I have seeds in Large quantities. I have kept them in some blue canning jars. I have pints, quarts and gallon size jars. I found a book shelf that have shelves about 4-5" wide shelves and 8' long, 4' high. The smaller quantities I keep in baby food jars.

There's a lot of ways to store seeds. Keeping them consistantly dry and in home temperatures should suffice.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Storage Gallery

Agree. And paper is better than plastic IMO. A shoebox with 4x6 index card alpha dividers works well for me.

Dave

Keep mine in a shoebox also, in alphabetical order. If more than one packet per variety, paperclipped together with freshest seeds in front. GaryStPaul

How do you do it? (I know some of you have hundreds of varieties, so you MUST have some methodology.)I keep mine in alphatabetical order and have a master list to which each is referred to by number (list gets modified every season). The number (not the name) goes on the seed-sowing container. And the number is used in garden plot grid that identifies the cultivar. A bit convoluted, but simple.

Reg

I try to keep my varieties down to about 15-20 varieties. Then i keep the items that I need to start inside together, start in garden before frost together, near frost date together, and after frost together. That is where the bookcase comes in handy. Each shelf can be a different planting time. The "blue" canning jars are still clear enough to read the variety card thru the glass without opening the jar. Plus the colored glass, keeps some of the light out and away from the seeds.

Some time ago (early 2003 or 2004, I think) I purchased a lot of 1 oz. glass bottles with lids that just fit in a manuscript box. Each box will hold 108 bottles. I have 4 boxes that are pretty much full of tomato seeds. (There are a few vacancies that are upside down as seen in this photo.)

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I have a spread sheet that list each Variety, Bottle Number, Original Source, Qauntity in bottle (provided I update it), Type (Beefsteak, chery, stuffer, Paste, etc.) Shape, Size, Color, Growth (Det, Semi, or Indet), Leaf type, Days to Maturity. This year I have added a Last Grown Column (and hope to fill, I need to go through all the garden "maps" and such). I am going to take better notes from now on. At least I plan to. *grin*

Each bottle has a number on the cap, (veggies numbers start with V, Peppers with P, herbs with H, tomatoes have no letter, just the number) and a label with the variety, bottle number, source and year.

Complex? Perhaps. But it helps me keep it organized, as long as I remember to update the spreadsheet!

Bets

Flowers and veggis, herbs are in separate boxes. I have 2 airtight plastic boxes that I have used for years and have always stored my seeds in the fridge. I now have a jumbo sized freezer and have moved my seeds to the freezer. The boxes are alpha (small traded packs of seeds and commercial packs), seeds that I have a large amount of are stored separately in double zip bags. Lettuce has its own bag, as does peas, beans, corn, and kitchen sprouts. I just germinated some 10 year old broccoli seed, so this works for me.

The only thing that I wish I had done over the years is keep records on the varieties that I grew. I have a little notebook that I have started this year to keep track of varieties and how they did and if they are a favorite.

pam