Perma Pastures Farm
Billy from Perma Pastures farm and Youtube Community. Link to youtube channel -> Perma Pastures Farm on Youtube.
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Closed Seed Loop
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Closed Seed Loop
Hello All,
I’ve posted this idea on the Gardening forum and didn’t get much of a response so I figured that I’d try here. A local (to me) university is working on the development of vaccines and vegetable seeds. Apparently it’s a development that’s going on across the country (several universities are developing a vaccine/seed). Obviously I have a concern that I want to have pure seeds and I want to grow as much of my food as possible. To that end, I have a large assortment of seeds and I grow and save seeds so I’ll know what grows best in my area and seeds will be acclimatize to my grow area. From what I understand, simply saving seeds isn’t an ideal situation (national seed banks constantly grow and save seeds on a continuous basis). I’m interested in forming a closed group of seed savers so we can exchange seeds, and develop a large diversity of seeds. A closed group might not be a concern now but I fear that it might be important in the future.
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58 Replies
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I could go for a seed exchange. I have always tried to save some of my seeds from my garden, if I have some good producers. With the drought this year I have fewer seeds, but those that did well are keepers.
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👍
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I’m interested. I do not want GMO anything.
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I agree.
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I think it is a great idea.
Seeds will climatize to your area so adding the zone and year saved will help as well.
I am zone 6b/7a and 2022 was a harsh year my garden with the heat and winter with the cold.
We will all need a supply for the years to come.
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I live in the same zone as you and Geezzz was it ever a rough Summer ! Drought and UV burned everything 🙁
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I like the preparedness of saving seeds but also like gardeners helping out gardeners. It’s kind of like a barn raising community but with seeds.
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Yes ! I brought up the Idea before also and asked if Admins could open another Forum for Seed Exchange but never heard anything. Matter of fact I got some Seeds from another Member here.
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I love the idea of gardeners helping each other and a lot of us purchase seeds but with a little know how, we won’t need to.
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Totally agree !
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Hi, we would definitely be interesting. Question, why isn’t seed saving ideal? Sorry if I misunderstood. I think having a trusted source of people you can rely on to exchange seeds is ideal. Are you thinking of mailing seeds to each other? Thanks, it is a great idea.
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Gardening in Canada (I linked the video in the feed) mentioned that seed banks don’t just store seeds, the continually grown and store seeds. I’m still digging into the subject as my plan had been to mostly store seeds for long term. I have been seed saving from “easy plants” tomatoes, peppers, squash, lettuce etc but I haven’t attempted plants that require two growing seasons (we have really hot summers and don’t relish idea of babying broccoli plants through the summer but I’ll try).
https://extension.umn.edu/planting-and-growing-guides/saving-vegetable-seeds
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Thank you. 🙂
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Sign me up. We are in zone 7B and have been saving seeds for quite some time.
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I mostly have perinneals. I could swap plant starts for seed. I’m in 9a.
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Good idea make a secured community, only heirloom pure clean seeds, bulbs, cuttings and plants.
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I’m interested in joining this seed exchange. I’m in zone 8b (almost 9a) AL/FL line. I do not use chemicals in my garden & use natural fertilizer/tea I make from rabbit/chicken poo & compost & Swamp Tea. I use homemade bone & blood meal. I will have cuttings soon when I prune our wild native elderberry & Brown Turkey Fig. I can either send cuttings or can root if you prefer plants (just takes a little longer for those). I would be interested in exchanging cuttings to get some different varieties of fruits/veggies. I grow turmeric, culinary ginger & horseradish and got cuttings rooting for Cassava (survival food) that will go in the ground in a few weeks. I’ve grown Chayote Squash from store-bought (a survival food) that should produce well this year with the 5 plants I now have. I also have Jerusalem Artichoke-Sunchokes (survival food). I like to plant perineal food producers that come back year after year. I do plant heirloom veggies and save seeds but didn’t have much of a harvest this past summer/fall due to the heat wave/drought this past summer & the Christmas freeze that wiped out my fall/winter crops. What did survive & produced I was able to save some seeds but have seeds from 2021 and HOPE to have a better harvest this year…weather permitting!
I agree that this group should be closed and participants vetted as much as possible. I would hate to get some of those new vaxxed seeds or cross-pollinated by someone not knowingly ordering online (Especially from Etsy/eBay, etc.) and those end up in the seed collections. A seed exchange MAY BE the only way we can get pure, viable seeds in coming times ahead. I’m not putting down NEWBIE gardeners but unless they truly know how to correctly save seeds (from mature plants) or if they use chemicals, I might would be hesitant to exchange. Yes, I’m particular with what I grow in my garden & put in my soil but you have to be these days. But that is my opinion & gardening practices. We just NEED to be extremely careful here.
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This is the initial article regarding seed/vaccine.
https://gregalder.com/yardposts/uc-riverside-seeks-to-deliver-mrna-vaccines-through-lettuce/
This is a good video from Gardening in Canada and she talks about the necessity to continually grow seeds to keep them viable. I have a ton of seeds (non-GMO, OP) but I can’t continually grow all of them but in a closed group we could grow and share. The focus at first wouldn’t be to grow for food but rather grow for increased seed production.
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It would be great if we can get something going for exchanging seeds. I have been increasing my own seed bank over the last few years and I am see much better result as as would be expected from my saved seed.
Bill T in Nebraska Zone 5B/6A depending on the year
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There is a book by Steve Solomon called “Gardening When it Counts”. It is highly recommended. He talks about having to re cross seed or it loses it’s vigor and other things like sweet and Irish potatoes dropping off as the generations keep getting replanted. He addresses how to deal with these problems. It would suck to be in a long term scenario and your seed stopped producing…
if you follow David the Good know that he gets advice from Steve Solomon.
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I have one book by Steve Solomon but not the one you mentioned. I’ll check out your recommendation.
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I’m in 6b and would be willing to exchange seeds.
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I am in 6b too. I hope this takes off.
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I’m on board. How do we proceed? I’m in 9a South Texas. I have lots of perennial food plants I could supply starts from to swap for others I don’t have or for seed. Do we have to start a new group, or can we start a thread on an existing one?
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I’m looking into different ideas and how to structure the swap.
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Once we figure out the venue we could post lists of what we have and what we want.
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Good deal!
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I contacted Freesteading about setting up a seed swap community but didn’t get a response.
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