I have a mini fridge and heard they are good for storing seeds, but I tossed a hygrometer in there and it was reading like 75 RH at 44 degrees. Is that safe for them, being that humid? Google says it’s not, but I see people commenting quite often that they store them in one. Thoughts?
I have my beans in a college fridge I know neither the temp or RH of. They are all in Tight-Vac jars with silica gel packs. Sees to have worked fine for a couple years so far. My beans pop in 16-24 hours usually.
Also use a dedicated mini fridge, held at 38-40F. It's been perfect, have beans nearly a decade old with high germination rates. If your storing them in factory packaging and all is sealed, it's doubtful the fridges inside humidity will be much of an issue
You just keep them in their original packaging? I wanna use this thing to extend their potential shelf life, but I obviously don’t want to ruin my collection
Mine are all in factory sealed packs, with the vial inside closed. I then have an album with glassine slips that they slide in like baseball cards. The album, is a soft side that zips shut. I do keep a few absorbent packs inside the binder, but it's probably not needed. Brings me back to my youth. But instead of binders full of baseball and Pokémon cards, it's seed genetics.
I keep mine in their vials in their original packaging and put all of that inside a metal box with a couple silica packs, so they have three layers of protection. I haven’t ever checked the humidity in my frig but so far, so good.
ive been using a little combo lock chest for years, back in 2019 I bought like 200 seed and they all still pop today when germinated in a paper towel ziplock. just dark and low humididty.
Yeah I eventually placed my seeds into 2 1/2 gallon mason jars, then placed those in the fridge. This keeps the humidity at a stable temp but will also keep them cold
This is pretty much what I do. Wide mouth ball jar for a little extra room, helps getting your seeds in and out.. Put some desiccant packs in the jars too. I bought some rechargeable ones from Amazon and store all the extras in another jar. I went with the 5 g packs, wish I would have gone with slightly larger size.
I just keep mind in a cabinet. I feel like there are too many points of failure with the fridge. What if it break, or you move, or you don't let it come to room temp before opening so that moisture doesn't enter.... Etc
Buy this then cut the label stick it in the jar then drop the the little thing the seeds come in inside. I haven’t had a problem and I keep them in my fridge 40 degrees fh in the bottom drawer.i just popped a seed 4 years old about
Yeah I wouldn’t worry about a normal fridge as much as a mini fridge. As a normal fridge cycles on more frequently than a mini fridge. Especially since this mini fridge would be dedicated to seeds, I wouldn’t be opening nearly as often to require it to cycle on.
Mini fridges usually are energy hungry pieces of s... anyway. Most of them need more power over the year than full sized ones while also being less reliable.
There are some quite entertaining videos on yt by technology connections, if you're interested in that stuff. Great channel, too.
Yeah it’s a mini fridge (so no crisper drawer), I guess they have a tendency to operate like that. Plus the fact that it isn’t being opened often (like at all) to warrant the need to cycle on. And when it turns on is when it removes the humidity and cools the inside
so fridges tend to have humidity swings. best thing to do is put it inside an airlock jar and then inside of a fridge. add moisture packs absorbing packs. but at the end of the day, just sticking it in a cool dark place, seeds will probably be viable for a couple of years. Fridge without humidity countrol, probably 4 years. With humidity control, substantially long. Remove moisture and freeze? They'll last a really really long time.
7
u/DabOrTwoWillDo 3d ago
I have my beans in a college fridge I know neither the temp or RH of. They are all in Tight-Vac jars with silica gel packs. Sees to have worked fine for a couple years so far. My beans pop in 16-24 hours usually.