Site icon Deep Green Permaculture

Seed Saving – How Long Can You Keep Seeds?

Angelo (admin)

The practice of saving seeds is as old as agriculture itself, and dates back to over 10,000 years ago. Early human civilizations harvested seeds and selectively bred crop plants to create domesticated varieties which displayed specific desirable traits.

Saving seeds has many benefits in the present day too, it’s a very cost effective way to grow herbs and vegetables, it allows gardeners to develop better varieties which do best in their location and climate, it helps preserve heritage varieties and it’s a great way to increase self-reliance.

When saving seeds, it’s very important for gardeners and farmers to maintain a stock of seeds which is fresh and viable, that will germinate and grow into healthy plants when sown.

The Best Ways to Store Seeds

Seeds need to be kept in a cool dry place for maximum storage life. When saving many varieties of seeds, it’s best to have some means of organising them, such as in envelopes, with the name of the plant, and the date collected marked clearly. Envelopes ideally should be arranged in alphabetical order too!

Seeds are usually sold in envelopes, which can be reused for the same plant variety once they’re finished – don’t mix old and new seeds!

The problem with seeds is that they can’t be stored indefinitely, and to complicate the matter further, different seeds can be kept for different periods of time. Knowing how long to keep seeds can get confusing, so to make it easier, we can classify seeds into three categories:

  1. Short storage time periods – store for less than one season (< 1 year)
  2. Medium storage time periods – store for up to or at least 3 years (1-3 years)
  3. Long storage time periods – store for five years or longer (>5 years)

How to Label Stored Seeds

When storing seeds, it’s important to label them for future reference. At the very least, a seed envelope or container label should contain the following information:

For example, a label could read Tomato ‘Roma’ 10/21

An additional piece of information which may be helpful in maintaining a fresh supply of seeds is:

By using the seed storage list shown below, we can determine if seeds can be stored for short, medium and long periods, and work out how many years we can keep them, which will either be 1 year, 3 years or 5 years after the collection date. Writing down the use-by-date makes it easier to know if seeds are good to use, without having to refer to a seed saving list.

To make seed sowing much easier, the following information can also be included in a label:

Here’s an example of an envelope used by a community seed bank project I jointly set up many years ago:

An example of a seed envelope label used by a community garden as part of a seed saving project

Seed Storage List – How Many Years Can Seeds be Kept?

Seeds not to be kept longer than one season (short time periods)

Seeds can be stored up to at least three years (medium time periods)

Seeds can be kept five years or longer (long time periods)

Using this system, it’s easy to tell when collected seeds are no longer viable, and need to be replaced with fresh ones!

Exit mobile version