MotherofOrpies
Free Ranging
I’m not sure the plastic used in ammo boxes is safe for storing food ( related) stuff?! I l know Metall usually doesn’t give off anything but most plastics exsude unhealthy fumes ..I am thinking I need a better way to organize and store my seeds. Right now I just have them in a small 4X6 inch cardboard box...
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All my current seeds fit in that little box. However, I am starting to save seeds from plants we are growing. So, I can imagine needing more room for the seeds. Also, I have been reading and watching that it would be better to keep them dark and airtight if possible. Another consideration is making the seed box mouse proof. Last year Dear Wife saved some seeds, left them on a plate to dry out, and one night a mouse must have found them and ate them all. She was devastated. So any storage system will have to be mouse proof as well.
I looked on Amazon and their "Seed Boxes" are pretty darned expensive. I mean, some of them are nothing more than a metal can with "Seeds" painted on it...
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Well, heck, I know that Harbor Freight has waterproof and airtight ammo boxes on sale all the time. I found this 11.6 X 4.25 X 6 inch ammo box on sale this month for $3.99...
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That's the smallest ammo box they have at the store. They have larger sizes, too. But this small ammo box would be double what I currently have for storage.
My goal is to stop buying new seeds every year. If possible, I will save seeds from our plants when we can, but I would also like to buy seed packs at the end of the season at great discounts and save them for the next year.
I also checked YouTube to see if anyone was using these water resistant ammo boxes for seed storage and found this video short...
The small ammo box (with twice the capacity I am using right now) looks like it might be good enough for my current and immediate future needs. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated. I am open to all suggestions. Thanks.
I had not considered that. The plastic ammo box I got smells like plastic, not ammo, but metal ammo boxes have a smell to them as well. I had not considered that the plastic smell would affect the seeds themselves. I mean, some gardeners with serious storage systems use plastic container cases with individual plastic boxes. I don't know if that plastic smells any different that the plastic used in the ammo box I bought.
I consider myself more of a lucky gardener than a smart gardener. I start more plants than I expect to need, more varieties of the same kind of plants (like tomatoes), and different types of veggies in the hopes that some of them will be successful, some will be just OK, and, of course, it might be another bad year for certain crops. I celebrate the successes and try to learn from the failures.
Having said that, this was a really good year for us, and we are very happy with our raised bed gardens. We even successfully grew some tropical veggies in northern Minnesota, zone 3b, which was a nice surprise.
The only thing I don't like about gardening is that you don't get a "do over" until next year. When I make a mistake, I would like to correct it right now. It takes a lot of patience to wait another year to put your changes in place.
