Save Seed Varieties from Extinction today

Here, below, I have shared the Seeds of Diversity call out to Canadian gardeners who are willing to save seed varieties from extinction by producing one variety's seeds for the organization. 

Written by Seeds of Diversity re: Community Seed Grow-outs 2025

Every year, we invite our members to participate in seed saving projects for beginners and experts.

If you're new to saving seeds, or you have a few years of experience, we invite you to get involved in the Community Seed Grow-out projects below. These are aimed toward gardeners with good experience growing plants, enough space for proper seed-saving isolation, and an enthusiasm for multiplying seeds for next year's projects and for sharing with other gardeners in your community next year.

If you have lots of experience, we invite you to join these projects too, but we especially need your help with our Core Seed Library grow-outs (please scroll to the bottom).

All members are welcome to join. If your membership has expired, all you have to do is confirm your contact details and renew for free!

www.Seeds.ca

Help Explore and Multiply Canadian Tomato Seeds

Our members have shared an assortment of Canadian tomato seeds - varieties bred in Canada or with a long history of being well-adapted to our growing conditions. Your project will be to grow 6 or more tomato plants, take observations through the season, and save seeds to help share those varieties next year. We also hope that you'll share seeds with others in your community.

Requirements:

• You will need at least 20 square feet of garden space to grow 6 or more tomato plants 1.5 feet apart.
• You are able grow your tomatoes isolated at least 20 feet apart from any other tomato varieties.
• You will need a warm, bright place indoors to start seedlings, for 6-8 weeks before transplanting.
• Willingness to take observations and collect, clean & share seeds
• Join by March 15, 2025 - members can login here to reserve their seeds

 

Help Evaluate Beans for Canadian Climates

We've chosen several bean varieties that we think hold promise to thrive in Canadian growing conditions. We're looking for gardeners who can grow some beans, take detailed notes during the growing season, and save seeds so we can continue this program next year.

Requirements:

• You will need space to grow 15 to 20 feet of bean plants (you can choose bush or pole varieties).
• You are able grow your beans isolated at least 20 feet apart from any other bean varieties.
• Commitment to taking written observations throughout the season
• Willingness to collect, clean & share seeds
• Join by March 15, 2025 - members can login here to reserve their seeds

 

Help Breed a Better Ground Cherry

For the past 5 years, gardeners across the country have been working together to develop an upright-growing variety of ground cherry (Physalis pruinosa), planting the prior year’s seed and making selections.

Ground cherries (Physalis pruinosa) are small, sweet, golden-yellow berries that are relatives of tomatillos and tomatoes. Each fruit is enclosed in a wrapper, and it falls from the plant when ripe, so you harvest by picking them off the ground. Since low-growing branches make the berries hard to see, we're breeding for upright branches and good flavour.

We'll send you a packet of last year’s seeds, collected from all those gardens last year.

Requirements:

• Grow as many plants as you can (15-20 would be a good range to aim for).
• Uproot the short-bearing plants that grow flat on the ground prior to flowering, to prevent them from crossing with the tall-bearing plants.
• Taste the berries and keep seeds only from those with excellent flavour.
• Every time we repeat this process we get closer to the goal of a ground cherry that tastes great, and bears on upright (easy to harvest) plants.
• You will need about 30 to 40 square feet of garden space.
• You will need space indoors to start seedlings at 20-25 degrees C, for 8 weeks before transplanting.
• Join by March 15, 2025 - members can login here to reserve their seeds

 

Seed Library - Core Grow-Outs

In addition to our Community Grow-Outs, we are always looking for experienced seed savers who can help multiply the especially rare seeds in our Canadian Seed Library collection.

If you're an experienced seed saver interested in helping with preserving high priority varieties for the Seed Library, please contact the Seed Library Co-ordinator at growers@seeds.ca with any questions.