THE PURPLE IS HERE!!! EEEEEEK! Now.. organizing?

[ElizabethBinary]

Never before have I had such appreciation for seeds!! Today opening seed packets was like opening Chanukkah presents!!! But now I'm inundated with them and need to organize them! I've never had this many before.

With my recent 'purple splurge' and another splurge I've done a couple days ago where I bought some really rare seeds (chocolate vine, huckleberries and Indian Dream Herbs!), I want to keep them as organized as possible.

Currently I just "know" what's in everything but with my new huge waves of stock coming in, there's no way I can keep this up.

I planted some purple cauliflower into an old egg tray to plant into soil directly when I'm ready. I cut off the back and taped the seed packet to the front flap that normally tucks underneath the top to make it shut proper. That'll only last so long, seeing as there's still some seeds in that packet. At least it makes a waterproof label for now and I can plant more when I get hold of another egg carton (WHY DID I EVER TRASH THESE!?).

On my kitchen counter, I have a bunch of packets I need to wait until I plant. I was thinking of getting a folder system and organizing them by season... or should I organize by type.. or both? Season seems best as I can plant them at the correct time and type doesn't matter because I'll be happy with what I have anyway, I think.

How do you organize planted seeds? Normally I organize by pot (that's how I know what they are so easily) but with these massive batches coming in, I'm really going to need to label them properly. I have intentions of buying matching pots since they lay about my front porch and everyone can see them (neighbours actually complained to the council about how 'ugly' it was when I used plastic pots and I was ordered to change it or get fined). My point was I can't stick the label directly on the pot this way.

And no, I can't plant directly in the ground. Not only do I rent, my month is only 6 more months, and we don't get on with the landlord, so we're not staying if we can help it.


A lot of talk to ask... how do you organize your seeds? How do you organize and label your seedlings? What works best for you and can seeds I bought this year be planted next year. Don't really need 25 purple cauliflower plants just this moment.

[theabsinthefairy]

I freely admit I am a little bit an@l about organising things - and like nothing better than alphabetising things - errr - I'll stop right there before I really embarass myself!

I make a spring to autumn diary, and staple the seed packets to the days that I want to sew on - my diary is based on lunar planting and bio dynamic planting cycles. Then I fill in the optimum planting days, what I have planted and where and note when I am fertilising and when I am going to harvest.

Alongside this, I have a laminated A4 sheet of paper marked out Monday to Sunday - and I write out at the beginning of each week what I want to do on each day for the week and pin this to the kitchen wall - and try REALLLLLLLLY hard to follow it - doesn't always work depending on weather / health / extenuating circumstances but at least I have something to aim for. The joy of it being laminated is of course, I can wipe it clean and redo it for each week.

Then I write down in my diary what did well, what I though of the crops, whether I got any seeds from the plants, and I also keep a plan of the garden what was planted where so I can easily rotate for the next year.

I start a lot of plants in random (donated) plastic tubs, egg cartons and toilet rolls, and I keep these in separate fruit trays (about 10 cm high but 60 x 40 cm in size) sorted by seed type.

I make my own seed identifyers from slate (wipe clean and use again with chalk) and these can be wired, strung or attached to poles in the pots - usually one identifying plate per fruit tray, they look much nicer than plastic tags.

When I plant potatoes, I wrap a bit of white material on a pole at the end of the row for white spuds and some red material for red spuds, just for quick identification when I am digging them up. And have done the same for carrots (orange) and parsnips (white) as they look so similar when they are sprouting.

I sound so very very very very sad. Going to go drink some more wine now and that will make me feel better I am sure.

[ElizabethBinary]

Holy hell, booze fairy! You're as psychotic with your seeds as I am with my pantry. It's actually inspiring to the over organized OCD side of me. I don't know if it's healthy or not, but I love being psychotically organized too. I might take your advice entirely and be as retentive as you are!

[theabsinthefairy]

Is it better or worse to know that you are not alone

[Minnesota]

I use a Jiffy terrarium for seeding.
there is rows of 5, I plant the same seed type in the same row.
I mark each row with a handwritten tape label.

once in the garden, I use unlabeled sticks to make rows.
I make a map and document everything on the map.
going by the Map, I know what is in the first row
to the last row.

I will admit, nearly every year, something gets mucked up.
and I can't figure out one or two items.
Last year I planted Bush beefstake tomatos next to a rutger tomatos.
I couldn't tell which was which, and my map got fudged.
one did great, the other not so much.
I really wanted to know which was which

[Harasimow]

One year im gonna do somthing similar but grow as many different colours as possible yellow french beans, white raddish, purple brussels, red borlotto beans, all the different colurs of carots and tomatoes i can find, yellow caugettes, red onions, purple sprouting broccoli, red cabbage ect ect. They say a rainbow diet is good for you! Good luck with the purps!

As for organising, I just spent an evening looking up each veg im growing and writing down the sowing and planting out advise. But i dont plan to strictly as it depends on the weather, space under glass, and if some social event crops up which writes off a weekend

[grahamhobbs]

Thank god for the computer, it's all on a spreadsheet, when things should be sown, when and where to be planted out, harvested, etc, etc. I can sort by family, by sowing dates, by plot and bed, etc etc. As I make about 200 separate sowings throughout the year, it would be impossible other wise.
The seed packets I keep in envelopes, one for each family, eg brassicas, solinacious, etc.
I don't need markers for where planted out, that's on the spreadsheet but you need them for the seedlings, using different coloured pots also helps.
The spreadsheet can also record any comments, eg sown too early or bad weather etc which can help modify what I do the following year.
All I have to do is remember to look at the spreadsheet!!!

[theabsinthefairy]

grahamhobbs - the rententive among us are so organised

[ElizabethBinary]

I found these little tiny 36 page photo albums at the market for $3, so I bought those to organize my seeds. I bought two, one for heat and one for cold (because, really, this is SEQLD, do I need seasons?)... and organized all my seeds.

I planted a whole bunch and used some plastic chopsticks I had sitting around, so I can reuse them after my seedlings are identifyable without them.

And ignore the doormat.. my husband picked it out - not me! Makes me look mean!!!