The biggest part of prepping is focusing on the basics of survival. That means the real survival necessities, things like air, shelter, water, protection, and of course, food.
Most of us got our start by packing a survival pantry full of consumables that are ready to eat with very little preparation. That’s a great thing, and necessary, but when you start to level up your prepping game you start thinking long-term and big picture.
For instance, how are you to maintain your food supply in the aftermath of a national or global mega catastrophe that completely destroys or disrupts agricultural and industrial food production?
I’ve got news for you: hunting and gathering isn’t a sustainable lifestyle. Not anymore.
At the very least, you’ll need to grow your own and that means you’ll need seeds. A seed bank is just the ticket to ensuring you’ll have those seeds on hand and that they’ll be viable. I’ll tell you about why you need one and how to build it in this guide…
Why You Need One
Simply stated, you need a seed bank as your hedge against the total collapse of the food supply. And yes, I’m referring to your own personal food supply.
You might already be a gardener, even a really accomplished green thumb, and that’s a great skill set to have when it comes to long-term survival: a good farmer working on fertile land with the right plan can grow enough food on a couple of acres to supply over 100 families!
Where most preppers go wrong in this assessment is by assuming they’ll always have access to their garden or that their garden won’t be destroyed.
What if you have to flee from your home, the county, the state, or even the country? What happens if your land is irradiated or irrevocably poisoned by some kind of toxic spill?
There’s no telling what might happen, and if all of your plants are contaminated, you can’t just harvest seeds from them on the spot.
What you need are backup seeds that you know are good and high quality so you can even stand a chance of re-establishing your garden on your property or somewhere else.
Can’t I Just Store Seeds the Normal Way?
I can already hear you savvy gardeners popping off that you know everything there is to know about keeping seeds and in fact you have a collection of seeds already.
Good on you, but having a few mason jars of seeds wrapped in paper on the shelf is a recipe for lost, destroyed, or compromised seeds in the aftermath of a crisis.
Simply stated, the old-fashioned and convenient ways of keeping seeds for use next season or next year are no good for this task.
Even if you’re already an old hand at gardening or farming, I urge you to hear me out and take what I have to say on this matter to heart.
Your Seeds Must Be Tough, Environmentally Stable, and Portable
What sets a seed bank apart from those traditional seed storage methods is that the container itself must be extremely durable, environmentally stable, and, ideally, portable in case of bugging out.
Your seeds might be damaged or destroyed along with everything else in your home by the catastrophe that has set these events in motion. If they aren’t in a bulletproof container, they are as good as gone and even then the odds will be stacked against you.
Likewise, that container should be gasketed and tightly sealed to be completely proof against the intrusion of air and moisture, two things that will facilitate unwanted germination or mold and rot that will ravage your seed stash.
Lastly, like every other critical piece of gear or vital resource, we want our seed bank to be portable. If you have time and opportunity, you can grab it along with other critical supplies and hit the road, ready to reestablish your garden when you get settled somewhere else.
My choice for the best seed bank container is one of those ultra-heavy-duty briefcase-style weatherproof cases as popularized by Pelican and made much more widely available and cheaper by Harbor Freight under the Apache brand.
If you get a really nice version, it will even have a valve built into it that will stabilize the pressure and atmosphere inside the case as conditions and elevation changes. A nice perk and something that’ll help keep your seeds in even better shape…
Seeds Should You Keep in Your Seed Bank
Every kind you can think of as long as you can eat it. Pithy answer aside, you should carry a wide variety of seeds for fruits, vegetables, herbs, grains, and plants that have medicinal or health-boosting properties.
Whatever seeds you choose, make sure that the plants themselves and the variety can grow (and preferably thrive) in the growing zones where they’ll be sown. Account for the growing zone at your bug-out location(s), too…
As an example, here is the first-tier lineup of seeds I have in my seed bank:
- Wheat
- Corn
- Oats
- Carrots
- Beets
- Garlic
- Onions
- Ginger
- Pumpkin
- Cucumber
- Eggplant
- Jalapeno peppers
- Bell peppers
- Tomatoes
- Green beans
- Yellow beans
- Snap peas
- Watermelon
- Cantaloupe
- Arugula
- Cabbage
- Kale
- Romaine lettuce
- Butterhead lettuce
- Chard
- Basil
- Dill
- Lemongrass
- Mint
- Rosemary
- Sage
Mind you, even packed properly the way I’m going to teach you and stored in abundance, these seeds don’t take up much room and weigh almost nothing.
You really can establish an expansive collection in your seed bank without unduly burdening yourself or taking up tons of room in storage.
Assembling Your Seed Bank, Step by Step
The following steps will walk you through putting your own seed bank together step by step.
I’m assuming you already have some kind of case or container that will work for the job, but if you don’t, you might want to get all of the seeds together, assess how much room you’ll need, and then purchase accordingly.
Harvest and Prep Your Own Seeds for Storage
A seed bank always starts with seeds, and if you are already the proud owner of a productive garden, or know someone who is, you’ll be able to get seeds for storage.
Obviously, those seeds need to be viable and come from plants that are fertile and capable of reproduction.
The rule of thumb is that you should gather seeds only from ripe fruit, buds, or blooms, or those that are slightly past ripe. Gather too early or wait too long and the seeds are less likely to be viable and healthy.
However, it’s essential to start learning the reproductive processes of all plants that you plan on gathering from for inclusion in the seed bank: the biology of plants can vary greatly, and that will determine when it is best to harvest seeds.
It’s too much to go into in this article, but this info is widely available online and in guidebooks…
Use an Air Dryer or Dehydrator to Facilitate Even Drying
Once you have the seeds collected, separate them temporarily into small plastic containers, baggies, or anything else so you won’t mix them up or lose them.
Take them inside and rinse them gently in a clean, room-temperature bowl of water before spreading them out on clean paper towels to dry. Make sure you keep them out of sunlight and all intense sources of light during this process.
Once they are as dry as you can make them, place them in a hanging dryer to fully dry them out. Specialty ones are sold for seeds. Again, make sure this is in the shade!
After about a week, they will be as dry as they are going to get and you’ll be ready to package them.
Order High-Quality Heirloom Seeds if You Don’t Grow Your Own
If you have doubts about the viability of your own seeds, or you don’t have access to homegrown fruits and veggies at the moment, simply order your own high-quality heirloom seeds from trusted purveyors in your town or online.
If you have time and opportunity, you should perform a test planting of these seeds so you really know what the viability rate is.
Why are Heirloom Seeds Superior?
You might ask if it’s really worth it to track down and invest in genuine heirloom seeds for your seed bank. I say that it is, without question, if you are truly preparing for a rainy day and not just gardening as an enjoyable hobby.
Heirloom seeds have several desirable qualities for our purposes, most important of which are their genetic diversity and stability.
Heirloom seeds are typically open pollinated cultivars that have been successfully passed down over countless generations, and accordingly they have a much broader genetic base compared to modern, mass market hybrids which have been overdeveloped for specific traits.
Plants grown from heirloom seeds have a much higher chance of breeding true, accordingly, and subsequent seeds will stick much closer to the parent type for subsequent generations.
This is in distinct contrast to hybrid seeds which can, more often than people think, exhibit unpredictable genetic expression and often poor adaptability to different environments or conditions.
Heirloom seeds that are properly adapted to various growing zones are also notably hardier than most modern hybrids, a definite advantage if you are starting over from scratch.
And, not for nothing, most seasoned green thumbs swear by the difference in flavor and quality that heirloom seeds quite literally bring to the table.
In short, it is worth the extra aggravation and time to track down heirloom varieties of the seeds you plan on popping into your seed bank.
Secure Seeds in Mylar Bags
Once you have your seeds in hand and they are fully dry, secure them in zipper-locking mylar bags.
These bags keep out light, air, and most importantly moisture, helping to keep your seeds in a stable environment that won’t promote spoilage or unwanted germination which is ruinous.
These bags are freely available online and, for the small sizes we need, quite cheap so get them.
Dump in your seeds, anywhere from 5 to 15, squeeze all the air out of the bag that you can taking care not to damage or lose the seeds, and then seal.
Note: do not use vacuum seal bags or any other vacuum sealing technology for your seeds. It is a good idea in theory, but in practice, it is far more likely to damage the seeds than protect them and isn’t necessary.
Label Packets
Grab a sharpie or use a label machine and label each individual packet with the type of seed, the source, and the date they were sealed.
Keep Multiple Separate Packets
It is imperative that you keep multiple sets of each seed. This serves as a hedge against a literal bad seed spoiling and contaminating the others in the package with it.
Remember the classic prepper axiom: two is one and one is none. Redundancy is always a good thing, especially concerning something as important as our seed bank.
Inventory Your Bank
Now that the fun part’s over, it’s time to do the part that no one likes doing: taking inventory.
Create a spreadsheet or a notebook with all the data pertinent to the seed bank: the types and quantities of seeds, the number of packets you have, the dates they were sealed, the last time they were checked, and any relevant info about those that you pulled out to test or plant.
Keeping track of this data seems superfluous, but it’s actually critical for detecting flaws in your procedure or seeds that are more likely to be bad than not, and then eliminating the source.
This data book should be kept with the seed bank at all times.
Store Your Seed Bank in a Safe, Cool, Dry Place
With your seed bank established and assembled, it’s time to stash it. You can put it anywhere that it’s convenient as long as that location is cold, dark, and very, very dry.
Light, heat, and moisture will facilitate unwanted germination and even though we have the seeds in moisture-proof packs sealed inside a moisture-proof case, it will invariably get to them one way or another if we aren’t careful.
Temperature is the other major factor along with light. There’s no chance of light reaching our seeds, but sometimes temperature alone can cause germination or spoilage. If at all possible, seeds should be kept at a low stable temp of between 32°F and 40°F for optimum shelf life. For every 5°F over that temp you go, the reliable storage life of your seeds is cut nearly in half!
Spoilage is the major concern because heat and moisture give rise to fungus, mold, and other things that will attack our seeds if they are already present in the bags.
The colder, darker, and drier the longer your seeds will last and the more viable they will be. Do everything you can to prevent temperature and humidity fluctuations in the storage location. That means keeping the seeds in your usual fridge is a bad idea; the door is opened far too often!
Kept in ideal conditions, most seeds will reliably last around 10 years in storage, though very dry seed types like tomatoes, lettuces, onions and others can keep for 20 years.
Be warned, though, that inherently oily seed types like sunflower seeds will usually only last 5 years at most unless stored with lab-grade equipment and special processing.
Have a Contingency Plan in Case of Damage
Lastly, have a contingency plan for locating your seed bank in case your home or the storage location is damaged.
I like to use a brightly colored case for starters, with blaze orange or neon green being my favorite. Neon green is especially appropriate since it represents the vibrancy of new growth!
Adding an AirTag or other electronic tracking device to it might also be worthwhile; it isn’t out of the question that a tornado or hurricane might blow away your case and it survived, or a flood could carry it away while the contents remain safe and sound.
That’s why we invested in such a tough case in the first place!
Lastly, consider making a duplicate seed bank and storing it somewhere else like at your bug out location, inside underground caches, or at the home of trusted family or friends at a distant location.
If you lose absolutely everything at your home, knowing you have a stash of needed gear, and seeds, waiting on you will be a cold comfort.
Tom Marlowe practically grew up with a gun in his hand, and has held all kinds of jobs in the gun industry: range safety, sales, instruction and consulting, Tom has the experience to help civilian shooters figure out what will work best for them.