Storing Seed

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BackWoodsHunter
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Storing Seed

Unread postby BackWoodsHunter » Sat Aug 20, 2011 10:55 am

I could have just PM'd deerslayer as he is the seed man. However, I figured it wouldn't hurt to post and get others opinions and maybe help others learn.

My question is this, what is the best way to store seed? My buddy works for an AG seed company and they dabble in plot seed as well. He is setting me up with one of their mixes. I believe he already has it and I won't see him til October, which is much too late to plant here in WI. I need to store the seed either til spring or until July if I want to plant it as a fall plot. The mix contains early and late maturing soybeans, a variety of forage peas and buckwheat. I believe he said there was a grass in there and some brassicas too. I could be wrong. Anyhow not sure if storage processes of seeds is universal or not but thats what I'm working with. He said to store it in a cool, dry place. I asked if the chest freezer would work he wasn't sure said he had heard of some guys doing that before...I may try half in the freezer and half in the garage and plant separately to see if it has an effect unless I can be advised of somewheres better. Thanks for all input.

Don't worry I still plan to purchase and plant a slayer mix next yr as well ;)


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Stanley
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Re: Storing Seed

Unread postby Stanley » Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:17 am

ttt
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Storing Seed

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:34 am

I have found a closet in the house to be the most reliable. It will usually last quite a while this way. This usually eliminates the possibility of wide temperature swings and high humidity that can cause condensation and cause easy to germinate seeds like many brassica's to start to germinate right in the bag. The more stable the temperature the better, but many people just store it out in the garage and it works out for them. As long as you have fresh seed it should last at least a year. The biggest thing is to keep it dry. Next would be to avoid temperature extremes if possible. The better you take care of your seed the longer it will last and the higher the germination rate will stay. However, you must keep in mind that the bacteria (innoculant) can go bad so you may have to reinoculate your legumes if you go past the expiration date or do not follow good storage practices. This is especially true with large seeded legumes like beans and peas. Those always do best when innoculated near planting time anyway. I don't know much about keeping seed in the freezer. I suspect it could be great for storing some seed until the next year. Although freezer burn could occasionally be a problem since it isn't protected from extreme cold by earth or snow cover.

Hopefully more people will chime in about how they store seed as this is important to keep from wasting money. Both from improper seed storage by your own actions and by possibly recognizing when seed may have been improperly stored by a retailer you are thinking of buying from.
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Re: Storing Seed

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:42 am

Stanley wrote:ttt

Stanley, the original post had only been up 22 minutes. Your not too interested in this topic are you? :lol:

By the way how do you store your seed? From the tractor in your avitar I'm thinking you may have planted and stored a seed or two in your day correct?
Last edited by DEERSLAYER on Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Added two questions
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Re: Storing Seed

Unread postby Southern Man » Sun Aug 21, 2011 5:38 am

We store seed in the freezor. Garden seed that is. We rarely plant all the seed in a pack each year and store the rest in the freezor until next year. when you think about it, natural seed that falls from the plants each fall / winter ays in the frozen earth until it sprouts the following spring. Should be fine in the freezor.
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Re: Storing Seed

Unread postby kenn1320 » Sun Aug 21, 2011 6:34 am

Maybe I get lucky, but I don't do anything special when it comes to storing seed. I just gave my dad a bag of brassicas that sat on my bench in my unheated garage for probably 2yrs and was down in my basement before that for a couple years. He put some in a cup and said it sprouted no problem. I have a bag of shot plot sitting in my shed that is right by the window. Thinking about it, probably not a good idea but Ill get around to planting it sometime over the next few years. Ive had it for a couple years now. I also have a bag of seed in the basement that I bought a year or so ago. I planted some mid year and its growing great.
Now I don't have any rhyme or reason as to how I store my seed. Maybe I'm lucky, who knows. I have heard of people storing the seed as Slayer said, dry dark place that doesn't get lots of temp swings. Then about 3-5 days prior to planting, they put them in the fridge to cool them, so when they get planted they sprout thinking they just went thru the cold/warm cycle. Ive never done that, but thats what I have read. Seed can get old they say, but from my experience every time I work up a plot, theres OLD seed that gets brought to the top and it germinates just fine.
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Re: Storing Seed

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Sun Aug 21, 2011 10:36 am

kenn1320 wrote:Maybe I get lucky, but I don't do anything special when it comes to storing seed. I just gave my dad a bag of brassicas that sat on my bench in my unheated garage for probably 2yrs and was down in my basement before that for a couple years. He put some in a cup and said it sprouted no problem...

I think this is a fairly the norm. Like I was saying, the biggest thing is to keep it dry. If you can keep it dry your normally good to go with most seeds, but with legumes you need to reinoculate unless the bacteria is already in the soil from having that plant type growing there in recent times. Even then you will often get better production and nutrition out of your plot if you use seed that has active bacteria on it. However, even a plot that is not healthy like it should be due to a lack of proper bacteria can still be superior to the natural forage and could still be a big draw for the local deer. Also, just because you don't have that beneficial bacteria providing nitrogen for the plant doesn't mean it can't produce well. If you are adding a nitrogen fertilizer like Urea then you are essentially taking over that very important function of the bacteria, but unless you have nitrogen left in the soil from a previous crop, excess fertilization or from native legumes you cleared for your plot then you have to buy and apply it. So why pay for it when you can basically get it for nothing by making sure you have live bacteria on your seed when you plant?


kenn1320 wrote:...I also have a bag of seed in the basement that I bought a year or so ago. I planted some mid year and its growing great.
Now I don't have any rhyme or reason as to how I store my seed. Maybe I'm lucky, who knows. I have heard of people storing the seed as Slayer said, dry dark place that doesn't get lots of temp swings. Then about 3-5 days prior to planting, they put them in the fridge to cool them, so when they get planted they sprout thinking they just went thru the cold/warm cycle. Ive never done that, but thats what I have read. Seed can get old they say, but from my experience every time I work up a plot, theres OLD seed that gets brought to the top and it germinates just fine.

If your keeping it in a dry stable environment I wouldn't say your getting lucky. I would say your doing a good job of storing it. Those people you mentioned that put their seed in the fridge 3-5 days are not helping (or hurting) by doing so. Cold stratification just doesn't work that way, but if they think it does then they might as well keep doing it. It may give them that little bit of extra confidence that helps ensure they take care to do a good job planting.

The seed in the ground that you turn up never seems to have a problem germinating for several reasons. One is they are protected by the earth. Another is those weed seeds are often much tuffer than the bred forage varieties. Also, there is typically a huge seed bank built up over the years so you won't notice all the seeds that have been destroyed. If you have 1% of the seeds that survived you can still have far more weed seeds than necessary to completely blanket the ground.
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