Home Seed Saving and Storage
Many people are attracted to heirloom seeds and gardening for the variety and flavor. Once they realize that heirlooms are open pollinated seeds that can be saved and replanted year after year, they often ask how to start saving their own seeds.
This is not hard, but there are some basics to understand first. With a little knowledge you will be able to make the choice to save seeds, or realize it’s not something you want to pursue at this point. Please realize that this is an only in introduction, as there are several excellent seed saving books on the subject if you want to learn more.
Short term storage is the largest concern for most home gardeners and even most market growers, as they are looking for a way to have viable seeds for next year, not 10 years from now.
This is the same concern that humans have had since we started planting seeds some 10,000 – 12,000 years ago. There is some confusion as to how to keep seeds viable for a couple of years, as the news about seed banks and the high tech methods have created a false sense of need.
You don’t need high-tech, expensive equipment! You already have everything in your house that you need.
Temperature and humidity are the two main concerns in any seed storage setup. A place that is consistently cool and low humidity are what’s needed, as temperature fluctuations will shorten the life and viability of your seeds.
Your refrigerator or freezer is ideal; you won’t need a lot of room as seeds are usually small.
Short Term Storage
There are environmental concerns to be aware of such as ambient humidity and temperature. If you live in a high humidity environment you will need to take certain precautions, just as if you live in a high temperature area.
In many areas the refrigerator is fine, as long as you put the seeds towards the back and in an area that isn’t exposed to the temperature fluctuations of the door opening. The freezer answers the temperature fluctuations, as it is opened a lot less than the fridge door.
Freezing seeds does not harm them, and can greatly extend their lifespan if done properly.
All seed banks freeze their seeds intended for long term storage! Humidity is a greater concern with freezing, as a blast of warm humid air on frozen seeds can damage them. If you live in a high humidity area, smaller packets of seeds for one years planting will be ideal, as the packet can be pulled from the larger seed storage without exposing the rest of the seeds to temperature/humidity fluctuations.
If you are saving seeds from a seed packet where you didn’t use all of the seeds, keep the packet and put it into a Ziploc baggie. Date the baggie and put it into a gallon sized Ziploc that has the date on it as well.
If you don’t date everything, you will wonder how long the seed has been in storage…
If you are saving seeds from harvest, put all of the info on the baggie- common name, scientific name, date, and any notes you want to remember next year when you pull it out.
This is the time to start a garden/seed journal as well, to document what you planted, what grew well, what challenges you had, bugs, disease, weather, etc. that you will forget in 3 or 4 years.
As with anything you will need to experiment and learn what works best for you and in your specific, unique situation. Some high humidity areas need to store their seeds in smaller quantities and pull the individual packets out of the storage container that are needed for that years planting, put them into another container in the back of the fridge to thaw out for a couple of days, then finally bring them out into the room to finish warming up.
Most areas aren’t nearly as exacting, with the seeds going from the freezer to a covered container on the counter for a couple of days to thaw and stabilize before being planted. One side note, some seeds will germinate better after freezing/refrigerating, as this imitates the natural winter season in the ground.
Longer Term Storage
Long term storage is similar to short term, but the freezer is almost always used, with chest freezers purchased specifically for seeds acting as miniature seed banks.
Only seeds are stored in the freezer and it is opened only a couple of times a year, so temperature swings are minimized. The freezer is usually run at about -15F. Most seeds will last a minimum of 5 years with certain hardy varieties lasting 20+ years!
This is obviously the domain of the serious seed saver. There are a lot of individuals that fall into this category, which surprises many people, who think that serious seed saving and seed banks are reserved for seed companies or government agencies.
Individual seed banks were common until the 1920’s, and are on the rise again. It makes a lot of sense to have a local or community seed bank, as the varieties saved are locally adapted and proven producers; poor performers simply aren’t saved. Local knowledge on what grows well is indispensable and is not possible to have at a company or government level except for possibly at the local level, as the time and interest is just not there.
To start saving seeds, they must be clean and dry, free of vegetable matter or mold/mildew.
Most seeds are intuitive to save, just let them dry on the vine/cob/pod and shell or separate the seeds from the husk/cob/pod and you’re done! Some, like tomatoes need a little more work, such as fermenting the gel coat off of the seeds, washing and then drying them.
Start with an easily processed seed to get the feel and see if this is something you want to do. Also, start with saving something that you like and are interested in eating again.
Be warned though, once you start it becomes a bit of an obsession as you realize that you are starting to take control of your food and the future of what you eat! It is a powerful and liberating feeling. You might even become a food rebel!
Thanks for the tips. This year was our first attempt at saving seed. We’ll test our worth next spring. -Tommy
Start slowly with vegetables that are easy to save- pumpkin, squash, corn, etc. then work up to more involved things if you still enjoy it. Good luck!
I have been saving seeds now for the last couple of years and totally agree with your last comments – I am hooked. I have now become a seed collector hoarding new varieties (especially heirloom) from others at any opportunity. It is such a liberating feeling to know exactly the cycles and rythem of the food you eat!
Good Advice. Although I don’t save all my varieties from year to year, I save the easy ones, and it is very rewarding knowing you did the little work required, and then you get to watch them grow!
Very few people have the time, expertise or space to be able to save most of their seeds, let alone all of them. You are doing the right thing- start small and get some good experience and go from there.
I have been freezing seed for 30 years and am astounded as to how long seed will store and still have a high percentage viability to get started again after 25 or so years. We all need to put some of our local OP corn types in storage as so many are going extinct.
You are absolutely right! We all need to start our own personal, private seed bank.
It doesn’t need to be large, only those varieties that you want to eat on a regular basis. It is much easier and more practical to save seeds from only one or two varieties a year, as this gives you enough time and space to plant a large enough population to ensure the highest quality and enough seed left after removing the less than perfect plants and fruit that results in inferior strains a generation or two down the line.
Thanks for the nice mention in your blog! Looks like you are on a similar path as a lot of people, learning to grow some of your own food and helping to create a better local food system. Thanks!
It is imperative NOT TO SAVE HYBRID seeds. Hybrids will breed true only the year they are first planted, which is the planting you are savig the seed from. After that, they will revert to charistics of one parent plant or the other, but will not reproduce what you planted. The old varieties are best and will breed true. Of course, avoid all GMO seeds.
Good advice, Jan! One of the many reasons we specialize in only heirloom and open pollinated seeds.
I have always found that you can only freeze seed once the seeds are brought down to a specific moisture level. I have read in numerous sources that if you freeze seeds that are not dried properly that the cell walls will be damaged such that they will no longer germinate. This tends to be a big concern with beans as well as the melon and cucumber family of seeds, as these seeds tend to retain a relatively high percentage of their moisture even after leaving them out to dry. To properly dry these out, use of silica gel is recommended.
You make a good point, Jay! Seeds do need to be completely dry before putting them up for saving. To do the initial drying, a food dehydrator or warm well-ventilated porch or room will do nicely. The silica gel is very helpful to maintain the moisture level once the seeds are dry, but isn’t very effective for the initial work as they will become water-logged fairly rapidly. One of the larger concerns is when bringing the seeds out of the freezer into a hot and humid summer day for succession planting. It is best to bring them into the refrigerator for a couple of days, then into room temperature to let them acclimate better and not experience a drastic temperature shock that could crack the seeds.
I Have Recently started saving my seeds from our Garden at our new Home I Do fine with tomatoes understand fermenting them i have saved Cucumbers seeds for 2 years now But I have been having a lot of trouble with the Squash seeds They seem to deflate go flat once dried any advise I have tried with Yellow crook neck & Zucchini .
Elizabeth, if they go flat when dried, they probably weren’t viable to begin with. Make sure to save seed from over-ripe fruits, as edible fruits often have under-ripe seeds that are immature and won’t grow well the next year.
Stephen,
I try to save seeds from our garden every year and haven’t had a lot of luck with them when I replant. I have read a couple of reasons why this may not be working for me. And is there any truth that there has to be male and female seeds for the plants to produce? If so, how do you tell which is which? I’m wanting to save some pepper seeds from some beautiful peppers that we just bought. I thought just drying them was enough, but from some of the articles on here it seems that the vegetables have to be rotting in order for the seeds to be salvageable, What am I missing? Thank you in advance if you can shed some light on this.
Sincerely
Mary Crane
Mary, it sounds like you need a couple of resources to help! Download and print “A Seed Saving Guide” from the Organic Seed Alliance. We use this as a reference or text book in our online seed saving class we are developing. It is free and quite informative. Next, look at “Saving Vegetable Seeds” by Fern Marshall Bradley in our store. It is inexpensive but very good.
Both of these resources will answer these questions plus a whole lot more!
A few years ago my wife and I planted a short row(about 20 feet) of Roma tomatoes. Plants came from a local green house. At the end of our season I just tilled everything under and forgot about it. The next spring we had Roma tomatoes coming up all over the garden. A section 25 feet long and 10 feet wide were covered. I tilled tomato plants under all summer….LOL
Yes, “volunteer” tomatoes or other veggies are surprising, but can be a boost in the garden. It is a good lesson in just how resilient many of those seeds are!
hi ive’ tried to dry our pumpkin seeds but most have started to grow with 1-2cm roots,can you freeze these or save them in any way? thanks.
Adam, if they’ve started to grow, then they are no longer seeds but seedlings. The only thing to do is plant or eat them, as they are starting to sprout. Pumpkin seeds need to be removed quickly, as they will start to sprout fairly soon.
If I freeze a fresh, whole pepper, can I remove the seeds and dry them at a later date…will they grow?
They might or might not. When saving seeds, one of the most important steps is to thoroughly dry the seeds before storage. Freezing the seeds inside a fresh pepper will more than likely kill the seed as the moisture expands and breaks the seed.