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Post by garnetmoth on Feb 21, 2011 23:34:21 GMT -5
I have been sorting for seed starting, and its gotten me thinking.
I have tomatoes, peppers and ground cherries, greens, lettuces, herbs, beans, grains, cucurbits. They all are in a VHS tape case, in VHS tape cardboard boxes (or cereal boxes rebuilt to that size)
this evening, I went though and started to shift things- it seems Ive got a lot of herbs and greens that go in "plant when soil is workable" (shungiku, radicchio, brassicas) then Ive kept lettuces by themselves for now, and a "sow after frost or start inside late and transplant" (NZ spinach, beets, chervil, basils) kinda category.
I have some lovely things that went (or should have gone) directly into the fridge, I may look for a tiny box or case to keep them safe.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 22, 2011 2:46:11 GMT -5
My seeds are generally organized by species, and by planting date. Packets of the same species are kept together in plastic bags. Plastic bags are kept inside cardboard boxes or plastic bins based on planting date: Fall planted. Indoor-grown transplants. Very early spring. Mid spring. After danger of frost. Never expect to plant.
Backup seeds of all my major crops are sealed inside redundant steel cans and stored in multiple off-site locations.
Some species are not stored as separate varieties, for example every packet of radish seed gets opened and dumped into one common lot. Same with lettuce, and peas, and snap beans, and watermelon, and cantaloupe.
I expect to do ear-to-row breeding for corn this summer so I have hundreds of seed packets from individual corn cobs. I'm not very happy about it right now. Seems like too much work.
I might feel good about fruit-to-row breeding for cantaloupes though since there are fewer fruits.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Feb 22, 2011 4:11:08 GMT -5
Obviously I need to be tutored in this area. I've got some seed in the dining room, some by the front door, some are by my knitting chair....
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Post by robertb on Feb 22, 2011 6:17:06 GMT -5
Most of mine are in big sweet tins hanging from the shed roof to keep them safe from mice, rats and floods. A few are in the freezer, when I won't be able to grow them out for several years, and they're rare and precious. I wish I had space for a dedicated fridge!
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Post by heidihi on Feb 22, 2011 7:01:03 GMT -5
I have two large containers. one has seed that can be planted around Presidents Day and things that get planted after Mothers day
I keep them in packages and together by types like the corn beans ect but nothing more detailed than that ..
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Post by garnetmoth on Feb 22, 2011 10:27:29 GMT -5
Great ideas everyone, thanks! I struggled with "finding what goes when" last year, so the sorting by planting time is making me happy.
Ive got to paint the chicken coop once it warms up a little, I think an empty paint tin would be a good storage for extra special seeds. Love the roof idea, may do that in our basement.
Jo- seriously. :-) Ive got a few packets I mean to take to my dads on the end table, some for my husbands work friend on the dining room table....
Now if I could just make sure I photograph, write notes about, and eat a little bit of everything....
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Post by mnjrutherford on Feb 22, 2011 19:26:40 GMT -5
Kelli, I've got disorganized all covered. Do you remember me posting that I had my trade seeds practically in the mail back in November I think it was? Well, here we are, 3 months later and I have not seen the d@&% things since! I had them all in nice neat little packets, all ready to slip into envelopes, but I had to stop to do what, cook, take care of the family... something. I can see myself in my minds eye putting them in a "safe place" till I could get back to them. I have no clue where "safe place" is to this very day. ::sigh:: I'm tellin' ya, keep a REAL eye on yours so you don't fall into my trap, it's cramped in here!!!
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Post by littleminnie on Feb 22, 2011 19:44:26 GMT -5
I have 1 large bin and two smaller containers. The large bin is for veggies and the other 1 for herbs/flowers and the other 1 for stuff I just want to trade or sell.
In the big bin I put large legume packets on one side and then individual bundles by family, in alphabetical order, on the other side. Brassica, cucurbits, greens with alliums, roots and solinaceae.
In the flower/herb bin it is bundled in annual herbs, perennial herbs, annual flowers, perennial flowers- all in alphabetical order. I love alphabetizing.
In late fall I inventory my seeds and make a list in excel and then start to figure out what I need. When I have my seed order and wanted in trade lists ready I make a new excel list with all of them together. Then as the seeds arrive I enter them in the excel list as obtained before I inventory them in the box, or I forget what I have. More important is taking off the don't want list when I send seed trades so I don't think I have something I no longer have.
I am much more organized this year than last, maybe next year will be even better.
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Post by ozarklady on Feb 22, 2011 19:48:53 GMT -5
Oh, I feel better!
I did the same thing.
I was sorting seeds, I did have the swaps already set aside. But, grandkids arrived, so I put the large popcorn tins, that I store my seeds in up.
I made some more swaps, and couldn't find the seeds! I could only find ones that were sent to me.
I just found them two days ago, and even so, the squash, and cucumbers are not with them, one more popcorn tin is missing.
I was packing up some stuff, and that huge tub seemed an ideal place to put the tins, safe and sound from grandkids...
I moved that tub many times, but never looked inside it! They were gone from November until now too!
Sit down and re-enact the very last time that you had your seeds... what were you also doing that is outside the norm... like packing up stuff for me.
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Post by grunt on Feb 22, 2011 21:10:54 GMT -5
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Post by synergy on Feb 22, 2011 21:37:17 GMT -5
Grunt, holy cow, how exactly do you grow all those ?
Now Iam embarrassed , mine fit in an 3 " x 6 " floppy disk case because I just started gardening last year and I split all my seeds between girlfriends. Except I have a bag of potatoes I grew last year that I saved to plant. I have no idea what I am doing.
I divided them into like kinds of food, tomatoes, greens, squash , etc. I think I will look up in a book what to plant when for my area because last year was my first kitchen garden and I planted everything in May. Then I think I will make a list or put a colour code dot in my organizer and colour code paperclip on the packages that I want to plant each month. And I will attach a little colour coded paperclip to my calendar around the time I want to plant . Hopefully I will do better than last year.
I tried organizing them in photo pockets in binders but that did not work out too well.
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Post by ozarklady on Feb 23, 2011 0:42:03 GMT -5
Okay Dan, even with organization, how often can you simply not find a certain seed?
You know you have it, you know it is there, somewhere... problem is: where?
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Post by grunt on Feb 23, 2011 2:17:03 GMT -5
I do the "where the hell did I see that?" on an almost daily basis. And not just with small packages of seeds. I have some bulk saves in baggies someplace here, but I haven't been able to find them in the past two weeks. I tripped over them for a couple of months before that. I didn't consciously put them anywhere, which is what usually happens, they just fell off the face of the earth = well, maybe just behind something in the living room.
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Post by robertb on Feb 23, 2011 5:32:29 GMT -5
I take care to keep seeds in the tins (though the other day I discovered some pot marigolds in a pocket, left there from last year), and only take them out when I'm ready to put them in an envelope and address it. Then it goes on top of the computer, where I can't miss it, until I post it.
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Post by flowerpower on Feb 23, 2011 5:57:30 GMT -5
I also divide them by type- Lettuce/Greens, Peas, Winter Squash, Tomatoes. I have the maters sub-divided by color. It's the easiest way for me.
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