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List Your Seeds in the 2024 Member Seed Exchange

 

How the Seed Exchange Works for Grower Members (i.e. members who offer seeds)

If you've requested seeds through our Seed Exchange, before you know that:

• It looks like a big seed catalogue, but the seeds are offered by many separate seed savers.
• You request seeds directly from those people, not centrally from Seeds of Diversity.
• You pay a small fee directly to each person offering the seeds, separately from Seeds of Diversity.

It's a genuine member-to-member seed exchange, and hundreds of people use it every year to get interesting heritage seeds. So what's it like from the point of view of the people offering the seeds?

You set the terms

There are many reasons why seed savers offer their seeds to other people: to conserve rare varieties, to correspond with other gardeners and seed savers, to earn a little money. Your reasons are as valid as anyone else's, but they're probably different from others, so we let the people who offer seeds decide how to make the Seed Exchange work for them.

When you offer seeds, you set your prices, the time of year when you'll accept requests, how you can be contacted and the forms of payment you accept.

Most importantly to Seeds of Diversity, you can stipulate whether your intention is for conservation or for wide sharing. If you specifically offer a rare variety to protect and multiply it, you can make it available just to other Grower members who will save and re-offer the seeds. On the other hand, if you want your seeds to be available to beginners and people who are just learning about seed saving, you can choose that just as easily (you'll get more requests that way).

When does the Seed Exchange happen?

Members who offer seeds generally do so in the Fall of each year, and they mostly receive seed requests between January-April. When you list your seeds, you can specify the period of time when you will accept requests. We're a group of seed-saving gardeners, not a seed company, so some members prefer to set aside a specific time in the season to receive requests.

How does payment work?

You've probably seen that different Grower Members accept different kinds of payment. Some prefer e-transfers, some only accept cash, and many have an assortment of payment preferences. When you offer seeds, you set your own prices (most people use our recommendation of $4.00 per packet), and you specify the kinds of payment that you will accept. We do our best to make those choices clear to the people who request your seeds.

Also, as a Grower Member who offers seeds, you can request seeds from other members at a $1 discount.

Will my contact information be made public?

All of your contact information is kept private, unless you expressly provide it to other members. You can choose to show or hide your address, email address, and/or phone number, so members will only be able to contact you the way you prefer.

Some members want to keep their location private so they only provide their email address to other members, and they only accept e-transfers for payment. Other members prefer to receive requests and payment by physical mail, so they make their address visible. There are many possible combinations of preferences, and it's totally up to you.

How many seeds will I need?

We strongly suggest that each sample of seeds should contain enough to make up a full genetic population. For typical self-pollinating seeds like tomatoes, beans, and lettuce, that's a minimum of 20 viable seeds, and for cross-pollinating species it should be at least 40-60 seeds. 

Most Grower Members find that they receive 1 to 5 requests for each kind of seed that they offer. It depends on the species, and how many other members are offering the same varieties, but considering the large number of varieties in the Seed Exchange, you'll usually get a manageable number of requests for each one.

Putting those two factors together, if you have at least 100 good seeds of a variety, you have enough to list them in the Seed Exchange.

What if there's a problem?

In a member-to-member seed exchange, people tend to be friendly and agreeable - in 35 years of running this program we've had very few problems. The best way to avoid any misunderstanding is to be clear about your terms, payment, and schedule. You'll find that communicating with other members is not only helpful, but pleasant and interesting. But if someone ever has a complaint, feel free to contact our office and we'll help sort it out. 

 

How to List Your Seeds

There are two ways to list your seeds in Seeds of Diversity's Member Seed Exchange.

Online

Click here to enter or update your seed offers on our web site. You will need a Seeds of Diversity member account, which you get free when you join. If you need help setting that up, or finding your password, just let us know at office@seeds.ca. 

If you've offered seeds in the Seed Exchange before, they will still be listed there, and you can choose to re-offer each listing for another year, skip a year, or remove a listing permanently.

Mailed Paper Form

Click here to download a paper form with instructions. Fill it in and mail it to our office (the address is on the form), and we will include your seed offers in the exchange.

If you've offered seeds before and you normally send your seed list on paper, you'll receive a copy of last year's list from us in the mail each Fall -- all you have to do is update it and mail it back.

 

Questions?

The people who offer seeds in our Seed Exchange are almost as diverse as the seeds themselves, so we try to make it as flexible as possible. If you have any questions about how to use the Seed Exchange, offer seeds, or specific preferences that we haven't thought of, we'd be glad to help make the Seed Exchange better for everyone by helping you.  Contact office@seeds.ca any time.

 

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