How to Long-Term Store Viable Vegetable Seeds

Gardening doesn't stop when the growing season ends. You can remove the seeds from your crop throughout the year, and enjoy your vegetables again by growing them the next year. Seed-saving helps to preserve heirloom vegetables, and can cut down on your gardening costs greatly. The seeds from one vegetable like a squash or tomato can provide a garden full of vegetables the following year. You may find yourself with a surplus of seeds from your garden or that you've bought from stores. If you end up with more than you can grow in one season, you can long-term store your seeds for many years to come. Here are the steps you can take to make sure your seeds remain viable for as long as possible.

Vegetable seeds
Baking sheet
1/2 pint canning jars
Labels

Instructions

- 1
  Select the vegetable seeds you want to store. You can long-term store seeds that you buy, or the ones from your own garden. Remove any seeds from your garden that you want to keep. Wash and then dry those seeds in the sun for one week.
- 2
  Remove seeds from their vegetable packets. Make sure to keep them separated so that you know which seeds are from which vegetable.
- 3
  Heat your oven to 100 degrees. Place your garden seeds and the seeds you have removed from the vegetable packets in the oven for 1 hour. Drying your seeds at this temperature will lengthen the life of your seeds.
- 4
  Remove your seeds from the oven, and wait for them to cool.
- 5
  Put your seeds into separate canning jars. Label each jar so that you know what kind of seeds are being stored. Specify which seeds came from your own garden if you want to keep them separate.
- 6
  Get your jars ready for the freezer. Date each jar so that you know when you stored the seeds. Also, add how long the seeds can be stored and still be viable. Seeds from pumpkin, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes and watermelon will last up to five years. Whereas, spinach, carrots, peas, beans and broccoli seeds will only remain viable for up to four years. Onion, corn and lettuce seeds can only be stored for two years.
- 7
  Remove your seeds from the freezer when you're ready to plant them. Set them aside until they come to room temperature again before using your seeds.

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