Seed Savers Forum and Exchange

"Whatever varieties of flowers, herbs, and vegetables we now grow exist because someone years ago selected and saved seeds from a plant that was the best tasting, best looking, or best performing and replanted those seeds year after year. As gardeners we are stewards of the land and many of us also are stewards of seed, or seed savers. When we save sees we continue an ancient tradition while ensuring that varieties do not become extinct. The intrinsic genetic character of the plant is preserved as well as its ability to resist disease and to tolerate climate and soil conditions. Seeds that are saved over many years slowly develop these biological adaptations for survival."

This quote (from the American Community Gardening Association's publication HOW TO: Seed Saving) is a good explanation of how saving seeds for future use is quite a useful special interest area within the world of gardening.

Starting in 2012, PGCI Seed Savers provides a forum for seed savers in and around Paradise. By saving seeds that do well here it's possible we could even develop a few Paradise-friendly cultivars.

We ask that you:

Follow the common-sense rules of seed saving (preserving seeds only of heirloom or California-native plants that have been open-pollinated).
Package your seeds, and document them so that the next gardener has all the needed info.
Exchange seeds only from plants that do well in and around Paradise, or offer some other desirable attribute (such as being rare/worthy of preservation).

Bring your saved seeds to PGCI General Meetings to place in the Seed Savers Exchange Basket. (Incidentally, this effort probably will start slow and build up as people have time to identify and save likely seeds.)

Resources

HOW TO: Seed Saving* answers a variety of questions, including rules, definitions, and procedures for harvesting, cleaning, and storing both dry seeds (for example, most flowers, herbs, mints, onions, berries, and corn) and wet seeds (for example, tomatoes, melons, squash, cucumbers). This document also provides further resources.

* Republished here by permission of American Community Gardening Association.

Here's a good book on the topic: Saving Seeds: The Gardener's Guide to Growing and Storing Vegetable and Flower Seeds by Marc Rogers. (Link goes to Amazon's description.)

While you can use any old envelope to hold and share seeds, we do provide a seed packet form---get your scissors and glue sticks ready:

Here's a general-purpose PGCI seed packet (PDF)

Here's a seed packet like the one above, but without the PGCI logo.

If you're handy with Microsoft Word, here's a version of the PGCI seed packet in Word 97-2003 that you can fill out on your computer. It includes space for a photo; just replace the placeholder photo. (By "handy with Microsoft Word" we mean that you know how to flow text around an image, work with ordered objects, and work within the two-column format that sits over the watermark that is the packet outline.)

PGCI is a registered 501(c)3 organization. Would you care to make a tax-deductible donation to support our Seed Savers program? You can donate online here:

or donate by mail by making your check out to "Paradise Garden Club Inc." and mailing it to PGCI, P.O. Box 1246, Paradise CA 95967.
IMPORTANT:Proceeds your donation for a particular program or project, please email a note to that effect to treasurer@ParadiseGardenClub.org.

Thank you!