How to store seed

elarwhis · Jul 29, 2004

One of my dews produced seed, and since it's the first plant I've had to produce seed, I'm wondering what to put it in to store it, and how long it is viable. Would small plastic bags be ok, or does it need to "breathe"? I'm assuming it needs to be refrigerated.

rattler · Jul 29, 2004

depends on the sundew. what species do you have?

Rattler

elarwhis · Jul 29, 2004

D. capensis 'narrow'

rattler · Jul 29, 2004

not sure how you would store it. my capensis 'typical' just produced seeds and im just sowing them now. they dont need to be stratified. just curious as to why you want to store them?

Rattler

elarwhis · Jul 29, 2004

Well, I have sown some of them, but I don't think I can use all of them now, so I was going to save some for use at a future time.

Emesis · Jul 30, 2004

Put the seeds in an envelope and place them in the fridge. Plastic bags work, but electrostatics will become an issue when you try and pour out the contents.

Tamlin Dawnstar · Jul 30, 2004

Barry Rice once said the best way to store seeds is to send them to as many growers as possible, and he is right. My own method is to keep only enough seed to insure against plant loss, and distribute the rest. This keeps a species in circulation and gurantee's a return of the seed if you lose your plants. To store seed, place the cleaned seed in a paper envelope, and put this inside a plastic ziplock hobby bag. Be sure you record the accurate species name and the date the seed was harvested. Keep this as cold and dry as possible, but not frozen. Some dessicant gel caps placed in your storage box will help keep the contents dry.

Capslock · Jul 30, 2004

Cleaned seed? How on earth would you clean something you can barely see?

Casplock

rattler · Jul 30, 2004

lol very bad idea to sneeze while planting Drosera seed.

Rattler

elarwhis · Jul 30, 2004

Ok, thanks everybody.

I've packaged & labeled the seeds and put them in the fridge.

Concerning the extra seed: I know several people who have shown interest in my plants, so I'm probably going to see if they want some seed, or some little plantlets from the seed.

Tamlin Dawnstar · Jul 30, 2004

Now your whistlin!

To answer your question about how to clean seed, check out what I wrote on harvesting seed in the Article Forum. I meant you need to winnow out the seed from the other plant material, like the scape and seed pods.

Good luck with the next generation!

horticulturist · Aug 7, 2004

[b said:
Quote[/b] (rattler_mt @ July 30 2004,3:54)]very bad idea to sneeze while planting Drosera seed.

I know, I learned that the hard way. I've got the whole corner of my terrarium covered in nidiformis sprouts.