Community Seed Library

• Guidelines:
  • Take as many seeds as you need. Return what you don’t.
  • Please return or submit seeds within one year of harvest/acquisition.
  • Please return or submit seeds grown locally.
  • Label packets with the species name, significant traits, and the year harvested. Try not to worry about the special names, just what it looked/tasted like.
  • Do your best to store seeds in a cool dry place.

• Extra bonus guidance on how to select, prepare, and grow your own seeds:
  • Don’t worry about cross-pollination. In fact, we encourage it. Cross-pollination of multiple varieties improves the diversity of the gene pool and allows the gardener to select for their specific interests, and the plant to select for their needs.
  • When selecting seeds, choose varieties that are well-suited to your climate and growing conditions. This includes looking for traits like:
    • Vigor
    • Disease resistance 
    • Flavor
    • Low maintenance
  • Prepare the soil by adding compost or other organic matter. Please do not use synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides if you can. If seeds plants are bred with props and supports, they will become reliant on such techniques.

When seeds are grown in local, low maintenance environments, they adapt to those environments and produce more reliably overall. 

Collecting seed

Collect ripe seed on a dry day, as soon as the seedheads (e.g. capsules or pods) ripen. This is often indicated by a colour change from green to brown, black or red, but must be before they open and shed their contents

Pick the seedheads, either singly or on stalks, and lay them out to dry on a greenhouse bench, warm windowsill or in an airing cupboard. This enables seed to be more easily extracted from pods, cones or capsules

If they don’t open when dry, gently crush pods and capsules to release the seed

Collect seed from fleshy fruits and berries by mashing them in a fine sieve and then rinsing away the pulp in cold water. Leave the seed to dry for a few days on paper towels

Exploding seed heads need checking every few days. Place a bag over them and shake – this will usually cause the ripe seed heads to explode into the bag. Alternatively, remove the seed heads on their stems as they turn brown and place in a labeled paper bag

Nuts should be collected around the time they would naturally fall either by hand-picking, or by placing a sheet at the base of the tree and shaking the branches until they fall

After extracting the seed, clean off any surrounding material (chaff) attached to them, as this material could rot and lead to the seed damping off. Chaff can harbor molds, pests and diseases

Together, we form a more resilient community.

Questions?