Tips on Purchasing Seeds

What should a responsible gardener know before buying seeds?

Modern headlines in newspapers, magazines and websites often mention seeds.  From the doomsday seed vault to the "terminator gene" to genetically altered and patented plants, language about seeds and the world seed situation has captured our attention if not our imagination.  Fear abounds.  Calls for corrective action echo across the internet.

The seed market has reacted with banners claiming to point gardeners down the correct path toward salvation.  Rarely, however, do I read something that actually begins to explain what this all means to home gardeners and their need to find seed.  The following signposts are meant for guidance and are at best the place where discussions about correct action begin, not end.

TRADE FOR LOCAL SEEDS

The best way to find the seeds for your garden in to trade some seeds you have grown for the other seeds you need.  I attended a pot luck dinner in Siberia held once a year by seed savers.  Price of admission was a dish for dinner and some seeds saved from your own garden.  Over the next 2 hours or so I saw the most efficient, most complete system I have ever seen for exchanging seeds and the important stories and information needed to go with them.  Gardeners with seeds for the earliest and best tasting tomatoes ranked right up next to the gentleman with watermelon seeds.  They could trade first for anything they wanted.  I heard mumblings of plans for next year when gardeners would return with more of the rarest offering.  If you really want to be a successful gardener and seed saver, attend one of these events in your region.  If one is not available, start one.

BUY FROM SMALL REGIONAL SEED COMPANIES

If you cannot save or trade for all your seeds yet, buy from small seed companies.  The seed industry has become so centralized, only a handful of chemical and pharmaceutical companies now own the majority of the world's seeds.  In the late 1970's, a number of small regional seed companies started to reappear.  All were dedicated at some level to regional self-reliance.  All helped maintain our precious genetic diversity.  All sell some treasures that could probably grow in all of our gardens.  Support these people.  They do good work.

OPEN-POLLINATED

Open-pollinated seeds offer gardeners a predictable path to save their own seeds.  Gardeners can actually improve a variety from year to year  by selecting seeds from open-pollinated plants that do best in their own conditions.

HEIRLOOM

Heirlooms are treasures.  Heirloom seeds are open-pollinated varieties with a history, a story.  Not all open-pollinated varieties are treasures for everyone, everywhere.  Get as much information as you can.

ORGANIC

Buy organic seeds if you can.  We want, we need an agriculture that uses no biocides.  However, the vast majority of the world's seeds are not yet certified organic.  We also need diversity.  The sustainable strength of our agricultural ecosystem will depend on its diversity.  We need to find, grow and test as many different varieties as we can before they disappear.  If we collectively stop buying seeds now because they are not organic, we risk losing the diversity we so desperately need.  If the seeds you really want are not organic, buy them anyway.  Grow them yourself organically and save the organic seeds.

UNTREATED

Buy untreated seeds.  Treated seeds are seeds coated with chemical fungicides or innoculants.   Fungicides are meant to increase germination in cold and wet soil.  Treated seeds, by law, must be dyed.  Chemically treated seeds are not allowed for use on certified, organic gardens and farms.  ALL Seeds Trust seeds are untreated.

NATIVE

Collect your own native seeds if you can.  Local native plant societies are a great place to learn where and what to find and what to leave alone.  Buy natives to experiment with in your own landscape.  Start small.  Expect the project to take longer than you think.  Learn to manage the natural plant succession.  When looking to buy natives remember the following:  The definition of what is native is imprecise.  Natives may take 3-4 years to bloom.  The native seeds and plants you may want not be for sale.  Many non-native plants like lilacs are adapted and easy on your environment.  Avoid non-native pioneer species.

This article has been republished with permission from the Seeds Trust.

We encourage you to connect with your local seed saving group or network. Check our List of Seed Saving Groups in the South East Queensland region for one close to you or visit www.seedsavers.net for other locations.

Please support small local Australian seed suppliers if you are buying seed.

Seed Freedom Fortnight

From 2^nd October (Gandhi’s Birth Anniversary) to 16^th October (World Food Day) the Global Alliance for Seed Freedom is planning Seed Freedom Fortnight - "a fortnight of intense actions for seed freedom ... The purpose of these intense actions is to draw as much public and government attention to the issue of Seed Freedom as possible so as to invoke changes in policy for the future of seeds and farmers in India and across the world."

http://www.youtube.com/user/occupytheseed

Take Action Locally

Many seed savers around the world are getting active during this time and we encourage you to do so too. Locally, there are many activities we can take to support this initiative and call to action including:

• Educate others about the importance of seeds for our food security; seed saving; where to source heirloom and open-pollinated seeds; and GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and their devastating impact on food crops, health and the environment (read just one example -'GMO alert: Eating GM wheat may destroy your liver, warn scientists').
• Invite neighbours, family, friends and colleagues to our Seedy Sunday group. Sharing practical skills and hands-on learning helps empower people in our community to take responsibility for the food crops in their own backyard.

• Plant diversity - grow a wide variety of food crops at home - as much as you can in the space you have. Learn about which food plants grow well in your local microclimate and buy, swap or share seeds to expand this diversity each season.
• Support other seed saver groups and share resources, knowledge and seed banks. This helps keep seeds fresh, viable and circulating back into the community.
• Build a knowledge base locally. No one person grows everything so we all need to know what plants do well at our place and share this information with others who may not have this experience. 
• Give seeds away - share your surplus with the seed bank, your friends and neighbours. A seed is a plant-in-waiting - a dozen different seeds is a garden waiting to be planted. Pop a few seeds into an envelope and share with someone as a gift.  

Learn to Grow Your Own Food from Seed

We'd love you to come along on Tuesday, 2 October to Permaculture Eudlo's meeting to learn how to grow your own food from seed. Join in and see the group working together to provide tips and tricks for growing edible food from seeds. Since this is a workshop, the plan is to have everyone actually undertake some planting. So you need to bring some things along to be able to participate.

1. Pots or seed trays to plant your seeds int;
2. A packet of seeds (of a crop that is coming into season, like cucumber, capsicum, heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, bush beans, squash and zucchini) to share;
3. Potting mix/soil/seed raising mix/compost or just your special mix;
4. A willingness to share your experiences and participate in this activity.

If you have a spare plastic tablecloth or some newspaper that can be used to place over the tables to protect them during this workshop please bring them along. Check the website for contact details.

Seed Saving Presentation

The following month on Tuesday, 6 November, you are also invited to a Seed Saving Presentation at Permaculture Eudlo to learn more about this important skill and the urgency of why we need to act now.

If you have any suggestions for activities or initiatives during Seed Freedom Fortnight or general feedback, please leave a comment.

By Anne Gibson

Seedy Sunday November 6

Eudlo Seed Savers' have their monthly Seedy Sunday on this weekend and you're invited to join us from 8.30am at Sweethearts Cafe, Anzac Street in Eudlo. Share a coffee, local knowledge, meet like-minded people and upskill.

Open to anyone interested in Transition Towns, permaculture, seed saving, community connection and living local.

If you have seeds to process and add to the community seed bank, please bring them along. If you'd like to find out how to process seeds and take some seeds home with you, we'll see you there.

Here are some of the seeds we'll have available:
Green Mustard (Hot)
Gourmet Delight Bush Bean
French Climbing Bean
Madagascar Bean
Daikon Radish
Cayenne Chilli
Garden Cress
Rocket
Perennial Basil
Paw Paw
Lazy Housewife Bean
Rice Bean
Blue Lake Bean
Snow Pea
Queensland Blue Pumpkin
Red Tamarillo
Crotalaria
Luffa
Lemon Basil
Shallots
Rhubarb

If you'd like to learn how to harvest, process and store seeds to make your garden more resilient, this is a great place to get started and you get to take some free seeds home as a reward! Hope to see you there.

Growing Food from Seed

5 Reasons Why You Should Grow Your Food From Seed

There are some important reasons why we should all grow at least some of our food from seed in our home gardens.

1. Save money! Seeds represent great value for money so investing in even one seed packet will reap huge rewards if you choose the right kind of seeds, but learning to save your own seed means you don’t need to continue to buy it.

2. Food Security. Having control over the source of the food plants you grow begins in your backyard. You grow what you need and you know it is from safe seed - not genetically modified.

3. Healthy, Pest & Disease Resistant Plants. Just a few multi-national corporations are behind the commercial seed companies and their goals and intentions are profit driven - learning more about this helps us make better decisions about which seeds to grow and which to avoid. It's important to grow plants from open-pollinated, organic and heirloom varieties rather than hybrids.

4. Preserve the Genetic Diversity of Heirloom Plant Varieties. This simply means we can all do our bit to help retain a wider range of edible plants by preserving or saving at least one or two varieties at home.

5. Seed Saving is Rewarding and Easy. It also builds self-reliance and a great sense of empowerment.

Read more on Growing Your Own Food from Seed and find a list of reputable seed suppliers (open-pollinated, heirloom and certified organic seeds) in Australia here. These seeds will produce plants that are ‘true-to-type’ (or have the same characteristics as the parent) and more importantly, will enable you to save seed from the plants you grow.

Happy sowing!

Cheers,
Anne