Seed saving is time and space consuming. I do it every year, LOL, because I grow so much and trade so much. I collect the seeds in plastic cups or brown paper lunch bags. Some I let dry in the cups & bags, others get spread out on paper plates. I package them in the No. 3 coin envelopes you can get at office supply stores. They come in boxes of 250 - I line them up back in the boxes (can't fit 250 of them, though, once they have seeds in them - surplus gets bound together with elastic band). Gathered & commercial seeds, and seeds received in trade (they get stored in coin envelope boxes, too) all go into a big Rubbermaid bin which is almost maxed out. I have seeds on my dining room table from August to just before Thanksgiving - sorry, I know I'm not much help!

I do a lot of the same things, so I think you have some really good ideas, Drippy. LOL

You need to consider that seed saving can become a compulsion, if you are just at the starting to collect seeds stage, Robin. It is so much fun for me that I don't care.

I store my seeds in #1 coin envelopes. They are just a bit smaller, are easier for me to store, and they come 500 to a box for about $12.

I bought one of those tall plastic chest type thingys at WalMart that has 4 shallow drawers at the top, and 3 deeper drawers at the bottom. In the shallow drawers, I put 4 of those plastic dividers that they have 3/$.94 or something like that. I use them set length of divider set in the width of the drawer. I can get 4 of them in one drawer.

I also use the dividers that are small square baskets in the shallow drawers. 4 will fit in one drawer, and I put seeds that I buy in them. It is just easier if I sort them, rather than just have them all thrown in a drawer. I sort them according to flowers, a.)annuals and b.) perinneals; vegetables, a.)lettuce, b.)tomato c.)cucurbits, and so on and so forth. I also have a drawer for herb seeds and one exclusively for peppers. DH collects peppers, and we will soon have to buy his own chest of drawers to store his seeds.

If I have time, I note on the envelope when to plant, as we garden most of the year, and any special instructions pertaining to germination of that seed. (For instance, onions require light to germinate; Orchid Tree seeds require 70 degrees to germinate.)

One thing I do not do is collect seeds in plastic bags. Open plastic utensils are fine, but the seeds need air circulating to dry. If your seeds still have moisture in them when you put them in the zip loc bags, they can mold, mildew and rot. I can personally testify to that. LOL

Hope this helps.

Janie

I've just started this this year, but what I've been doing so far is drying in paper cups or paper plates, them putting them in little coin envelopes. I have two shoe boxes for these envelopes--one for myself, and one for the surplus which can be traded. Each seed gets a number, just in the order I get it (seeds from trade are also assigned numbers when I receive them). The envelopes are stored in the order of those numbers. Then I have an excel spreadsheet that has all the information like common name, latin name, color, where I got it, annual vs perennial, etc. So I can sort by whatever I want and then just go to that number in the box to pull the seeds. It sounds complex but is really very simple. And so far it has worked very well.

I also store mine in the #3 coin envelopes. They fit perfectly in a replica Shaker seed box my mother gave me a few years ago. (Imagine 4-5 cigar boxes side by side, with a hinged lid.)

For the drying stage, my niece gave me a set of 12 square, clear glass kitchen prep bowls that work perfectly. (They're about 3"x3".) I rarely have more varietues drying at one time, so when I come in the house I dump each variety in a bowl, write the name and any other info I have on an envelope, and put the envelope on top of the seeds. I line up the bowls on the mantelpiece where I see them every evening. Most evenings, I'll take down a bowl, clean and divide the seeds, then write out all the info on that number of coin envelopes and bag them up. (I sent out nearly 500 envelopes of seed this season, so it helps to break it up a little at a time!)

Now that I qualify as a "Senior Citizen" I take several meds regularly. The smaller size plastic pill bottles work fine for me to store left over and saved seed. I put a piece of masking tape on the bottle to be able to mark them.
John

I use pill bottles and a cd albumn. I cut regular size envelopes cut in half to keep small amounts of seed in.

I keep my private stash alphasorted in four long file card boxes from Staples.

I've begun using CD Files for my unpacked distribution stash. I place the seeds in paper CD packs and file them alphabetically. If I want a window, I can buy clear-front paper CD sleeves, a box of a hundred for about $16. I can also go to the dollar store, buy a cheapo CD wallet, cut out the cheapy sleeves and use those. I like the paper sleeves better but they cost $$$. ON the walls I have clear vinyl CD wall organizers and shoe pocket organizers--those hold packed seeds. There are rolling file cabinets in the closet and under the table with commercial (farm size) seed packs, there are bankers boxes in the garage and attic with stems of pods that are yet to be seeded.

I gave up and gave a whole cabinet drawer to hold unfiled packs until I put them where they belong. WHOA.

Coin envelopes when they're thoroughly dry with a stick on label with basic info. These inside larger paper envelopes with full details on them. These are stored alphabetically in various drawers - one for herbs and flowers, one for veggies and a separate one for tomatoes (yes, I'm a tomato freak). These are all also on a computer based database so they can be sorted however I like (e.g., find all veggies that can only be sown after the danger of frost has passed). You get the drift.
I'm moving to glass jars for my bean and pea seeds owing to their size and the fact that I can have them on the mantle where I can admire them and talk to them (oh, I'm crazy too!).

Hi to all! Thank you for responding with such great ideas! Raymondo, I had a nice chuckle reading your post---you've made my morning. I am going to try some of these ideas, but as I thought about it, another question arose.

BACKGROUND: My husband grew up in a culture that, well, were so "clean" that you could have eaten your dinner off the floor. I mean this literally. I feel bad for him because, although I usually take my shoes off at the door, I still bring in bits of the garden! I practically have to clean the whole sink area after washing because I do not wear gloves. I think you all can imagine...

Anyway, I have seeds drying all over the place. He is not thrilled (sometimes they must be moved to have dinner!), and I am looking for a better way. Until my own workshop is built (next summer), I am going to disappoint the poor man.

QUESTION: How do you all dry your seeds? Are they all over the place? We live at or below sea level, and it is a moist place, so a little harder to dry them in small areas. I was thinking of building a low-sided shadow box for drying. The "boxes" would have to be fairly wide to let them spread out. I used a box with higher sides once, and the mold came anyway. We are installing a pellet stove, which should dry things out a bit.

What do you think, and what do you do?

Thanks to all my undrestanding, wild & crazy gardening chums!
Robin

This is what I have been using for seed storage. They stack rather nicely in the refer...

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed cases

weebus, I can't wait to get my seed cases. Not only do I want them for seeds, what a great way to store my beads.

I use old glass spice bottles.

Robin,
i dry all my seeds on top of the entertainment center in the living room. It's less likely to have to be moved during the drying process.

I keep my seeds in an old soft side zippered CD case. I love it because I can flip through them like an album. See my link for how I did it.

I also downloaded a seed envelope packet to print out to save my seeds in. http://tipnut.com/seed-packets/

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Binder: Garden Organization Project

I chew a lot of gum, my favorite is the bubblegum-flavored trident white that come in the 60 piece plastic little flip top jug. Larger than a medicine bottle, with a big lid for pouring seeds in, and a little lid for pouring them out :) The flat top is easy to label. The labels on the original container are easy to remove. Recycling and perfect seed holder for large seeds like peas. They then go in shoeboxes which are stacked on bookshelves. I use shoeboxes and cd albums for the rest of my seed storage.

Okay, here's a couple new ideas.
I use the clear condiment cups with plastic lids, small one ounce size, during the drying process and before storage.
This weekend I swiped my husbands square cloth tackle bag and inside fits square plastic storage bins with adjustible sections for all his fishing stuff. I put the dried seeds in small envelops and sorted by type. I keep the bin in the bottom of the refrigerator.

If you are in a high humidity location then for drying I would definitely go to the refrigerator. It will dry out anything. As long as the seeds can handle the 43F temperature.

For me I wait until the flowers are crispy before I harvest so I've only had trouble once, with the blackberry lily seeds.

I have been keeping all my seeds in the fridge & was wondering if ALL the seeds could handle the colder temps. Can all seeds? Even tender perennials?

Decades ago in college we were taught that almost all seed except some few tropicals could withstand low temperatures.

I always have rose hips in my hoodie pockets. After the seeds are dry, I use baby food jars which I always label first. This spring I am going to move most of those into ziplocks, take up less room in fridge. During the seed collecting season, those labeled little jars were convenient.

For my small size seed collection, I use different colors of large 3 ring notebooks. I slip larger flat seed envelopes inside clear plastic 3 ring sheet protectors and slip smaller size seed envelopes into 3 ring clear plastic photo album pages.

Sometimes a paper clip is needed to secure some seed packages in the top row of the photo album slots.

I also insert index cards (in the photo slots) or sheets of paper (in the full size sheet protector pages) behind the seed packages for notes & records.

With my recent discovery of saving Heirloom Seeds, I expect in the future my 3 ring notebooks will be retired in favor of clear plastic totes that can hold fatter and many more seed envelopes and containers.

Since I don't save large quantities of most seeds I use paper envelopes and 3 ring binder with trading card sleeves sorted by plant type.

I like my system for drying. I use the heavy, white divided paper plates. Each plate has three section, one large and two small. I write the name of the seeds along the edge of the section, so I can dry three types of seed per plate. Then I stack as many plates as I need, but turn each plate slightly so they don't "fit" or nestle. That way, air is able to flow between them to continue the drying process. I can move my stack easily and quickly, but usually it is safe on a shelf in the basement. I allow my seeds to dry long enough that I feel safe storing them in clear plastic zip envelopes.

Martha

The driest place in the house is often on the top of the refrigerator, so that is one good place to dry seed. A ceiling fan is good, if you have space in that room... I place a table on one end of my living room to dry seeds in late summer. DW isn't fond of that, but she tolerates my eccentricity. ;0)

An air conditioned room will have lower humidity, and is good for drying seeds when the air outside is humid... but probably not dry enough for extended storage. If you have forced air heat, the indoor humidity can get very low when the heat turns on; I use that technique to dry my seeds to the low moisture level required for sealed storage.

You can also make a drier by placing a layer of screen in a box, with a 40-60 watt incandescent bulb as a heat source. If using any heat source to dry seed, though, monitor the temperature closely.

For drying many kinds of seed, I purchased a stack of used cafeteria trays from a company that sold used commercial kitchen equipment. The trays cross stack to allow air flow, so you can dry a lot of seed in a fairly small footprint.

Most of my seed saving is beans so a lot of space is needed. For drying, the dining room table is taken over for a couple of months. I use baskets which can hold the pods and then be stacked - usually the floor under the table is covered with baskets too. Once the pods are dry enough, they are shelled and stored in zip lock bags, either in plastic containers or glass jars in the cold room. I can usually find what I'm looking for but it's a bit iffy. I like the zip lock bags because you can easily identify the variety.

My seed saving is also mainly beans. I set up a table in the family room and use the little storage bins that you get at one of the chain lumber stores to dry the beans (pictured below). Then I sort out what I'm saving for me and what I have to trade and put them in zip lock baggies and organize them alphabetically into large plastic containers, the kind that fit under a bed. I have a container for my keeper beans, organized by type then alphabetically, a container for my traders organized alphabetically. I have two other containers, one for the rest of the vegetables, organized by type then alphabetically and one for flowers organized alphabetically. I also have everything on a database in the computer with starting indoors times, planting times, where I got the seed, what year the seed was grown and other information.