Grow Your Own Magazine

Just wondered where to keep my seed packets full and half empty.

Best places?

Thanks, janeyo

tupperware type box with a lid for me.

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Yo an' Bob
Walk lightly on the earth
take only what you need
give all you can
and your produce will be bountifull

Plastic craft box filled with brown envelopes - one for each month, with the relevant seed packets in each envelope for me!

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Life may not be the party we hoped for but since we're here we might as well dance

I use old icecream tubs with card spacers with sowing months on.

For unopened seed packets, I have a storage box from WHSmith - a nice Laura Ashley hessian-covered thing, very rustic! I think it's meant for CDs, but it's the perfect size for seed packets That lives in the conservatory (with my gardening stuff) during the cool weather, but I move it to the utility room in the summer as the conservatory gets way too hot. They are sorted by season, phase of the moon and then in alphabetical order - yes, I'm hopelessly anal like that!

Once opened, the little foil pouches go in a small Lock'n'Lock plastic box in the fridge - I put a silica gel sachet in there as well (the sort that you get in new handbags, etc.), to keep the moisture level down. N.B. sometimes the inner pouches aren't labelled, so don't forget to write on them!

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Small Plot? No Problem! - my blog about growing organic veg

just piled into sweet tins, four and counting at the mo. not organised enough to put them in any kind of order

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Kernow rag nevra http://www.cornishnotenglish.com/

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits
Albert Einstein

Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when your'e tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand
Bruce Lee

There are a lot of extraordinarily organised people around here!!

My unopened packets are in a deep plastic tray, and the opened ones crammed into a lock & lock with a silica gel thingy.

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Hazel
www.hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com
update Sat 15/11/2008......there's gold in them thar...compost bins!......

I'm afraid I am a little less meticulous than you all. Cardboard box on top of fridge out of the kids way, not in any order other than the order I bought them in.

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si'sraisedbed

Mine are in a shoe box. The shoe box is in the extension which is warmish. I got the open packets in a sealable bag (most of the open ones).

Should open ones be kept air tight is it?

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Mr D
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www.storesprite.com

Ikea storage jars for me - the ones meant for tea, coffee, sugar etc.

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Newbie,
keen but clueless

I put mine in confectionary boxes like your Quality Street etc but not quite round shaped. I don't have a specific way of ordering the seeds, I might keep all chunky Brassica together with a rubber band over and another bunch for say Oriental leafy Brassica, then one for Herbs, one for Root veggies etc. If I have more than one variety of seeds for a given veg type (as you do with tomato, pepper, squash), I try to keep them together in one packet or envelope or sealed plastic bag. Sometimes beans are mixed together in one sealed bag if they're different colours but you must label them with details. For sowing times, I just refer to my seeds spreadsheet.

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Food for Free

Old tin that used to have choc's in (now unfortunatly all gone lol)

Mine are in a lovely hand made wooden box with a carved and painted violet on the lid. It's far too small! This lives in the hall. I don't have them in any order becasue I take them out regularly and play with them, sort them, stroke them etc!

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 17th - The Big Dig

at the mo mine are all mixed in a tupperware in the kitchen.
Do I need to separate the new packets from the old? I have got silica gel in there.
Do they stay in the house or go in the shed/ garage?

If I don't open any packets (got far too many free ones from magazines after I had already gone mad in the shops lol plus some things I am not attempting as a beginner but may well do next year) will they be ok next year?

janeyo

previous years,before the lottie,mine were kept in a empty washed out large plastic screw top ex hair gel container,the little ones are also usefull,as is any herb jars,now in two sweet tins the hexiganal one,

Some in an old Gordon Ramsay Choccie egg aluminium container from a few years back; and some in an old glass pasta jar.

I always keep silica gel packets in them; mixed old and new packets.

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Andrea :wavehello

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...logs/zazen999/

moon trials completed:
tomatoes
[46% increase in crop per seed sown and 10% increase in crop per plant]

currently underway:
calabrese
garlic

Old Chocolate tins for mine......though come to think of it they seem to be getting a bit crowded!........off to buy more tins of chocolates!! yummy!!!

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Always aim for the best result possible not the best possible result

mine are in a square biscuit box from christmas, not in any order but some packets are grouped together in elastic bands

Mine are in a long narrow tin. Don't remember what was in it but i have all my opened seeds in brown envelopes, labelled and in alphabetical order. Kept in the conservatory in the winter and in a shoe press in the summer.

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And when you're back stops aching,
And you're hands begin to harden.
You will find yourself a partner,
In the glory of the garden.

Rudyard Kipling.

Plastic tool box, thinking of getting one of them snap on tool boxes with wheels.

I think your seeds will be allright next year Janeyo. If you have any doubts about them you can check their viability this way before you depend on them for your main planting.
Wet a sheet of kitchen paper and fold it in quarter. On one side lay out 10 seeds and fold in half over the seeds. Place the package in a freezer bag and clip it closed. Place in a warm place and check daily for germination - if successful you will see white wiggly bits coming out of the seed. The number that germinate will give you a % viability ie 7 from 10 = 70%.
You can do this as early in the year as you like and then you will know if your seeds are viable and worth planting or if you have to buy some more. Hope this helps.

I keep my seeds in a lock n lock box. In no particular order cos like Flummery I take them out and play with them.

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

Two biscuiit tins, one for flowers and one for veg! Seed packets that the seed has been planted from for this year in a tupperware box. All seeds are stored on storage shelves in greenhouse!

PS Had a few legumes in a tesco plastic bag, but a mouse got in and noshed them!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Mine are in some cardboard wine boxes, one set of seeds has a wooden wine box! All these are kept in a larger cardboard box. They were divided into seeds for the garden, seeds for the allotment, seeds to propogate and flowers, but my daughter got into them and although all the open packets were rolled tight enough that I don't have a pix&mix of seeds in the carpet, I certainly have nothing resembling order in the ranks now.