys just stuck in planting medium and watered and kept warm for a sprout..

this link Bluespiral shown me has neat artwork and can be printed on cards for dividing, click on each of the flowers different cards...hope this link works should be good to go~

http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/OtherSeries/SelectionTenFlowers/SelectionTenFlowers.htm

wonderful thread, Becky - I've really enjoyed seeing all the different ways everyone stores their seeds.

Drying in the open air while keeping our cats at bay is key to my seed storage. Since I have very little room indoors, I make paper trays about 3" x 3" out of newspaper, with sides about 1/4" = 1/2" folded up and taped. I can fit about 18 of these in one open-mesh bottom flat that is approximately 11" x 22", and then stack those flats cross ways all the way up to the ceiling on top of our refrigerator.

There's lots of air flow up there, and the arrangement keeps our cats from jumping up there. We also store bulky things that are easy for us to move in the route the cats might otherwise take to get up there. I use this system in particular for morning glories, with each vine in its own little 3" x 3" tray.

For other seeds, cupboards that store dishes or food have to share space with plates and saucers and recycled catfood cans and paper lunch bags with their sides shortened for ventilation, etc. After one mishap, poor DH doesn't go near those cabinets - lol!

Once seeds are dry, I store them in labeled baggies (all MGs) or paper envelopes in alphabetic order by family/genus/species/cultivar with the name of person, group or company that they came from - and year. I try to keep seed renewed, so I give or trade away quite a bit as I grow out new generations.

Yup, I too take lunch bags, envies, sharpie and tape with me when I go into the garden to harvest seeds. Those foxgloves require a large grocery bag. After a few weeks, the seeds fall out so much more easily by themselves - some like Salvia forsskaohlii, I dump right over a huge sieve over a bowl to separate out the larg chaff; rubbing their pods and calyxes encourages the seed to separate further. A smaller-gauge sieve takes care of fine chaff.

I try not to keep seed around too long that has not been cleaned - I think this helps control the bug population.

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Frank, with regard to using gibberellic acid to break germination inhibitors on MGs, Ron had said a while back ( http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4040281 ) that "the gibberellic acids usually available are not those most commonly found in Ipomoea seeds". I'm guessing by that, that GA3 might not work very well on Ipomoea species. I don't know. I wonder if there might be a range of different responses of different Ipomoea species to GA3, if any? I don't have a clue how to go about finding out which gibberellic acid is which among those on the market today, let alone how to find one that would be most appropriate for Ipomoeas in general.

So, if you experiment with GA3 on MGs, maybe your results will answer some of those questions.

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Fernman, those woodcuts are pretty, aren't they? I can see where they'd make the experience of pawing through one's stash more fun. Enclosing a decorative card with a trade or gift of seeds you're sending is something I learned from DG traders when I was new - there's a huge wealth of art on the internet with which you can vary the cards you send.

But for ID purposes, pics you take of your own flowers might be best - especially if you have 100+ MG vines growing in your garden.

Here's a collection of over 1,000 digital images of William Curtis' (1749 - 1799) botanical paintings he did of flowers growing in his back yard. The names are 18th century, so it'll take some research to find out what we call some of them today. But, I think they'd add a nice touch to seed packets for fun.

http://www.nalusda.gov/curtis/

Waving at everybody - nice to see old and new

yes - these are very tough times for us and the rest of the globe - hoping that things get better for you and your families, Becky and Gourd and anyone I'm missing here - wouldn't it be great if growing seeds could pay a doctor's bill? dream on, self

Someone mentioned the morning glory in the Japanese print for which I gave the link to Fernman as being a hige. Loosely speaking, higes tend to be *double* and are all cultivars of Ipomoea purpurea. Since the MGs in the woodcut more likely belong to Ipomoea nil, those are not higes. Some double higes grown on this forum have been Sunrise Serenade, Gypsy Bride and Indigo Feathers - they can all be looked up in PlantFiles. Ron gave an indepth explanation about higes and variations here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/701809/

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*Doubles* do occur among Ipomoea nil cultivars, though. Here's a fascinating thread in which Atenkley grew out a "peony" type of Ipomoea nil - http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/756668/ . I think he was working with what is referred to as a "system", in which you grow out a number of seeds from a parent, hoping that one of them will have the physical characteristics you are looking for, like Atenkley's peony I. nil. It's the siblings with the plainer flower, however, that will be the pod parent, and you fertilize the plain flowers with pollen from the fancy flowers. Flowers like Atenkley's peony Ipomoea nil will not set seed. Y'all, go to Atenkley's home page and read how he explains this - so much better than I am here.

If I remember correctly, it's the "duplicate" gene that carries for *double* Ipomoea nil cultivars - http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=3515761 (Atenkley is speaking to the other Karen, Gardener2005)

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Ipomoea nil has another type of cultivar that will produce a vine with double flowers that is sometimes referred to as Kikyosaki. I'm not sure what the proper name for this one is - hope someone will set me straight on what to call the platycodon types of MGs. From a pack of seeds from Gardener2005 that she labeled I. youjiro "double picotee" came this flower: http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/bluespiral_1194558450_405.jpg

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And, now, we can return Becky's thread to her intended programming

I used to save dahlia seeds and grow them out. Boy was that fun. But oh the chaff they have. I used a 2 liter jug, put my dahlia seeds in that, and cut a hole for the vacuum hose, reversed the vacuum hose, and blew the chaff out. It worked very well. Just wish I still lived that close to the river these days. Frank

Wow, Frank. That sounds like a neat idea . . . I may need to go out and get myself a 2 liter soda . . .

Hi there Karen! will take a look at the William Curtis link, I love art..

Frank, I've never seen a dahlia seed, now I'm really curious to see what they look like.. good Idea on germination..

Syrumani, I found a box of seeds that may have the YOU KNOW Devil's Claw seeds in, I'm going thru them this month again.. hope they are there. Wanna share that 2 liter soda?

Hi Darren, hope all has been well for you and you had a great Christmas and New Year!

Ooh, A, that would be great if the box contained those seeds! And yes, I will share the soda . . . (would you like it "spiked"?)

hi all.... another great thread :-)

i said in an earlier post that i liked the binder idea but was a little bit worried about the seeds getting squashed.... anyway i have found a binder that puts my mind to rest on that one... a William Penn high capacity A4 box file... see pic

i don't think they sell baseball card holders in the uk(can't think why...lol)... i've found business card holders but the access to the pockets is from the side rather than the top, which is most annoying.

i'm also going to keep information with the seeds as bluspiral suggests.

any ideas around the pocket access issue welcomed :-))

This message was edited Jan 8, 2009 7:44 PM

Pretty cool design, Colin. I wonder if our stationers stores in the states carries this brand?

Colin there were vinyl pocket sleeves each holding about 36 pockets i used to use when i sold stickers. But you had to approach a sticker retail outlet that had these; they were for displaying stckers, folded any number of ways, including laying flat and were opaque or clear. Agian they were retail-aimed. i used to get them froma US company...you may find one nearer ;) called C&D Visionary. I did not see them on their site when i looked recently for this thread. You do however have lots of 'boot sales'' thereabouts, and may have some retail outleter design for showing those there. Wish i had a picture as they would be great. had hook-holes for hanging against the wall flat as well...
=/
d

they sound great Darren.... but i think i've sorted it... baseball card is a synonym for trading card(lol) and i can get 40 pages of 9 TOP loading pockets (360) for £6.99 and the binder costs seven pounds something... so thats not too bad :)

This message was edited Jan 8, 2009 10:56 PM

Colin - Those pages sounded exactly like what I use. There are 9 pockets per page and I put two seed packets in each one - back to back! My bad ... I should've said "trading cards".

good call. ya mean they dont have Cricket trading cards????lol i just put in a bid for a Kevin Pietersen ...
sorry had to take ya there~

:Darren

Well.. all good stuff here, still looking at my mountain of boxes and heaps of seeds.. and my plastic organizer, pocket folder note books, and the tubs for cards.. hmm.. *intimidated" or "procrastinating" or *overwhelmed* .. I can't decide which of these things I am at the moment with this seed organising storage thing..

LOL @ darren :-) .... i've been told that we do have baseball teams(tho' no one could name one)... it's just their not good enough to be on cards :( .... the kids over here like the japanese pokemen trading cards... (tho' i don't know what game they play...lol)

...and it sounds like you already have a system to me joeswife :-)

How about som pix of those baseball card pages, up close. That doesn't sound bad at a glance. Frank

you mean trading card pages, Frank?

Frank - Per your request ... here are the trading card sleeves that I use. I place the seed packets from trades back to back in each pocket. (2 seed packets per each of the 9 pockets on each page.) That way I am using the front and the back of each page.

This message was edited Jan 9, 2009 9:49 PM

I was looking for those in three stores last weekend... guess i will go to a sports store this weekend.. I have the binder waiting..( and the seeds are still in piles and buckets)

those are the ones becky :-)

these are the business card holders 10 per page, which means slightly smaller pockets, and side access...

and these are the baseball/trading card ones with 9 pockets and top access...

http://www.tradingcardsupplies.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/114?osCsid=77959732d1dd4afcf5de914e8826b952

This message was edited Jan 10, 2009 9:07 AM

I would never have thought of the business card holder pages, I have a ton of those in the garage that i have from a previuos job, so will get those and empty them out until I get the trading card pocket pages.. u guys rock! ;D

Thanks you guys. It is very similar to what I started out with. But when more seeds came, I was in a quandr as to where to put them , in alphabetical order.
The indexing system of the hanging bags solves that problem for me nicely.
But it lacks the visual gratification seeing many kinds I have at one time, when they are on a page. I think that the quick indexing is more important to me personally since I forget so soon after. Frank

Will one of those foil packets the JMG seeds come in from commercial sources in Japan fit in a trading card page pocket?