I have an excel sheet with the seed name, number of containers and date sown.

This helps cause I can sort by alpha order and see how many I have sown of a plant. Then I know which ones I need to stop sowing :) or get more of!

Karen

My system is loose but it works. I put a little tupperware container on the counter when I am sowing seeds into jugs/containers. The empty packs go in there. That evening I open my list on the computer and add those sown, using the labels for reference. I am an excel-a phobic but happily make two column lists in WORD. I also keep a running count this way. When I sow 20 jugs, I put total: 20 at the bottom, and the next time I add in I just put Total : 20 + 35 = 55 and start with 55 next time.

It really really helps to keep the list on the computer. I reference it often to make seed packet labels for the WS plants that eventually produce seed to share.

I am not much for keeping records like that on the computer. By the time I figure out excel, I could have it written in a notebook,lol. I guess I am just a paper and pen sort.
tammy

i now have an xls file of my seed stash. this is how i prevent ever again, having 5 packets of Cajun Delight Okra from 4 different companies.... that happened circa 2007.

i usually only grow veggies and a few annuals (so noting placement year to year isn't really needed...yet) and this is my first wintersowing year, but i think next year i will dabble further into in perennials and will keep a notebook on it.

I too like keeping a spreadsheet of seeds I have. As I sow them I mark them with an "X". This is my 3rd year WS so I guess I am now a little more lax about knowing the exact dates of when a seed was sowed and when it germinated. In this spreadsheet I also put down info such as light & water requirements along with color and height. This helps me plan where to plant what rather than doing a plunk and run method. BTW I use Open Office to create my spreadsheets. It is free to download and very similar to Excel.

Tammy I can totally appreciate your notebook method. It is a lot easier to take that to a store rather than lugging around a notebook computer (provided this is what one has). Though lately I tend not buy anything when I 1st see it at the store. I usually go home, think about it for awhile and then decide. Fortunately for me I live in the city and all my plant shopping places are an easy drive.

-StLGirl

I kept all the seed packets and slipped names of things I've promised people into the seed box. Then I've got a log that is pretty detailed I made in Wordpad, at least what sowed, what in, # of containers/cups/cells, and date sowed, backed it up on my second internal hard drive. Very easy to access and scan through.

I'll add notes of what germinated, not necessarily when but an estimate of how well or not at all. Even though I've crudely labelled this year, I pretty much will be able to read and know what's in which container but not exactly where the containers are, a whole slew of various ones out there.

They're all covered as well as I could for the low temps predicted for tonight, brought my one jack-in-the-pulpit inside and put by the crack in the back door, will put it back in the flat tomorrow, lid will crush it as it's grown taller and doing so well.

OMG, never!! (I lie really well, don't I?)

Actually, I am starting to forget. Must have lost that one brain cell in the last couple of years due to a bit of that aging thing.

I may have to start partaking in that 'organized' concept. :O) I actually admire those of you who do. Wish I had acquired that skill a loooong time ago.

All that excelling and wording (and writing in notebooks) and stuff makes it seem like a job. I do enough of that stuff at work!!!!

I just keep it in my head and if I forget something and it doesnt grow, well that I wont be disappointed.

If I forget something and it doesnt grow, then Im happy!

D

I have had to keep track out of necessity. My memory is shot, and if I didnt write things down, I would be trading or buying doubles. Several times,I would think I would want something mentioned here, and start to see about obtaining it someway, then decide to check my list, and find it. Or talk myself out of getting another seed,lol.I am not really keeping track of dates so much as just a running list of what I have.
tammy

Heck yeah! I also track it on Excel-somehow what is "work" at work is quite the opposite in the dead of winter when visions of seedlings pass through my mind! After 7 years of ws, I find it informative to be able to track results-I've found that I was starting some seeds too early! It's also easy to sort by the date or name.

My memory's never worked properly, that's what notebooks and computers are for. I've got Open Office, the free version of the MS Office suite. I have a spreadsheet going in that. When something sprouts I happily fill in the whole line with bright green, so it's very obvious.

I also have open office.It would be nice to have everything in alphabetical order, but pen and paper is just faster for me. jessew, I am surpised at someone w/s much for so long. i was thinking today, that doing it once or twice would provide all the seedlings would could use. Lol, looks like I have that wrong.
tammy

I make it simple in excel just type it in...

However I sowed way too much of most things so my method does not work cause I never read the list before sowing more things, lol

I need to sow veggies and they will prob not even make the excel sheet.

Karen

Thats funny karen, sounds like soemthing I would do. I constantly write notes somewhere, then lose where. Just figure "Oh I will certainly remember this"....NOT
Tammy