Freezing seeds

I’ve recently come across some rare and very hard to find seeds. Unfortunately I won’t be able to grow them anytime soon since I travel a lot for work. I don’t want to lose them so I’m thinking about freezing them. My question is what’s a good freezer to use to store them? Would my refrigerator freezer be good enough? I will be freezing about 200 1.5ml cryogenic tubes in a Nalgene Cryobox. I wouldn’t mind buying a dedicated freezer as long as it’s under $500. Added a picture of the tubes I will be using.

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I’ve germinated seeds that I stored in my fridge ( not in the freezer ) for over 15 years. I had them in a vial in a Tupperware container with desiccant packs.

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The Swedish seed vault recommends sealed containers at -18C.

I don’t think regular freezers get that cold but I might be wrong.

I have kept mine in a mason jar in a cool dry stable basement for 20 years with no drop in germination.

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I recommend finding some willing OG’ers to help you with a preservation run. This should result in some fresh seeds and making some great new OG friends.

Just my .02 and will save you funds from purchasing a new Freezer.

I am all about saving the :moneybag: and creating new beans :call_me_hand:

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I agree with above, just store in the fridge. No need to freeze them, they will last for years.

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I recently popped so.e seeds I had in my freezer since '96 and they mostly (95%) popped fine. I have had packs go bad after as little as 2 years when not stored correctly so I feel that either the fridge or freezer is better than leaving them out

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Whether it’s the fridge or the freezer, what is important is not letting it warm up and get cold again. A consistent temperature is best IME.

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Thanks OG. Never gave this a thought. Now I will. No sense wasting seeds. :+1:

I do know for freezing you want to get the water content down or it can damage the seed. From memory it is 6-8% but should probably do a little research on that if you plan to freeze

I agree the fridge is probably good for 15 or maybe 20 years. Freezing probably longer.

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could be over kill, seems for liquid nitrogen freeze .
I have had bag seeds in a jacket , over 100 in a zip lock, for years and years, forgot about them, they all almost popped. I don’t freeze seeds but I have power outages fairly often .

Thanks everyone. It looks like I’ll be putting them in the refrigerator instead. I have 2 mini fridges I’ll be testing out this week and I will choose the one that can maintain the temperature more effectively.

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My friend was given some seeds that were more than five years old, never refrigerated (just kept sealed, cool and dry) and they germinated fine.

Thought it was good for a beginner to use those rather than buy expensive seeds and they were very happy with the first harvest. So, add that 2 cents for what it’s worth.

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