How to Store Seeds

Sadly despite the new "bigger" garden we created this year, I still have plants too close together and tons of seeds left over.
I have never saved my leftover seeds for the next year.
How waste full of me.
This year I decided to try to keep the seeds to use for next years garden.

Relative Longevity of Well-Stored Vegetable Seed (by years)
5	4	3	2	1
Collards	Beets	Asparagus	Corn, sweet	Onion
Corn salad (mache)	Brussels Sprouts	Beans	Leek	Parsley
Cress	Cabbage	Broccoli	Okra	Parsnip
Cucumber	Cauliflower	Cabbage, Chinese	Pepper	Salsify
Endive	Chard, Swiss	Carrot		Scorzonera
Lettuce	Chicory	Celeriac
Muskmelon (Cantaloupe)	Eggplant	Celery
Spinach *	Kale	Kohlrabi
	Pumpkin	New Zealand Spinach
	Radish	Pea
	Rutabaga
	Sorrel
	Squash
	Tomato
	Turnip
	Watermelon

Impressed by my data collection?
Don't be.
I stole that chart from here.

I'm a little disappointed that onion sets don't really save. That is what we have the most of. I'm going to try them anyway. Maybe in a few weeks when I start my herb garden for the kitchen window they can find a home there... but for now....

So the storing of seeds the home gardener way is fairly simple.
There are better ways, but they include silica gel and things I don't normally have access to.
I guess I am going to go ahead and cinch it out.
I don't have that many seeds to keep anyway.

At home you can preserve you seeds, for no cost really, just some supplies you have at home.
But your seeds in ziplock bags.
Place rice at the bottom of glass jars (to draw away moisture)
Put baggies of seeds inside. ( I put the original packaging inside for later reference)
Seal tight
Put them in a low humidity, cool, dark place for storing. Somewhere that doesn't get above 50 degrees is ideal. Our basement is usually in the low 60's and that is the best I have so I am going with that.



As far as next season's germination goes, it will not be as good as the first year you have them.
But even new seeds are not 100% perfect at germinating.
If you want to test your seeds next year before you plant them all, dry getting them to germinate in a wet paper towel first. If you can't get the seeds to start there than at least you didn't waste much time or labor.

Goodnight for now seeds.