This is my seed collection from the past decade. It contains more varieties than the official tobacco seed banks of all but maybe three countries in the world. Why is it all sitting out on my washing machine?
The temperature outside was 9°F when I got up this morning. Then, at 8 am, the power blinked off. Nice timing. (It stayed off for about two and a half hours, and just came back on about 20 minutes ago.) How fast do water pipes freeze? Not that fast. Whew!
My little dorm-size fridge that holds my seed collection was in need of defrosting. What better time than when the power was already off. So I pulled everything out of there, unplugged it, and left the door open. A tray is in the bottom to catch the melt water.
Each of the latched dry-boxes contains a packet of desiccant (from an on-line coin dealer). So I expect most of this seed to remain viable when I am no longer viable.
Nearly every variety is also represented in the FTT seed bank, which is now in the possession of
@skychaser. Of these varieties, he has to realistically select those which can repay his considerable effort of producing seed from them. No regrets. He now offers (via
Northwood Seeds) the greatest number of varieties you are likely to find anywhere.
Once the fridge has defrosted, I'll return my collection to its usual storage there, where most of it will languish. I'm growing only 7 varieties this year, and 6 of them are repeats. I guess I'm now just a tobacco seed hoarder. [You wouldn't like most of these varieties--funny taste, poor productivity, primitives, disease prone, etc.]
Bob