Fully acknowledging that this is covered in the GrowFAQ, how do you go about storing your prized beans, particularly if you only have a few beans for a particular strain to begin with?
I figure I’ll get a few years of viability using a mason jar on a bookshelf with a little bit of desiccant, but would love to hear other approaches, cautionary tales, and/or glowing success stories.
Mine go in the fridge. I have never had any problems. If i have a large amount i add a little rice in the jar for what ever moisture might be left in the husk.
Rice, glass jar, cold cupboard or celler.
So with a collection like this (credit to BadVoodoo), you’d just toss the bags in a mason jar, little bit of rice at the bottom, and keep in a cool location?
I just worry about seeds, as the only way you know you’ve done something wrong is when it’s too late. Had I though about this topic back in '99, I’d have returned to growing with my old-time favorites, rather than paying eye-watering prices for single beans from a very limited selection. Now that my situation has improved, I’m trying to keep a balance between viable and available – there are no favorites for long-term storage because I haven’t grown any of them out yet 
Yessir. Thats what most breeders told me.
Breeders and seed mongers are notoriously casual about seed storage. Most of the canna shows I go to, the seed sellers are keeping their inventory unsealed and unprotected other than the retail packaging. Marc Emery reportedly kept his stock in 35mm film cannisters in a drawer in his shop. I presume it’s because they are turning over their inventory so quickly it doesn’t matter.
My experience, having kept viable seeds for up to 20 years, is that consistent storage temperature and humidity are the critical variables to long-term viability. (So may be darkness, but I’ve always stored seed in the dark.)
Stored at room temperature in dry and dark conditions (baggie in a drawer in a house), 90% viability for 1-3 years; stored with desiccant in a sealed container in the fridge, 8-10+ years; frozen in sealed container with desiccant, 18-20+ years.
I’ve heard of many folks getting good long-term results >15 years with refrigerated seeds, but I’ve never gone beyond 10 years. With frozen seeds, one must be careful about thawing and refreezing when sorting inventory. I keep a spreadsheet of my seed stock so that I know what I am looking for before opening the icebox. I also give any beans moving from deep freeze to germination a day in the fridge to thaw and wake up before going into dirt.
-b420
I can second that… I’ve stored very succesfuly seeds for more than 15 years (refreezed only twice I think because of moving)… As I shared in another topic…
I just popped some 7 year old seeds with no issues, I simply have them in a small tackle box with about 40 divided trays, I fill each slot with my seeds and put a tag in the slot so I know what it is. I have always stored at room temp and never seen any issues unless the seeds were premature or something to that effect.
I don’t freeze my seeds, but for those that do, would it be better to use a chest freezer that gets colder and stays closed more of the time to prevent moisture as much as possible?
I got me some very old seeds, knowingly; from @Knospe. Seeds he had stored for over ten years. Will try to germ them with a little gibberellic acid about 100ppm, just like I’ve seen Vader do it.
As soon as i read this post, i went on to storing the seeds in a mason jar with desicant and in a drawer of my desk.
Thanks guys.
Just ordered some gibberellic acid myself, for some really old seeds, better safe than sorry ;]
I bought a one gram baggie just the other day, the onlything to watch out for is elongation, since that what controls thsi factor in a plant.
how much rice do you suggest? i put maybe 50 grains
I have been storing seeds for the past 40 years in the freezer. Well, several freezers really. Some frost free, some deep freezers like I have now. No issues with losing them, I get 60%-100% germination from them still. Noting fancy regarding storage. In small paper envelopes in plastic bags, in a plastic flip case box in another plastic bag. Nothing fancy about cooling or drying or thawing them either, though the western US where I have lived for the past 40 years is usually dry and has low humidity. Verified viable by myself and other growers in Europe and Oz this and last year. I have 50 some odd landrace and heirloom strains from the late 1970s an on. I got the idea to freeze them from the book, Marijuana Potency by Michael Starks. He refers to several studies in Japan about how frozen Cannabis seeds were stored long term, and how they will last virtually forever. He was right. Now I have to worry about who to leave my seeds to in my will!
I just pour rice inXD
Those old Jack Herer seeds will have some gems in them. 
Used to stay in the fridge but with me moving so often I’ve just started putting them in a dark place where the temperature doesn’t fluctuate. Stored in Tupperware with some rice at the bottom. Temps are 60s-70s
Worry no more brother, i will relieve you of your burden… LOL
Exactly… Even Norway Seed genetics fond (Nordic Gene Bank) stores that way…
The seeds are stored in sealed three-ply foil packages, then placed into plastic tote containers on metal shelving racks. The storage rooms are kept at −18 °C (−0.4 °F). The low temperature and limited access to oxygen will ensure low metabolic activity and delay seed aging. The permafrost surrounding the facility will help maintain the low temperature of the seeds should the electricity supply fail.
Cool. I am used to having to argue with people online that Cannabis seeds cannot be frozen. And so many MJ books and magazines say that they cannot be frozen. I do not know where or how that misinformation got out into the media, but it did. Maybe the DEA? Or Dave Watson (Sam the Skunk) trying to corner the market on seeds? He told me once that he has over a ton of Cannabis seeds. Dunno how he stores them, or where. A ton of seeds is a LOT OF SEEDS. At roughly 75 seeds per gram, that is over 2k seeds per ounce, ~34k seeds per pound, or about 67 million seeds in a short ton (74 million in a metric ton) by my calculations. Hemp seeds sold by weight are estimated at 27k seeds per pound. That is 54 million seeds per short ton, or 60 million in a metric ton. Some of my landrace sativa seeds can be really small, and there would be even more per ton. I have a mere few ounces of seeds, but many landrace varieties.
I store my seeds in a warm moist media! 
