Keep them cool, dry, and in the dark for best storage. Many people on here and on other forums have had good germination from seeds that are years and years old. If stored properly they should be good for along long time

kendra

What Kendra said. I keep mine in quart mason jars in the back (cooler) bedroom.

John

i agree with both seeds can last from 5-7 years even longer if condition are right. i put mine in papper envelopes then in a large zip lock, then in the vegy crisper in the frig works for me.any how good luck
dan
let it burn

I don't know whether this has ever been proven or not, but I do seem to have more of a problem with "dead heads", seeds that germinate but can't get out of the seed husk, with older seeds.

If your older seeds dead head or get stuck seed coats soak them before planting.

I've done 3 to 5 years in a manila envelope at room temperature

I get molding in plastic, maybe just my area

Cool and Dry.

That is the mantra of seed savers, especially for solanum's such as pepper.

Most pepper seed will have reduced viability if stored at room temp more than 3 years. Beyond 7 years viability will be low to very low.

The best way to store seed long term is in sealed glass containers with a desiccant pack. If you know a pharmacist, you can sometimes get desiccant packs that they remove from bottles of medicine. These should be put in the oven at 200 degrees for 30 minutes to remove all moisture. Then they can be sealed in a jar of seed and left sitting on the counter for a week to remove the moisture. Then put the jar in the freezer. Seed stored this way will give good to very good germination for at least 5 years and can make it up to 10 years.

Fusion

I've got some that I stored in ziplock baggies in the fridge for the first 3 years but then had to move to room temperature. They're 5 years old now, and just this week I've been doing some germination rate tests - two types (an unusual Peruvian pepper and a habanero) have all germinated, the others (fish, some other cvs) have not done so well. May depend on the type of pepper.

I've read somewhere that pepper seeds shouldn't be aloud to freeze, so now I am confused by those that are putting them in the freezer. Hmmmmm!

Dottie

Pepper seeds can be frozen but they must be very thoroughly dry or you will damage them. Probably not worth the risk unless you need to keep seeds for a very long time. Properly dried and stored cool they will last for many years.

john

I thought that was the expiration date and they were in the bottom of our kitchen junk drawer so I threw them in the trash. Im pretty sure they were 3-5 yrs old.

Many seeds will germinate long after the "sell by" date. No harm in trying it.....it's not like tasting really old food that might be yucky.

Since most seed packets only have enough seed to last me 3-4 years I avoid the potential freezing damage and just refrigerate them. Storing them at room temp is fine if you only want the seed to last a year or two.

Be warned though that just because a seed sprouts after storage at room temp doesn't mean it will grow as vigorously as if it had been stored in a fridge. Seeds use some of their internal food stores when kept at warmer temps.

I jsut germinated 8 year old seed w/o an issue. :)

Chris

Many seed companies just recycle last years seeds. The garden centers ship them back to the distibutor and they test to see of the seeds are still germinating. If they get good germination rates, ( not sure what the percentage is), they just repackage them for the next year with a new date on the package... so your seeds may actually be older than the package states. It kinda defeats any knowledge of how long seeds actually last, but also encourages me to keep seeds a long time. If the seed companies are recyling seeds each year, I can too. On a side note, I am growing peppers from seeds I bought last year and from seeds I saved from a pepper last year, and the ones from the pepper are growing WAY better. Maybe because they are fresher, or it could be the variety. Just food for thought.