Any "Beaners" Out There?

[897tgigvib]

Well cared for in a sock drawer, followed by years of being stuffed in socks in a cardboard box in a dry room cool place, I have had bean and pumpkin seeds last from childhood to middle aged! Yep. I had seeds in my sock drawer when I joined the army that had been in the drawer for several years already, that my mother packed into a box. She then presented that box to me several decades later and I rediscovered my seeds in them!!!!!!!!

They grew!

Be gentle with them
Keep them bone dry
Keep them at steady cool room temperatures

Stuffed a few in per sock seems to work well, with socks and things like that stuffed in a cardboard box all taped closed.

 

[journey11]

Since I can't spare any socks, I keep mine in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container (baggie or baby food jars.)

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Thanks for the warm welcome baymule!

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Well all of my seeds are sitting in the basement, in plastic baggies all packed into two extra large reused pickle jars. That's surprising that seeds can survive that long. I've saved my own parsnip seeds before and they never stay viable for more than a year, not worth it.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Thanks for the warm welcome baymule!

We've considering moving to Texas before, my parents and sister would die in the heat though.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

I meant to add that on to the other post. Sorry, don't know how to fix it.

 

[Smart Red]

I've saved my own parsnip seeds before and they never stay viable for more than a year, not worth it.

Parsnips are closely related to the carrot family. Carrot seed, like parsnip seed, will not be viable for nearly as long as bean or tomato seeds unless kept in ideal conditions (whatever those are). Besides, like carrots, parsnips are hard to get to germinate and grow. They need pretty exact conditions for a good start. Your seeds could well have germinated and failed to grow like my carrots do most years.

As an aside: If you have only a few seeds of those bean varieties, you could grow them in containers. That wouldn't give you any to eat, but should increase your seed stock. Beans are good inside because they don't rely on insect pollination. I have grown beans as a science project at school with good success.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hey SeedObesser !

Like to add my welcome to TEG also. I think you will enjoy being a part of this group. How old is your bean seed? Most varieties will last about 5 years for sure. So you could judge from that if you can afford to let your bean seed sit for a year if you think you are going to move next year. I think if you keep them in a freezer after they are really dry from the season they were grown they could probably last 10 years or more.

 

[baymule]

Thanks for the warm welcome baymule!

We've considering moving to Texas before, my parents and sister would die in the heat though.

That's why we all have galloping big AIR CONDITIONERS!!!

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Smart Red, parsnips are hard to get to germinate and grow, and when I could get them to grow the roots ended up small and malformed. (Could be our rocky soul.) I could usually get about 50% of them too germinate and lost another part of them to damping off. (It can also get pretty wet around here during certain times of the year.) I could get the seeds to at least germinate, put evidently they won't hold up in storage for more than a year. Got to plant all of the parsnip seeds each spring, anyones that I tryed to save for the year after that failed to even germinate. I've never trying container gardening with vegetables before, just with herbs and house plants, I might just have to try that!

Bluejay77, Most of my beans are probably a little over three years old. If archaeologists can dig up beans from an ancient civilization and grow them mine can wait another year or two. I'm already enjoying the forum. I've got a neighbor that would probably enjoy it too, her garden may be overtaken by weeds by the time she got off though.

baymule, Isn't everything galloping big in Texas? I know that the 10 - gallon hats that you guys probably wear down there are way bigger than the cowboy hats up here. (The ones that I don't see anyone wearing in public except for my dad and I. Even though I did see a lot of people wearing them at the county fair.)