Corn seed storage

[julianna]

I was looking and I saw that corn/popcorn seed is generally assumed to last less than 2 years in storage. Can this be extended by simply storing the seed in the freezer? I'd like to extend it up to possibly 3 years, but I don't have any vacuum equipment... I could get ahold of dessicant and of course use my freezer.

[winter_unfazed]

I have heard of corn being stored more than five years, in proper containers and a stable environment.

[TennOC]

Tightly sealed, dry seeds don't need the dessicant but will keep a long time in the freezer. I keep mine several years just in a cool and dry corner. I try to plant at least a little of each seed line I'm saving(I mean, I am saving them to grow, right?) each year, if only for the fresher seeds.

[johno]

I put mine in ziplock bags (sans cobs...) with wood ash to replace oxygen, mostly so bugs can't live and breed in it (lost a batch to bugs once...) I keep it in a cool, dark, dry place, mostly because there's no room in the freezer.

[Canada mike]

What you wrote Johno is so up to the point, today, we were cleaning the garage. And I found a glass jar that had a cover on it, mind you only put on it, not sealed, and it was the last batch of cuke seeds I wanted to save, fermenting them. I forgot about it, it spend 6 months on top of the garage freezer, and the stuff was a smelly mess. But stuck on the lid ( for a lack of a better word maybe) which was only put on top, without any sealing , also without any visible spare room for bugs to get in, about 50 of tiny hard shelled little buggers half the size of a rice grain were stuck, dead, on the ''lets say loose mason jar top'' ( my best description in english).

Where the hell did they come from?

From inside is my best guest, but then ,with them, what is half a millimeter of space?

I learned something.....

[silverseeds]

In a seed saving book I have they said the USDA has seeds in sorage from the 20s thathad 95 percent plus germination rates. You want to be very sure no air can get in, AIRTIGHT. of course the seed shave to be throughly dried beforehand like always. and most importanly when you take them out of the freezer let them sit until room temp. Otherwise water will rish in and mess the seeds up before they are even warmed back up. but my seed book seed to seed, says flint dent flour and popcorns will retain high germination for 5 to 10 years, so I think you might have misleading info, since this book is regarded so highly. Sweet corn is down to 50 percent by year three, the rest last much longer like I said.....

[winter_unfazed]

The USDA has all sorts of special techniques not only to store the seeds, but to awaken them.

But remember the three 1500 year-old anasazi beans in Mimbres Cave, New Mexico: they were in a cool, dark, dry cave in a vessel sealed with pine pitch. Those are the optimum conditions for long-term seed storage.

[Hairy Moose Knuckles]

The USDA has all sorts of special techniques not only to store the seeds, but to awaken them.

But remember the three 1500 year-old anasazi beans in Mimbres Cave, New Mexico: they were in a cool, dark, dry cave in a vessel sealed with pine pitch. Those are the optimum conditions for long-term seed storage.

Some knufemakers use pine pitch and deer dung or what're dung they can find and make a glue out of it. I've never tried it, but hear it works pretty well, especially in a desert climate.