I would try wrapping them in a little envelope of paper toweling first. Otherwise, the vacuum could suck the seeds right out of the bag!

Good idea. I was thinking of doing that and then placing them in a mason jar and use the jar attachment to vacuum the air out.

I was also considering the mason jar attachment for this (as per the manual they suggest a coffee filter placed ontop of super fine things like flour, or in this case, tiny seeds I would imageine)

I bought myself a foodsaver for christmas just to find that its really quite useless and to expensive to use for half the things it is advertised for.
The mason jar attachment however looks promising, especially since they are reuseable forever.

Though I have not tried it, I would imagine that the vacuum packing would keep the seeds at the exact state in which they were packed. (Similar to how it keeps brown sugar from going hard by losing moisture or going sticky by absorbing too much). The vacume sealer companies list garden seeds as something it keeps "fresher" but after an hour or so searching the net I was unable to find any conclusive evidence lol.

So I am also interested in hearing from anyone that has tried this out.

when i worked the meat packing and had little thing to vacum we would pack it somthing than vacum it

Hello all,
I do not own a vacuum packer but I am thinking about buying one. I have not been able to come up with a reason to do it yet, until a couple of days ago when I received some seeds from a trade that were vacuum packed. It seemed sort of wasteful the way it was done though, a huge section with only a dozen seeds in it. I am hoping that there is a machine that will allow very small packs not wasting so much of the material. If anyone could reccomenda machine that would do this I would appreciate it.

If you are only saving seeds to be used for the next spring it might be overkill. However, if you are saving seeds that remain viable for years such as Tomatoes (5 years or more) it would probably be a good idea and should extend the life of the seeds.

"MJ"

I don't know about a vacumn sealer, but what I use to get close to vacumn packing is a straw. I put my seeds in a coin envelope and then put the coin envelopes in a zip loc bag...close the bag except for a little space for the straw, then suck out the air from the bag and quickly withdraw the straw and finish sealing the bag. It's not exactly vacumn sealed but pretty close, and a lot less expensive.

Thanks
JP

I use a vacuum sealer to store all of my tomato seeds and it has worked very well for me.
If you buy the bulk bag material on a roll you can make what ever size bag you need.
The seeds go first into a small paper envolope and then into the vacuum bag.
The vacuum bags are made longer than needed so they can be resealed again after opening.
Hope this helps!
Haven a good day!
Dennis

I've heard that dry rice can be put into containers to absorb moisture before it get to the material you are trying to keep dry.

Those little stay-dry packets one sometimes get might be another idea. I think I would favor glass containers, but would put it into a ziplock in case the glass broke.

I have vegetable seeds that Mom gave to me many years ago that remain viable. I store them in a 20 gallon foil-lined drum that is air tight. The drum is kept in a cool cellar. The same could possibly be done on a smaller scale with a mason jar with an air-tight lid. The zip-lock bags are not as air-tight, but I keep seed that I will use within a couple of years in zip bags with good results.

Not sure if this will help you or not but there is a video on youtube that gives you a trick on how to basically use any cheap in expensive bag instead of the "original" ones.
The name of the video is: Using inexpensive smooth (non-ribbed) food storage bags and it's posted by: Offgridgeeks. Kirsten.

Best thing I have found for saving seeds are the small 2mil bags on ebay. I get 2x2, 3x3, and 4x4 for different seeds and split them into the bags. Your always bound to end up with some bad seed in something and if you say take meyer lemon seed and dry it and place it in 5 bags its nice if one gets overly moldy just chuck it.

I also store all my seed in the fridge door wrapped up tight and in the deep freeze, we have a new deep freeze that keeps ice cream scoop able and not block like. I know some seeds can be saved for 20+ years that way, is how the government seedbanks work. I would call those guys and see if they have any input, I might actually do that myself.