Seed Banks and Seed Diversity

In the old days, a man’s riches were not found in his bank, but in his food bank, which was measured by the amount and diversity of his seeds.

Before there were supermarkets and cheap transportation, the food security of a family depended on their ability to grow and raise food of their own. Their seeds needed to be carefully saved and protected so they would have food to grow the next year.

Seed storage house at Mt. Vernon

In the book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver writes, “According to Indian crop ecologist Vandana Shiva, humans have eaten some 80,000 plant species in our history. After recent precipitous changes, three quarters of all human food now come from just eight species, with the field quickly narrowing down to genetically modified corn, soy, and canola.”

We are massively losing the diversity of our food system, and seed banks aim to preserve that diversity.

Seed banks preserve our heirloom and open pollinated seeds. Open pollinated seeds allow the plants to breed true to their parentage, which allows growers to save the seeds and replant them every year.

This cannot be done with hybrid and GMO seeds, which are bred for one-time-use for one growing season.

One benefit of seed banks is that they allow growers freedom within the food system. When growers have access to these heirloom varieties, they can grow and save these seeds for the rest of their lives and pass them down to future generations.

Many hybrid and GMO seeds are bred for traits that make them grow faster, produce more, and ship well. Heirlooms are known for their incredible flavors and are more nutrient dense.

I was so excited that my family had a chance to visit the seed bank at The Farm at Prophetstown. They started their heirloom seed bank a year ago and received a grant to purchase heirloom seeds to add to their seed bank. This past weekend they opened up the seed bank for anyone to come and choose from a huge variety of seeds, and take sample packets home to grow themselves.

I knew I’d be drawn in before we got there because I love learning about different seed varieties, but I was delighted to see my girls were absorbed too, fingering through the seed packets, reading the descriptions, and looking for something that interested them to grow for 4-h this year.

The Prophetstown staff was warm and welcoming. They made us feel like family and encouraged us to take seeds, only asking that we would share some of seeds with the seed bank the following year.

The setup was well organized and beautiful. As people came in and asked questions, the staff was incredibly knowledgeable. Several people shared stories of their own gardening experiences and even brought in seeds they’d grown and saved from Prophetstown from the year before.

I ordered all the seeds we needed for market back in January (the free sample packets provided from Prophetstown are not to be used for monetary gain), but I always grow a test plot of new heirlooms every year. I do this because I love vegetables and for the adventure of trying something new, but also to save seeds for our own mini seed bank, to preserve the history and stories of these old varieties, and to participate in the freedom of our food system.

I grabbed a few black beans to grow in my 2020 test plot

I encourage you to seek out a seed bank near you, participate in a seed exchange, or buy a packet of heirloom seeds.

Plant them. Grow them. Eat them. Save them. Share them. By doing this you will preserve the integrity, history, and diversity of our food system.

*special thanks to the staff at Prophetstown, who were so kind to let me come in early and take some pictures!

DIY Seed Germination Chamber

For the first several years that we gardened, we started our seeds very simply. We purchased the flats with the clear tops, planted our seeds, and stacked them in our living room, bedroom, laundry room, you name it. The main problem we faced was that only around 50% of the seeds we planted would germinate. If we wanted to have fifteen roma tomato plants, we would have to plant at least 30 seeds to make sure we would get enough plants.

The price of seeds adds up quickly, and we wanted to make the most of the money we spent, so we purchased a couple of heated seed mats. The germination rates still didn’t seem any better with the mats.

When we started taking our produce to the local farmers market, we knew something would have to change. Not only were we purchasing large quantities of seed, but also several different varieties of vegetables to offer our customers. We didn’t want to keep wasting half of our seed, so we started to look at different options to increase the germination rates.

In January of 2019, I got call from James… he had a surprise. Now, I’ve learned over our years of marriage that when James says he has a surprise, not to necessarily assume it will be something like flowers. It’s best to assume that whatever it is, I will truly be surprised!

This time, it was a broken down freezer.

James rescued it from a coworker who was getting rid of it, and declared that all our problems were solved because we officially owned a giant seed starting chamber.

The set-up for the chamber was easy. We needed a temperature controller, a crockpot, a thermometer, and a drill bit.

James used the drill bit to drill a hole in the lower part of the freezer, so we could fit the electrical cord from the crockpot and the cord from the thermometer through it. Once that was done, we filled one of my small crockpots with water and set it on low. We plugged our temperature controller into the outlet, set it for our desired temperature, and attached the crockpot cord to the heat setting of the temperature controller.

 Now, you could just use a crockpot without the temperature controller, however, when we tested it with a normal thermometer, it actually made the freezer too hot. The temperature controller will turn the crockpot off it gets too hot and will turn it back on when the temperature dips too low.

It was a great deal for us! The freezer was free and kept something from going into a landfill, I already had the crockpot, and the temperature controller cost just under $40.

We are on our second season using our giant germination chamber, and not only are we getting almost 100% germination, but our seeds also germinate really quickly. Typically it would take 2-3 weeks for our tomato and pepper seeds to germinate, but with the germination chamber it takes 3-4 days for our tomatoes to germinate, and 5-7 for our peppers to germinate!

If you start a lot of your own seeds, I would highly recommend putting together your own germination chamber. It’s cheap and reliable, and a great way to kick start your growing season!