vacum packing seeds

3775 Views 9 Replies 9 Participants Last post by Grandad Prepper, Apr 6, 2011

captaingreg

Discussion Starter · Feb 4, 2011

I have bout 30-40 packs of seeds i was gonna vacum pack them with some dissicant what do yall think thanks

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I wouldn't do that. I've read that seeds need a certain amount of oxygen to remain viable; I don't know how true that is, but putting them in a completely dry and arid environment doesn't strike me as a very good strategy.

How about freezing them? That's a good way to extend their viability.

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thirdeagle

· #3 · Feb 4, 2011

OP...I'm doing a little experiment now. I vacuum sealed about 15 varieties of seeds in October. I will open them this weekend and plant some seeds to determine germination rates. I have some "fresh" seeds from last years garden that were not vacuum sealed to use as controls; they are germinating at 98-100% so far.

I'll keep you posted. Most will point out that vac sealing seeds is a bad idea. Put them in a quart mason jar instead and store them in the fridge/freezer or at the very least, in a dark, cool place.

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Cryptkeeper

· #4 · Feb 4, 2011

if you want to store them for long term the only way to do it is by dehydrateing them to less than 6% moisture then put them in a non plastic container and store them in the freezer.

http://www.seedcontainers.net/a_guide_to_long-term_seed_preservation.html

http://www.syngentafoundation.org/__temp/DG_SFSA_SeedProcessingandStorage.pdf

one problem with vaccum sealing is the bags DO leak they do NOT keep a long term vaccum. they will loose their vaccum and bring in moisture.

i just keep my seeds in the packets they come in and put them in a mason jar and keep the jar in the freezer. i do dry them out a bit more before freezeing them.

thirdeagle: you really need to keep them in the freezer more like 5 years and see. odds are 1 year will be nothing, but alot of seed only stay viable for 1-3 years so at year 5 some of the seed will be going bad even if you do it all right. if you store it right and freeze them you can double the life of viable seed,so seed that has 2 years before they begin to degrade will START degradeing at 4 years IF stored properly

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kev

· #5 · Feb 8, 2011

I can not vouch for how well the seeds keep in a vacuum, I just keep mine in the freezer

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JRD505

· #6 · Apr 6, 2011

Ya think in the freezer will be just fine with out vacuum packed

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FarmerChad

· #7 · Apr 6, 2011

I have often wondered about vacuum sealing. I read somewhere about the idea that they need oxygen as well.

Something I might try is to seal the packs without vacuuming. I have 2 foodsavers, the older is more "manual" then the fancy new one we picked up in January. With the older one, you can place the bag directly on the heating strip and seal it up without even sucking out the air... Well, it thinks its vacuuming, you just don't put the bag in the chamber.

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Grandad Prepper

· #8 · Apr 6, 2011

JRD505 said:
Ya think in the freezer will be just fine with out vacuum packed

Yep, that should work fine. We've purchased several seed kits that came in sealed mylar bags. They were not vacuum packed, however. Seems like the consensus is to keep them stored with some oxygen in the container.

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STEEPOE

· #9 · Apr 6, 2011

I've purchased a few of the #10 seed cans. Should I take those out and put in the freezer?

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Grandad Prepper

· #10 · Apr 6, 2011

STEEPOE said:
I've purchased a few of the #10 seed cans. Should I take those out and put in the freezer?

We have our #10 cans of seeds in our storage room - 70 degrees maximum. The label says they should keep for about 4 years or so, but it doesn't say how to store them.

We've been using one can per year and trying to save seeds from the veggies so we eventually won't need the "canned" seeds. After we open the can, we keep the bags in the fridge. Don't know if this is the best way, but it's been working OK for us.

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vacum packing seeds

captaingreg

goose3

thirdeagle

Cryptkeeper

kev

JRD505

FarmerChad

Grandad Prepper

STEEPOE

Grandad Prepper

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