can you store seeds left over

[escavader]

HEY Gardeners,
After planting my vegetable garden,i had alot of seed left over.Can i store them and use them next year?If so how[freezer,filing cabinet?etc?Whats your vote on this?Ihate to throw them out
ALAN

 

[ray66v]

If there is enough to bother, I vacuum seal them, and store them in the freezer.

 

[charlz]

I just leave them in the paper envelopes and put them in a box until the next year. Somewhere on the internet is a chart that shows how long various seeds will 'keep'. Some are many years and some are just a couple.

 

[meadowlarkponds]

You loose some germination and unless it is a lot of seeds worth some money, it isn't worth the electricity to keep them cold.

Some feed stores, unfortunately, will sell you last years seed and when they are selling in bulk, it is hard to know...but when you plant them, you know!!

 

[MossRoad]

I store mine in a dry, cool place in a vacuum jar like you get with those food saver bag machines. Seems to work fine. I have several year old seeds sprouting in my garden this morning.

But, as someone already mentioned, if you look at the seed packs, they are stamped with a date and they may be harder to germinate as years go by.

 

[heehaw]

i'm using the same G90 corn seed i bought 3 years ago: other than the rabbits eating the tops off the corn as soon as it breaks ground, have had no problems this year...i put out a live trap, caught a really big turtle..but no rabbit..looks like i may have to till it all up an start over..the dern rabbits have really messed up the corn this year..maybe they like corn from old seed?? oh yeah, almost forgot, i keep the seed in a zip lock bag laying in my garage...no special handling an it still seems to grow.
heehaw

 

[jinman]

You loose some germination and unless it is a lot of seeds worth some money, it isn't worth the electricity to keep them cold.

Some feed stores, unfortunately, will sell you last years seed and when they are selling in bulk, it is hard to know...but when you plant them, you know!!

I started to dip out some blackeye pea seed at a feed store from a bulk container and they were all full of weevil holes. No tellin' how long those seeds had been there. I just passed on them and bought seeds somewhere else.

Some seeds you just can't kill. I'm sure you could plant a 20-yr old cockleburr or mesquite seed and it would pop right up.

 

[4720 OWNER]

Done it for years, as long as they are dry they seem to be ok. Nothing special. I especially like heirloom seeds, just keep the best seeds from the best vegetables for year after year of production. I think they call this genetic engineering.

Do not even have to plant thistle, just disc it in and it comes back in spades.

 

[dmccarty]

Ihave had some seed not come up this year. Soybeans, carrots, corn, sweet peppers, brocoli and maybe onion. Some was from last year some maybe 2-3 years old.

I might try to put some in a vaccum and freeze them. Those seeds ain't cheap.

But I'm not sure its worth keeping them either. I have replanted some rows with this years seeds and the plants are realy pushing up. I knew using these older seeds was a gamble. The Okra and Cukes are growing like weeds. So some seeds did well. Others, not so much.

Maybe next year I'll I'll start the old seeds indoors and then transplant to the garden.

Later,
Dan

 

[DUMBDOG]

I had a friend plant some tomato seeds that he had for at least 35 years. It was a variety that you can no longer get. It took them a while longer to come up, but most of them came up.