Storing Seeds
Stacks of crates containing bags of seeds in the drying room
Seeds arrive at the Millennium Seed Bank in consignments carried by couriers from partner organisations all over the world. The consignments are unpacked and checked. Most seed collections (still in their original collecting cloth or paper bags) are then left to dry in a drying room.
Before storage the seeds must be cleaned and their identification verified. They are then further dried, packaged and placed in the seed bank at a sub-zero temperature.
At the start of storage, and every so often subsequently, the collections are taken out of the bank and germinated, to make sure that they are still alive.
Finally, where seeds are used up or when viability falls to a low level, then collections may be grown out to obtain a new seed collection.
Banking Procedures
Assessment of likely seed storage characteristics
Identification at the Herbarium
