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Ohio

What's the best way you guys like to organize your seeds that you have collected over the years from other growers?

Do you put them in order from the weights or do you put them in order by the growers names? And what program do you find is the easiest to use to organize what seeds you have?.
I don't have that many seeds but would like to get them organized so I don't have to dump my seed container out on the floor trying to remember if I have a certain seed that I thought I might have,lol. Just looking for ideas.

12/11/2007 4:44:08 AM

Www.extremepumpkinstore.com

in binders, in trading card holders, in alpabetical order by grower.

12/11/2007 6:16:35 AM

ExtremeVegetables.com

I don't have many but I keep them listed on my website "currently in no particular order" so I can quickly have a look through what I have at any time.
I'll be putting many of them up as prizes for the VWO soon.

12/11/2007 7:10:53 AM

Rhode Island

i use the "i think we may have that system" then go into that big black box and start digging

12/11/2007 7:11:28 AM

Farmerville, Louisiana

do you guys keep your seeds in the freezer or in jars on the storeroom shelf

12/11/2007 7:36:56 AM

Brooklyn Corner, Nova Scotia

I have a seed list on my desktop that I add to or subtract from when receiving or giving a seed away. The seeds are listed by the year starting at 2007, 06, 05 etc. I also have containers that I keep the seeds in which are labeled according to year. The containers are airtight and stackable so they do not take up much space.

12/11/2007 7:43:24 AM

Berlin,mi.([email protected])

I use plastic totes with good lids.one for club seeds,one for auction seeds,two for club seed distribution, and two with my seeds. I had them in order the 1st year according to name but now i have the dump out and look for it method. lol

12/11/2007 8:04:54 AM

Brooklyn Corner, Nova Scotia

Brooks, I think you put up the best posts. I can't think of one of your posts that I didn't respond. Not on topic, I know, thought I would just add that.
Andy.

12/11/2007 8:30:00 AM

Mulino, Oregon

Brooks, I created an excel spreadsheet that lists the grower, the seed, the year, quantity, lineage and a comment section for personal results. I used to unpackage every seed, label it and then put them in seed trays alphabetical by grower. But this took a lot of time. I now store them in totes by year.

12/11/2007 8:47:06 AM

Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada

Brooks, if you check out the following link you will see a sample of an excel file which has been converted into pdf format for the web. This is how I organize the seeds that Pumpkinfest has in inventory.

http://www.pumpkinfest.org/documents/seed_inventory_master.pdf

12/11/2007 9:21:12 AM

van isle b.c. canada

i use an old childs dresser with four drawers . i,ve found that anchor bolt boxes of a certain size fit perfectly width wise amd i can get 7 of them on lenth wise and they hold the coin envelope standing up real nice the are arrange aphibetically and as i fill up one drawer i just move on to the next. holds a lot of seeds. extra seeds are kept in ice cream buckets by year and like others i have all my seeds listed on exell spread sheet. i can find a seed in seconds . whole system works great. craig

12/11/2007 10:16:43 AM

The older part of my seed collection is a dump container, excpet I have so many Beachy seeds from one year that I keep those separate. The newer ones I keep separate by year. I also organize the CWPG seeds a few years ago, and they are in rows by year first, and then by grower last name after that.
Also I have excel files similar to what Jim described 2 posts up.

12/11/2007 10:19:16 AM

Indiana

I have 2 rooms I keep seeds in. Anyone that has been here can confirm.....LOL

12/11/2007 10:31:11 AM

Colorado

brooks ,its easiest to have a real gypsy fortune teller pull her top 6 picks out of the pile. plant those and keep the rest in a shoe box under youre bed with some garlic or a silver cross.

12/11/2007 12:42:09 PM

Colorado

I might add-if you cant find a pure blood gypsy,that excel file might be your next best choice!!!

12/11/2007 12:44:33 PM

Dayton OH

I include a column in an Excel Spreadsheet for a link to a photo of each seed when I can find one. The photo is either of the fruit that produced the seeds or of a progeny, whatever I can find. I get the photos from the BP diary (doing a search) or patch tour photos on grower club websites, or even sources like seedoutlet. I download and store the photos on my hard drive and link them into the spreadsheet using INSERT > Hyperlink.

12/11/2007 12:50:22 PM

Northeast

Mine are hidden in the way back of the freezer section in Stop&Shop

12/11/2007 12:56:45 PM

Dayton OH

Scanning in the photo on the coin envelope, or just taking a picture of the envelope with a digital camera could also be sources of a photo to link in to the spreadsheet. Of course none of this is necessary for the "dig thru the pile folks" LOL

12/11/2007 12:59:30 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

In a cardboard box in alphebetical order by grower. Any more effort than that means you need a second hobby IMO.

12/11/2007 2:01:35 PM

Paradise Mountain, New York

I list my seeds on Excel. All my seeds are in Tupperware containers in alpabetical order by grower. stored in the freezer.

12/11/2007 2:12:03 PM

Marion,IN

I have mine in an 800 count baseball card storage box. The standard size coin envelopes that most seeds come in fit nice and snug. I have them stored from heaviest to lightest. I also have a spreadsheet printed out that I use to keep track of my inventory. My seed list is printed out by hand with a pencil(old fashioned I know), but I also can fold my list up and carry it in my back pocket to work. That way, when I have some free time, I get my list out and check out BP.com and make notes on my sheet about something I read. Old school book keeping at its best.

12/11/2007 2:53:41 PM

Ohio

I like that excel idea, I think on my next days off, and instead of suffering from cabin fever I'm gonna sit down and try to organize my seeds and put them on a excel sheet.
I was wondering on that excel is there something on that program that I can use that will put the growers in alphabetical order, or will I have to do that manually myself? That in itself would save a bunch of time if that program had a function like that.

12/11/2007 2:54:43 PM

Little-TON - Colorado

You can set it up to sort for ya Brooks, I even use color on mine to show orange, green heavy and brown for LG's Its worth the work and one must keep up on the inventory or its off .....

12/11/2007 3:13:27 PM

Santa Rosa California

i have my seed in cigar box i got from my uncle the smell of the box give the seed an added aroma.....

brook don't your store all your 711 seeds at 7 elevens across ohio

12/11/2007 4:57:50 PM

Minnesota

Kept in the envelope they were sent to me in, on a book shelf.

12/11/2007 5:35:02 PM

Waitakere New Zealand

excell will organise any list alphabeticly or by number depends what you select, its a magic program to work with

12/11/2007 5:55:56 PM

Danville, CA ([email protected])

I also use Excel. Just be sure to keep weight and grower name separate or in duplicate columns so that u can sort by either weight or grower. I also indicate where they came from in case I am questioned and also to send Thank You notes. I use dump and search now but the baseball card box idea sounds like a winner and i will try that.

12/11/2007 6:12:09 PM

Ohio

I just started to list my seeds on excel, the sort program works great.
Im going to be here a while entering the seeds I have, this is going to be more then a couple day project for this two finger typer,lol. In the long run once I have all my seeds listed its going to make it a whole lot easier. Thanks for all the info guys!

12/11/2007 6:31:44 PM

Commack, NY

i have my seeds listed on excel by grower. each grower has there own mason jar stored in my crawl space under my house. each box of mason jars has a number on it, which corresponds to the number on my excel spreadsheet.

12/11/2007 9:21:20 PM

Picton,ON ([email protected])

I have my seeds cataloged by weight on an excel spread sheet. I list weight, grower, year, designation (i.e est, dmg etc), +/- %index, # of seeds, female parent, male parent, who I got the seed from, notable progeny,

The seeds are stored in a steel case, alphabetized, with some silica gel pack scattered through out. The are stored in a cool dry part of the house in complete darkness.

12/11/2007 9:50:21 PM

Little-TON - Colorado

Now someone with the best Excel spreadsheet ( formulas entact) should share that with a local club so we can use it like we use the weight estimation chart for sharing........just a thought....

12/12/2007 9:06:12 AM

Western NY

In excel, each year has it's own tab, then sorted by grower.

The seeds themselves are in plastic bags in a cabinet, combined by the year. The seeds from my own pumpkins are in glass jars, and can be seen here: http://bigpumpkins.com/displayphoto.asp?pid=5497&gid=-16717

12/12/2007 9:18:21 AM

[email protected]

I can see a seed thief crawling through Scott's bushes now. Flash light in his teeth trying to find the way into the crawl space. Or is that Glenn?

12/12/2007 12:15:26 PM

Waitakere New Zealand

no it's the same guy that was sitting in the bushes outside paps waiting for the old seeds to be thrown out or was that------

12/14/2007 4:07:36 AM

milford, CT,

Brooks, I have been using the following system for the last 5 years and it seems to be easy to find seeds. !st I log seeds into an excel spreadsheet as they come in. Then I use a ziploc bag labelled for each grower..then I label a larger ziploc alphabetically a-f, g-m, n-p, etc. and put the smaller bags inside. When I want to find a seed I just pull the alphabetical bag and find the grower. By having a double bag system the defrost mode of the freezer doen't dehydrate the seeds. I forgot to mention I keep them in a cardboard box in my downstairs freezer. Mark

12/14/2007 7:01:20 PM

Mastic Beach, New York

i have seen scott's crawl space...Glenn and i aint fitting..lmao

12/14/2007 7:41:17 PM

Commack, NY

lmao!!

12/15/2007 7:53:31 AM

San Jose [email protected]

Here you go,

http://www.mainepumpkins.com/seedinventory.html

12/25/2007 4:16:11 PM