Preppers: Seed Stockpile Genetic Diversity

Preppers, let’s take a few minutes and talk about your seed stockpile. Specifically, the genetic diversity of the seeds. When and where do you buy your seeds?

In late winter and early spring, the local farm supply and big box stores get their seed shipments.

• If you want to buy in bulk, go to the local farm supply store.
• If you just want a few packets, go to a big box mart, or buy online.

Personally, I do both.

Seeds from the big box mart cost much more than buying in bulk at the farm supply store. Hopefully, though, the farm supply stores and the big box stores get their seeds from different sources.

The overall goal: Do not to buy all your seeds from the same place.

Plant some of the seeds bought from the farm supply store next to some of the seeds from the big box mart. Allow the two plants will cross-pollinate, then save the seeds. Hopefully, the saved seeds will be more genetically-diverse than the parent plants. Why would that be? Because the seeds are not from the same location.

For example, let’s take a small town. If the people from that town only have children with each other, after a few generations a lot of the people in the town would be related. Go to a small rural community, and a lot of the people are related to each other, either through blood or marriage.

Buying seeds from different sources is like new people moving to the community. They bring genetics that are not related to anyone else.

If you want to buy seeds on the Internet, there are numerous seed companies and seed exchanges to look through.

Some examples:

• Clear Creek Seeds
• Seeds of Change
• Territorial Seed Company
• Burpee Seeds

My Personal Stockpile

Early in the article I mentioned buying in bulk. That means buying seeds by the pound, 1/4 pound, 1/2 pound… etc.

Then, I buy seed packets in early fall when they go on sale. A few days ago I went to a local Dollar Store, which had its seed packets marked down to 30 cents each. So, I bought three dollars’ worth.

The seed packets from the Dollar Store will be sealed in a zip-lock baggy and stored in the freezer, along with the rest of the seeds.

When stored in a freezer, how long will seeds stay viable? See this forum thread about germinating decade old seeds.

So, where do you get your seeds? Is genetic diversity a concern for you?

Kevin Felts

Founder and owner of www.survivalistboards.com My blog - www.survivalboards.com Hobbies include fishing, hiking, hunting, blogging, sharing his politically incorrect opinion, video blogging on youtube, survivalism and spending time with his family.