Storing seeds long term

[Wrh]

Morning growmies I hope your having a great Birthday, Hrh has as many of you know managed to win loads of seeds this year so my question is how do we store them properly to keep them viable for as long as possible? Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction

[Marcus]

Sling them in the fridge.

[ncrypta.core]

Agree with @Marcus find a container add seeds and some silca packs the stick in the crisper draw in your fridge till they are need.

[Greenfingers]

tub in the fridge, in theory, should help them pop quicker also

[seymore_budz]

Morning growmies I hope your having a great Birthday, Hrh has as many of you know managed to win loads of seeds this year so my question is how do we store them properly to keep them viable for as long as possible? Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction

How long term? If you're talking <2 years then a cool, dark and dry place is fine. If we're talking longer, then dropping the temperature to below 5C would give you the best chance.

The things to avoid are the obvious like moisture, light, heat and temperature fluctuations. There's nothing that will 100% kill a seed unless you end up baking them or something lol, but to have the best chance, consistency is key.

I bought a beer fridge to store mine. Its a bit warmer than I'd like, but it's cool and consistent enough. Trouble putting them in your everyday fridge is that the temperature changes everytime you open the door. And if you're a fat bastard like me, that's a lot of times.

That being said? I have no doubt people have had seeds stored incorrectly for many years and have successfully germinated them no problems. I germinated seed that a guy gave me that he found in his attic. He claims that it was a pack that he was given back in the 70s. Out of 10 seeds, 3 grew and we're fine. The weed wasn't great though, but I don't think that was due to the age of the seeds :)

Good luck!

[Sage]

Agree with all above humidity, fluctuations in temp are bad. Also dry stratification aka cold storage is said to improve germination rates. Read up on dry stratification an interesting read. I also and this may be just bro science put my container in something to block light. If you don't have silica packs uncooked rice is a decent substitute.

[Keeno]

Short term (a year or 2) cool dark place will be fine, kitchen draw, cupboard. Temperature fluctuations do more damage in the short term.

Long term as mentioned above, a fridge is perfect, I aim for 4c. The only issue with using a fridge that you use every day is that its used every day, temperatures go from cold to warm everytime you make a cup of tea. If you dont have a dedicated seed fridge, use a tub like mentioned above but a thicker walled one, even better use a small polystyrene shipping box. This will ensure the temperatures of the seeds is more stable over the long term on a daily basis.

I also always store every seed pack in individual grip seal bags, it means if something does go wrong on the container you are storing seeds in, every pack is sealed on its own. This further protects from temperature changes in a fridge.

All of the above being said... I look after a lot of seeds so all are stored correctly, except my personal stash lol. My seeds are in the kitchen draw and always germinate. Rawreefer recently germinated seeds that were likely over 20 years old that have been in my kitchen draw for the last 12 years.

[Wrh]

Thank you all very much for your replies , I've always kept them in my sock drawer but I've noticed the older they get the slower they germinate or even don't come up lol , it would be silly to have a nice stash and not look after it . I'll find a suitable container and put them in the fridge . Once again thank you all for your help

[Marcus]

I've always kept them in my sock drawer

Teenage Marcus and his socks were probably best avoided.

[Treetrunk]

Thank you all very much for your replies , I've always kept them in my sock drawer but I've noticed the older they get the slower they germinate or even don't come up lol , it would be silly to have a nice stash and not look after it . I'll find a suitable container and put them in the fridge . Once again thank you all for your help

Give em a soak with a weak hydrogen peroxide mix before planting.
Helps soften the shell and adds a bit of oxygen.
12% stuff mix is 8.4 ml to 100 ml of water.
Soak for 24 hours and I bung em straight into root riots that have a minute on full in the microwave.
Helps a lot with older seeds.