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  • From: "Douglas Willhite" <drwillhite@earthlink.net>
  • To: "Douglas & Hillary Willhite" <drwillhite@earthlink.net>
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Saving Seeds By Freezing
  • Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:50:24 -0800

In the book, 'Seed to Seed', Suzanne Ashworth recommends keeping garden vegetable seeds in the freezer. I have kept all my seeds frozen for about the last six years - no problems so far. These are a variety of vegetables, garden fruit, herbs and flower seeds.

I don't take seeds in and out of the freezer frequently though; they come out once each year and stay out while I use them (through the summer basically, for some things, a week only for others) and then are refrozen.
I don't know what frequent temperature changes will do to seeds. I don't think they would be helpful.

If you freeze seeds you need to be sure they are very carefully packed - I put them in at least two thicknesses of plastic freezer bags. Also, if you freeze seeds, you need to be careful to get them out of the freezer a day before you want to use them but *not* to remove their outer packaging (a plastic freezer bag in my case). That way any condensation forms on the outer packaging, not on the seeds.

However, the very best way to preserve seeds is to grow them out - to grow some of them each year and save new seeds. You cannot store enough seeds for your lifetime; you can learn to garden and save seeds each year.

You might be interested in the Canadian Seed Savers and Exchange group:
http://www.seeds.ca/en.php

If you are buying them specifically to store them for a long time, there
are seeds sold packaged specifically for that purpose. See:
http://beprepared.com/product.asp?pn=FG%20S200

Other storage food suppliers also sell seeds packaged in this manner.

Pat
-- northern Pennsylvania
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry


  • [Livingontheland] Saving Seeds By Freezing, Douglas Willhite, 11/15/2007

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