Kitchen Garden Forum

In my drawers (not those sort Herby) in an unheated tunnel tent.

One of my allotment shop customers - an old veg gardening hand - told me yesterday that it's worth buying a cheap second-hand fridge and keeping it on the warmest setting for storing all this stuff - the equivalent of 'cold storage'. He keeps all his spuds, carrots, saved seed, everything in there. I'm wondering what it would cost to run and whether it's worthwhile. It probabbly helps if you have a garage with a plug or something (I haven't). What i have discovered is that the 'stayfresh longer bags' from Lakeland are brilliant - all your salad stuff, even cut basil keeps ages tied up in one of them in the bottom of the fridge, they're re-useable and worth every penny. Haven't tried them for seed though.

Tigger.

I always accumulate loads of part packets of seeds. When a packet holds hundreds of seeds it would take me years to use them up. How long d`you reckon they last in general?
Should we take the `sow by` date literally?

Elderflower - no.

Hi

I always keep as many seeds as possible. I have an older house with a small store room on the North side which has a slate floor and slate shelving - originally called the "dairy". It was designed to maintain an even cool temperature before the days of electricity. The seeds are kept in wooden boxes.

Each year sometime between Christmas and New year I go through the packets, throw out any really old ones and make a list of what replacements are needed. As a guide I have found the Hessayon book usually reliable - but often save for a year or so longer with a reminder to sow slightly more thickly just in case. I always buy new parsnips.

If in doubt it is easy to do a germination test with a few seeds on damp kitchen roll in a small seed tray in an electric propogator - nice sort of thing to do in January when it is too early to sow for real. As a result my seed bills are about a third the cost of buying new each year and I feel justified in trying whatever new varieties I fancy - even from expensive catalogues such as T&M. The rest come from DT Brown and any offers I come across in the shops - or car boot sales if I am lucky.

Hold on! Isn't it a bit early for this kind of chat - even the garden centres are only just beginning to get out the Christmas stuff and they won't have the new seeds on display until the Santa tack has been put away. (Oops - sorry to have used the C word twice in mid September!)

Have a good end of season - we had plus 4 degrees last night in the North of Scotland but no damage.

Of course one can always go to "WILKINSONS" who's seed start at about 40p,in fact if you get in early, they have buy three and get the cheapest free, you might not get all the variety's but they are cheap. As one who thinks that F1's are a rip-of and where possible I do not grow them, after all who needs a row of identical cabbages all the same size, these are meant for the supermarkets, so that the Memsahibs don't pull them around.[Aah that feels better] Shallotman

As you think we should do as the professionals do, we should keep them on open display racks, in the full sun, in sweltering temparatures, in the greenhouse, just like they do at the garden centers.

Marshalls cat. arrived yesterday.
How long do you stay on a mailing list as I haven't ordered from them for several years now?

John

I keep mine in plastic containers with lids in the garage, where it's cool but not particularly dark, although I suppose I could place the boxes in a plastic bin liner. And apart from parsnips which I do buy fresh every spring, I use up all my old seed before buying new. My local garden centre is currently selling all this year's seed packets for 50p so I might stock up as I've come to the conclusion that most seed can be stored and used successfully for a couple of years at least with satisfactory germination results. Where I've had problems I think it has often been bad weather or slugs which have caused the failure rather than the age of the seed.

And on seed catalogues I notice T & M don't seem to be selling Blauhilde purple climbing French Beans now. Good job I still have a spare unopened packet as I get good results from them in hot weather when runner flowers don't set.