How do you store your seeds?
Tina Davies from the PEI Seed Alliance e-mailed me this question a couple of weeks ago.
These next couple posts will look at how we store seeds and how we manage seed inventory.
Enter the seed room
Seed Storage Toom
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/danbrisebois.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/1.-seed-room-6902.jpg?fit=300%2C225&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/danbrisebois.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/1.-seed-room-6902.jpg?fit=748%2C561&ssl=1" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-2693 sp-no-webp" alt="" height="960" width="1280" srcset="http://danbrisebois.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/1.-seed-room-6902.jpg?w=748">This is where we keep our seed.
In this room we have dedicated areas for 3 types of seed
- Bulk seed we will later pack and sell,
- Stock seed we will later plant to grow more seed,
- Special seed I’ve selected from all kinds of plants that I might want to use in a breeding project (or simply leave in a box for years.)
Most of this room is dedicated to the bulk seed.
But not just any seed is admitted to this cozy seed room!
To get admitted into this room, seeds need to have
- completed final seed cleaning
- and passed a germination test.
They need to be ready for sale. The only thing left to happen before the seed can be distributed is to pack it in a seed pack.
Seeds like to be cool
We keep the seed room at around 16 C.
How we do this depends on the season. During the summer, we use an air conditioner. During the winter we simply don’t heat this room.
Seeds need to be easy to find
All our seed varieties have a code that begins with 2 letters followed by 3 digits.
Seed is organized in order by alphanumeric code.
If you know the seed’s code, you can quickly go to the right shelf and find it.
So that’s our seed room.
Next post, we’ll look at how we manage seed inventory through spreadsheets.
And then after we’ll look at how we store and label individual seed lots in the seed room.
Where do you store your seeds?