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, 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!
This season, we are running 3 grow-out projects in partnership with the EFAO and Bauta Family Initiative for Canadian Seed Security.
- Save & Share: Canadian Tomatoes
- Save & Share: Beans for Canadian Climates
- Collaborative Breeding of an Upright Ground Cherry: Year 6
Save & Share Projects (beginner-friendly)
We want your help saving seeds and increasing how broadly they are shared across the country. While our Canadian Seed Library does a good job of seed conservation, the goal is not just to keep endangered seed alive but to get it into as many gardens as possible. We’ve chosen some Canadian-adapted beans and tomatoes: your job will be to grow them, take observations, save LOTS of seed, and share it - with us and with others.
We’re concerned about the quickly changing growing conditions that all gardeners are experiencing, and we know you are too. Adapting to a changing climate is a big deal, but you can help in a small way by growing a selected bean or tomato variety and helping us all learn how it grows where you are.
New to saving seeds? That’s OK! You’re welcome to take part. The bean project is particularly beginner-friendly. We will send you seeds and provide instructions throughout the season. Just make sure you have the time and garden space to follow through.
Participant Responsibilities:
- growing and tending plants
- providing sufficient isolation to prevent against cross-pollination
- taking written observations throughout the season
- saving seeds
- returning a portion of seeds to us, and sharing the rest in your community
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 3, 2025 - members can login here to reserve their seeds
Any questions? Just ask us at growers@seeds.ca
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 3, 2025 - members can login here to reserve their seeds
Any questions? Just ask us at growers@seeds.ca
Help Breed a Better Ground Cherry Year 6 (intermediate/advanced)
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.
- 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.
Requirements:
- 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 3, 2025 - members can login here to reserve their seeds
Any questions? Just ask us at growers@seeds.ca
All Seeds of Diversity members can participate in Community Seed Grow-Out projects.
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 fill out THIS FORM (or contact our Seed Library Co-ordinator at grower@seeds.ca with any questions)
Community Grow-Outs managed in partnership with:
