If you have a bag of lawn seed left over from the summer months and are wondering how best to store it then look no further as we can quickly outline the basic steps required for storing your own lawn seed at home:
Firstly you will be happy to know that lawn seeds can remain viable for many years if stored right. This means that a bulk bag of lawn seed can be used over many years to fill in bare patches on lawns. On average, if stored well lawn seed should last 2 or 3 years but it can last up to 5 years
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- Lawn Seed Germination
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- Lawn Seed Storage
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- Harvesting Grass Seed
The 3 important conditions for good storage are
Dark: Seed are best kept out on light. This means storage seeds in a dark place or in a dark paper bag
Cool: Lawn seed will survive longer in cool conditions. Temperature as low as 1 degree Celsius is suitable. Temperature between 1 and 7 degrees are fine for lawn seed
Low Humidity: Moisture of any kind will encourage lawn seed to sprout; this can be the biggest issue with lawn seed storage. Humidity is moisture in the air and this needs to be controlled to create the most suitable seed storage conditions. From the moment a seed forms it is taking in moisture from the air. You can reduce humidity by keeping seeds in their original packaging in storage and also by adding moisture absorbing sachets to the seed storage container
The great fear with old lawn seed is whether the seed is gone off or not. This can mean that gardeners will simply throw away good lawn seed on the off chance that the seeds wont germinate. Of course who would want to go through all the hard work of preparing & seeding a new lawn only to find that the lawn seed is not viable? Of course the simple solution here is to do a quick seed test before consigning your seeds to the bin
To test your lawn seed you simply need to soak a small amount of kitchen paper, allow the paper drip dry so that it is just moist. Place 10 seeds on the paper and cover over with more damp paper. Over the following 2 weeks count the number of germinated seeds. By the end of the 2 weeks you will have a good feel for the condition of your seeds. If 7 or more germinate then you are doing pretty good