I remember reading a report on the effectiveness of various substances, used as desiccants; if I am able to find it, I will post it. Powdered milk was only slightly effective... but then, it is easily obtained. Silica gel is the most effective, and can be easily re-charged in the microwave... so you only need to buy it once. Hobby shops & craft stores sometimes carry it in bulk, for drying flowers, among other things. The indicator gel (color-changing) is the best, because you can easily tell when it has absorbed its quota of moisture, and when it has been fully re-charged. As I have stated on several other threads, the basement _can_ be a good place to store seeds. Darkness & cool temps both promote longer seed life... but if your basement has high humidity, you need to provide protection. The best method is a sealed jar (such as a Ball jar) with a small amount of indicator gel enclosed with the seeds. Check the color periodically, especially if the basement is damp. Provided that the jar is air-tight, no additional gel should be needed. Avoid the temptation to over-do it with silica gel; too much can dry the seeds to the point where they will enter deep dormancy, and become very hard to germinate. You _can_ dry seeds to death (or near-death) - especially beans. As a rule of thumb, the weight of the gel should not exceed the weight of the seeds. If you are protecting seed that is already fully dry, even less is better. How do you tell if a seed is fully dry? As another rule of thumb, by breaking it... or for larger seeds like beans, by smashing it. If the seed snaps rather than bends, or if it shatters when struck, then the seed is dry enough for storage. There are many ways to dry seed; for me, leaving them out on trays until December (when home humidity is low) has been very effective. Hey, I'll always take the lazy way first. ;-) Seed drying techniques could be a good topic on its own... perhaps for the Seed Saving Forum? There are many sources for silica gel, both in bulk & packets. I have listed one source below. Here is a link that might be useful: Silica gel

Thanks for the tip Dave. I have a 16 watt aquarium light that would fit well over the tray. Do I have to worry about that light creating too much heat inside the dome? On a side note, regarding heat, several people have recommended placing trays at a small elevation above a heating vent. However, when recently looking at the back of a Miracle Gro seed starting bag, I noticed a warning to keep away from heat registers (the trays, not the bag). Any input? Thanks again.

Recently began to think the amount of light is directly related to the required depth of planting the seed. See depth page 54 of the attached book. Here is a link that might be useful: Light/depth This post was edited by bugbite on Thu, Mar 28, 13 at 12:07

Hi, Well, a few weeks ago I was rooting around my frozen pollen for something interesting to put on Mylan and this time I got to the bottom of the plastic container containing my frozen pollens and believe it or not I found another packet of frozen seeds that I missed the first time!! This time they were aulicum (Telos) x papilio ( gifted pollen) and there were 9 seeds. So, once again I just put them all in water and today, about 2 weeks later 8 of 9 seeds are germinating with clean white roots. Who knew this was something we all could be doing!! This particular cross was the first cross I made from last year's season as my aulicum bloomed for Halloween last year. These seeds are even older than my Exotica x Rio Negro (which are growing on nicely by the way) by probably 4 to 6 months! So, for those of you who might like to try this, don't hesitate.. Both of these packets of seeds hung around on my fireplace mantel for a month or more before finally being stashed with my pollen in the refrigerator for several months and then finally into the freezer. There aren't any more. So if you have a glut of special seeds, freeze some incase you run into a disaster with fungus gnats or the like! Donnaâºâºâº