If you want to grow heirloom tomatoes every year, or heirloom anything really, it’s probably a good idea to learn how to store your saved seeds. These tips for saving seeds will keep your seeds in tip-top shape throughout the winter and into the next growing season. Here’s how to store your saved seeds to keep your heirloom veggies growing for decades to come. Do you know of any other seed saving tips? Comment below and tell me what they are!
What Seeds Can I Save?
When it comes to storing seeds, there are a few varieties of vegetables that are better to save than others. Tomatoes, peppers, beans, and peas are all great candidates for storing seeds. Seeds like carrot or beets should not be kept because they require two growing seasons to properly set seed. Corn seed should also not be saved because it is so hard to ensure that the seeds are of a pure variety. Corn cross-pollinates so easily!
How To Store Saved Seeds
Wrap individual seed varieties in small paper packets or envelopes. Wrapping them will keep them cool and dry until it is time to harvest. Make sure that you label each seed packet so that you can tell what you are planting for the next growing season. Once everything is labeled, put your seed packets in a glass mason jar. You can store different seeds together, so long as they are all wrapped up in paper first. Next, pick an area of your house that is best suited for storing seeds. To keep them from germinating early, you’ll want to store them in a place with temperatures between 32-41 degrees. Some people I know even store their seeds in the refrigerator!
Toss in a packet of silica gel to keep moisture from developing in the glass jar. You can find one on Amazon for relatively cheap, too! Or, if you’d rather go with a more natural way of keeping your seeds a few tablespoons of powdered milk will do the trick, too. Wrap two tablespoons in cheesecloth, tying it off before placing it in your glass mason jar with your seed packets. Powdered milk will have to be changed out every six months.
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