Which app for managing seed collection?

Hello Permies!

Been a long time lurker here, and finally my first post! But which subforum to post? Hope it's in the right place.

I'm looking for an app allowing me to manage my ever growing collection of seeds. Right now I use trusted pen and paper, but that's getting all messy. So, is there an app or site which will help me manage my seed collection? Like pre-filled fields/categories, year, where I originally got them from, etc.

Thanks!

An app for managing seeds!  That's a great idea.

There are a few gardening apps but I haven't found one that does this yet.  I have a lot of seeds I've saved myself and I'm needing a better system for organizing them.  Hopefully someone here knows of a good app.

If one knows how to use spreadsheets, that would be a good start.  Set up any columns you want and sort as needed.  I can see this helping with light and water needs and timing of plantings and anything else one is interested in tracking.

I built a spreadsheet for this very purpose, with it I can keep track of our saved seeds, print out labels for containers as well as perform inventory control of our seed bank.

Along with the seed spreadsheet I have hogs, gardens with planted and produced foods, sales sheets, purchase sheets, pasture rotation, planting and infrastructure projects.

The farming related sheets are all linked so entry of something in one is reflected in the others automatically.

The hog sheets include hours on which pasture, supplemental feed, births, deaths, sales and health of each hog.

produced food sheets list what and how much was planted for each item, per plant production, sales of produce along with water consumption and where that water came from, amendments added and insect damage numbers.

Sales sheet lists where sold, how much was sold and price per unit, cost of space rental (if any) and time spent overall.

Pasture rotation lists which pasture, which animals, how long they were on that pasture, replanting of the pasture, what was planted.

Planting lists what was planted where, date of sprouting, first produce date, how much per plant is set, when that produce was harvested, what happened to the produce.

Infrastructure lists what project, when started, costs of materials, time spent per day, completed date.

These give me a way to keep track of everything that goes on, on the farm and I can see time use, monetary costs and income produced.

It doesn't take much time to set up a spread sheet once you understand how they work and how to set up the calculations which come in the help files of every spreadsheet program.
There are some "apps" available but the good ones require paying for them, my spread sheet program is part of My Office Program.

Redhawk

I'm not worried paying for an app if it does a good job at seed collections!

I tried building a spreadsheet, but somehow I end up scrolling for ages up-and-down as well as left-rigth. Getting to information is hit-and-miss, and, inputting info is error prone. It's easy to get to the right seed from the wrong source or wrong year. And then there are the descriptions, too long to fit in a cell. It probably doesn't help us being limited to an 11" laptop screen.

I'd love to have a look at some working seed spreadsheets or screenshots, maybe it'll help me make a more compact one. Anyone care to share?

If Mother Earth News has one, it will be very good, concise and have everything you might want to know about the seeds you enter.

The data I keep includes: seed type, parents (if this is something I crossed), then I assign a standard hybridization code (ie. F-1) if it is something I crossed, If it is open pollenated then I note "OP" and list the species of the pod bearing plant and the other varieties nearby.
Generally the more information you collect on your seeds, the better you know what you planted so you can then record how well that seed produced when it is planted. If you want more information about creating land race species get with my kola, Joseph Lofthouse, he is a master at creating land race seeds.

Redhwk