Survival seeds

[English Saint]

Has anyone else supplemented ther food storage with seeds for a long term food supply?

We bought some heirloom seeds from http://www.survivalistseeds.com/

I'm growing two raddishes at the moment. It's very exciting (and time consuming) to watch the seeds sprout.

[Bridgey]

Yeah I bought a tonne of seeds. I am practicing growing them now to work out any mistakes I am making. But one thing I have learnt is to don't grow too much at once. For instance if you love corn, plant small amounts a couple of weeks apart, through out the season. This way you have a steady flow of it, rather than all at once which will force you to either eat like a pig, give some away or throw it away.

Anyway it is exciting to watch the fruit of your labours grow. (yes fruit is also important to grow).

[lost ark]

Oh yes, seeds have been part of our storage plan for quite some time. In addition to making sure you have good seeds (and those cheap Wal-Mart/drug store packets are not good, you might consider adding a good gardening book to your library. I recently purchased Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times by Steve Solomon. I've been very impressed with it.

[kathyn]

I have heirloom seeds and I've invested in some good veg gardening books.

For instance if you love corn, plant small amounts a couple of weeks apart, through out the season. This way you have a steady flow of it, rather than all at once which will force you to either eat like a pig, give some away or throw it away.

Bridgey, that is a very smart observation. Thank you.

[familyman]

We had a pretty good garden this past year and we are still eating our various pumpkins and winter squash. I learned from this that along with dry beans and grains, winter squash can greatly help to sustain us through the winter as well as various cold weather vegetables.

[ChelC]

I got some of those mylar bags from the cannery. They can be ironed closed. I buy more seeds than I need each year, and then I seal up the leftovers and keep those for a couple years. I'm trying to learn how to collect seeds too, but so far haven't grown anything from my saved seeds. I do have some potatoes I saved over to see how they will do.

If I ever had to be wholly dependent upon a garden for food, I would have no idea how much of anything to plant. That is next on my agenda to learn (by reading, not by doing).

[SAM]

English Saint, I'll be interested to see how you like these seeds. I have looked at some of their deals and they are really excellent. You can get so many seeds for so little. We have been thinking about buying them.

That brings me to my question for ChelC or anyone who knows. Is using the mylar bags the best way to store the seeds long term? I have read elsewhere that you can store them in #10 cans as well. If so, does anyone know how long you can store them in those? I would love to buy a large supply of seeds, like the sell at survivalistseeds.com but I am afraid most would go to waste unless we could store them long term. Any suggestions?

[A Me]

Has anyone else supplemented ther food storage with seeds for a long term food supply?

We bought some heirloom seeds from http://www.survivalistseeds.com/

I'm growing two raddishes at the moment. It's very exciting (and time consuming) to watch the seeds sprout.

We're taking a two-prong approach. First, finding out about seed storage; second, related to the first, is learning how to collect the seeds from your own plants.

I asked a friend of ours who majored in horticulture and used to work in a nursery. Here is her advice to me.

1) Get good, viable seeds. Find them by talking to local farmers, gardeners, etc. You want to talk to local growers because each area (even within zones) is going to affect the seeds differently.
2) Keep on eye on the plants as they grow in your garden and identify the ones you want to use for seed stock next year.
3) This is kind of an optional thing (don't know if we have the time for this, but who knows?). She let the plants she wanted go to seed there in the ground. In other words, she didn't gather any seeds from them but let them do what they would do in the wild so that she would see the whole process (obviously she took notes). She didn't say it, but I see this step as a good way of figuring out if the seeds are viable in the truest sense of the word.
3a) We aren't going to spend the time watching the whole process. We bought a couple of books and are going to try saving some of our seed this year.

One thing I have learned in my research on collecting/saving seeds is that it's possible to grow plants from hybrid seed that you saved the year before. The problem isn't always that the plant won't grow (a definite risk nowadays). The main problem is that it won't necessarily grow into what you expect. One of the people who wrote in to Survivalblog on this topic said that the hybrid tomatoes they saved eventually reverted after a couple of plantings to cherry tomatoes... which of course is a far cry from the slicing kind of tomatoes. However, knowing this has made me a little more relaxed about the kinds of seed I buy. Most of it is heirloom but if I can't find it, I don't mind hybrid.

Right now, anyway. We'll see in a couple of years.

[ChelC]

Chicafoom, I don't know... I've read conflicting things about whether seeds need the oxygen to remain viable. I've heard but never confirmed that people have been able to sprout ancient Egyptian wheat??? That makes me feel better about it. I would recommend learning how to keep your own seeds and purchase heirloom varieties as much as possible. You may end up wasting some, but it's a relatively small investment, especially if you're already planting a garden. I sealed mine from the elements, without the oxygen absorbers. I have not been able to find out definitively which is the best way.