How do you store your garden seeds?

[alldembirds]

I have a pretty big collection of vegetable seeds soon to be close to 150 individual packets of heirloom seed. My collection is starting to get out of hand and my question to fellow BYC gardeners is how do you/ what do you store your seeds in? Right now mine are in random jars and in an unused metal paint bucket that is sealed all kept cool and dark of course. I need a better way of storing them and have scene some pretty seed chests online. I would love to see some pics of your seed collections and storage solutions!

 

[Sill]

I use ammo cans. I just got a couple of new ones this week, too many seeds to fit the old ones. (I guess I'm sort of a seed hoarder, I can't help but collect seeds!) As long as the seals are intact and there is no rusted through spots it doesn't matter how the cans look, though I do try to buy the nicer ammo cans. The new ones have a bit of rust so I'm going to try to refinish them so the rust doesn't spread. Since I'll keep them dry anyway I shouldn't worry about how they look, they will function fine, but it might be a fun project to sand and paint them sometime when I have extra time.

I organize the seeds by type, so one ammo can has flower and tree seeds, another herbs, and vegetables seeds are broken down into summer and winter varieties. I put all seeds into zip-loc bags, with their original seed packet if it was something I bought or carefully labeled if it was collected seed. I make sure I date the bags before storage and try to replace seeds after a couple of years. Once sealed I keep the ammo cans in my basement. I've not had any problems with bugs or mold so far, so the ammo cans have been working.

 

[johnrt]

The bottom drawer in my fridge is all seeds. I harvest a lot of my own so most are in ziplocks and cheese bags by type, vegs, shade flowers, etc.
This year I planted some seeds I have had for 7 years like this and they came up fine.