Guidelines for Maintaining a Collection
Click here to download the Inventory Guidelines for Seed Libraries.
Care of Seed Inventory
Once a year go through your collection and do the following tasks:
1. Check for the age of your seed. For older seed the germination rate may be lower. You want to make sure the seed is still viable. You may either discard older seed that its past prime viability or do a germination test. Different plants viability rates vary. See Seed Matters chart for seed life. If older seed is special or rare, please find someone to grow out the seed for the community.
2. Check for mold and pull any moldy seed.
3. Pull seed that is not well-labeled. Well labeled includes the year, the name of the grower, common name and variety. These seeds are either discarded or placed in a container with a “questionable seed” label, such as writing "Crossed?" written or stamped on the envelope.
4. Look for insect infestation. Discard.
Regularly
A. Establish a system to acknowledge the quality of seed, especially important for squash and other cucurbits as well as brassicas. There are several ways to do this:
followed
b. Garden - isolation distances and/or techniques and population sizes as recommended by Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth are
followed as best as possible within what is reasonable for the space constraints. For example, two pea varieties may be 70 feet
apart instead of 100 feet since the space doesn’t allow for anymore distance between the two varieties.
c. Naturalized - a plant that has reseeded itself in your garden, and you are returning seeds from those plants. This category applies to
species that readily self-seed and are “super easy” such as lettuce, sorrel, cilantro, parsley, and some flowers.
d. Crossed - certain families are more difficult to save seeds from and require human intervention to ensure purity. Label any seed
that may have crossed as “crossed?” You may also want to put these seeds in a special container marked “questionable seeds.”
4. Some other category of seeds are landraces. "Landrace" seeds are genetically diverse and can be seeds that were stewarded by a people and adapted to their customs, land, and preferences and there are also modern landraces where people have intentionally allowed crops to "promiscuously pollinate" to increase genetic diversity and resilience. NOTE: If you are letting things "promiscuosly pollinate" only use heritage seeds. Some modern varieties can introduce male sterility into your plants or may be under plant variety protection (PVP).
B. Regularly check your state's noxious weed list and ensure that none are in your library collection.
C. Check for and remove these seed that should not be shared:
Communication
Best Practices Guidelines
Clearly post the Best Practices Guidelines for Seed Saving in your library and on any web platform.
Signage
Post the informational sign in a visible location. The sign says:
Hey there! You should know that we share homegrown seed, which may not meet state germination or labeling standards.
At [name of seed library], we try our best to ensure the quality of our seed using best practices in inventory care and labeling. Nonetheless, seeds are alive and people using the seed library have varying degrees of skill in saving seeds. You should know that you might experience low germination rates or receive seeds that were not properly labeled. This is a volunteer-run project, and we do the best we can with the time and resources we have.
If you do have any problems with the seed you get from the seed library, please let us know so we can try to fix it for future users of the library! Email us at [contact info of someone responsible for seed collection].
Thanks for your understanding!
Membership communication
Keeping within the law, do not have any requirement that members need to return seed. You may encourage returns.
Here is a sample membership form.
Management of Returns
i. Year - add the year if not on the package.
ii. Name of Grower - if the name of the grower is on the package, you may know if s/he is a beginner or more experienced seed
saver. If the name is not on the package, it is better to assume that the quality of these seeds is questionable.
iii. Common name and variety are included - Is it clearly labeled? For example, “Lettuce” is not very useful, but a label that includes
the variety or says something descriptive like “Loose leaf lettuce, green, super tender” is more helpful.
b. For plants that readily cross, if you do not know the grower or if the grower is a beginner, then write on the package “May have
crossed" or "Crossed?" Some libraries have a special section, for example a box, for seeds of questionable quality or poorly labeled
seeds.
3. Consider adopting a seed return form (example seed return form)
Care of Seed Inventory
Once a year go through your collection and do the following tasks:
1. Check for the age of your seed. For older seed the germination rate may be lower. You want to make sure the seed is still viable. You may either discard older seed that its past prime viability or do a germination test. Different plants viability rates vary. See Seed Matters chart for seed life. If older seed is special or rare, please find someone to grow out the seed for the community.
2. Check for mold and pull any moldy seed.
3. Pull seed that is not well-labeled. Well labeled includes the year, the name of the grower, common name and variety. These seeds are either discarded or placed in a container with a “questionable seed” label, such as writing "Crossed?" written or stamped on the envelope.
4. Look for insect infestation. Discard.
Regularly
A. Establish a system to acknowledge the quality of seed, especially important for squash and other cucurbits as well as brassicas. There are several ways to do this:
- Organize your collection by how easy it is to save seed reliably: super easy = most likely to be higher quality and true to type.
- If you know the grower who is experienced, put one color dot or mark on those indicating a higher quality of seed and for unknown growers or less experienced growers (the seed may be of questionable quality) put another color. For example, green dots or mark on packets where you know the grower hand pollinates their cucurbits and a red dot for less experienced or unknown growers. Another strategy is for unknown growers of more difficult plants to save, write or stamp "Crossed?" on the envelope.
- Lopez Island model: pure, garden, naturalized, crossed. This system developed by the Lopez Community Land Trust Seed Library in Washington State, USA has four levels of seed quality.
followed
b. Garden - isolation distances and/or techniques and population sizes as recommended by Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth are
followed as best as possible within what is reasonable for the space constraints. For example, two pea varieties may be 70 feet
apart instead of 100 feet since the space doesn’t allow for anymore distance between the two varieties.
c. Naturalized - a plant that has reseeded itself in your garden, and you are returning seeds from those plants. This category applies to
species that readily self-seed and are “super easy” such as lettuce, sorrel, cilantro, parsley, and some flowers.
d. Crossed - certain families are more difficult to save seeds from and require human intervention to ensure purity. Label any seed
that may have crossed as “crossed?” You may also want to put these seeds in a special container marked “questionable seeds.”
4. Some other category of seeds are landraces. "Landrace" seeds are genetically diverse and can be seeds that were stewarded by a people and adapted to their customs, land, and preferences and there are also modern landraces where people have intentionally allowed crops to "promiscuously pollinate" to increase genetic diversity and resilience. NOTE: If you are letting things "promiscuosly pollinate" only use heritage seeds. Some modern varieties can introduce male sterility into your plants or may be under plant variety protection (PVP).
B. Regularly check your state's noxious weed list and ensure that none are in your library collection.
C. Check for and remove these seed that should not be shared:
- Hybrid seed varieties - they do not yield plants that are true to type. Commercial hybrid seeds will either have "hybrid", "F" or "F1" written on the packet.
- G.M.O seed - currently there are very few genetically engineered varieties available to home gardens but they are patented and are not to be saved.
- Patented varieties - it is illegal to distribute varieties that are covered under the Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Act. Remove any packets with the words PVP. We want to respect the hard work of traditional plant breeders.
Communication
Best Practices Guidelines
Clearly post the Best Practices Guidelines for Seed Saving in your library and on any web platform.
Signage
Post the informational sign in a visible location. The sign says:
Hey there! You should know that we share homegrown seed, which may not meet state germination or labeling standards.
At [name of seed library], we try our best to ensure the quality of our seed using best practices in inventory care and labeling. Nonetheless, seeds are alive and people using the seed library have varying degrees of skill in saving seeds. You should know that you might experience low germination rates or receive seeds that were not properly labeled. This is a volunteer-run project, and we do the best we can with the time and resources we have.
If you do have any problems with the seed you get from the seed library, please let us know so we can try to fix it for future users of the library! Email us at [contact info of someone responsible for seed collection].
Thanks for your understanding!
Membership communication
Keeping within the law, do not have any requirement that members need to return seed. You may encourage returns.
Here is a sample membership form.
Management of Returns
- Have a container or place for people to return seed. Do not have people put their own seed back into the collection.
- Inspect the seed for quality before placing it in the collection. Things to consider:
i. Year - add the year if not on the package.
ii. Name of Grower - if the name of the grower is on the package, you may know if s/he is a beginner or more experienced seed
saver. If the name is not on the package, it is better to assume that the quality of these seeds is questionable.
iii. Common name and variety are included - Is it clearly labeled? For example, “Lettuce” is not very useful, but a label that includes
the variety or says something descriptive like “Loose leaf lettuce, green, super tender” is more helpful.
b. For plants that readily cross, if you do not know the grower or if the grower is a beginner, then write on the package “May have
crossed" or "Crossed?" Some libraries have a special section, for example a box, for seeds of questionable quality or poorly labeled
seeds.
3. Consider adopting a seed return form (example seed return form)
