Topic: keeping seeds

[windygale]

 Can anyone tell me the correct way to keep home collected seeds, family, friends and people from this webpage have given me seeds,(thanks to all) i've read and was told, dry seeds, place in paperbags, lable, store in dry place, then some people say place in bottom of fridge, what is the correct thing to do.
thanks windy.

[john_miller]

All of them. Placing in a refrigerator is really important only if the seeds are short lived and you cannot sow immediately (even that does not apply to certain genus which must be sown as soon as you get them) or require vernalisation to break dormancy. Keep dry and cool but not necessarily refrigerated (indeed, anything in the bottom of my fridge could well end up saturated!)

[Hugh_Jones]

I believe that the nursery departmentof the RHS (with rare seeds at least), after carefully separating the seeds from all debris, sterilise the seeds in alcohol before storing and drying in the conditions John describes.

[windygale]

thanks hugh & john for your replys, a person that lives near me said the term was  Stratification ,can any body explain this please
good luck
windy

[Gardengirl]

I keep all my collected seeds in envelopes and then put them all in a plastic container and place in the fridge over winter.  Since I have been doing this I have had much more success with germination :)

Pat

[john_miller]

Vernalisation is the process of exposing seeds to cold only. Stratification is the exposure of seeds to cold and moisture (i.e. sowing seeds in compost and then placing them in the fridge or a cold frame).