# Seed Sourcing

**URL:** <https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483>\
**Category:** General Discussions\
**Tags:** seeds\
**Created:** [January 5, 2023, 4:32am UTC](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483 "2023-01-05T04:32:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cynthia](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/goingtoseed.discourse.group/cynthia/32/551_2.png) [@Cynthia](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/u/Cynthia)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 4:32am UTC](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483/1 "2023-01-05T04:32:38Z")

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@UnicornEmily’s post about strawberries and the seeds she found led me to want to ask, where do folks get their seeds (before you can save them)?? I keep thinking to landrace I need more quantity of seed them I’m used to, not sure the best/options for sources. I’ve mostly gotten mine from [rareseeds.com](http://rareseeds.com) in the past.

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**Author:** ![KadenceLunemann](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/goingtoseed.discourse.group/kadencelunemann/32/539_2.png) [@KadenceLunemann](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/u/KadenceLunemann)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 5:13am UTC](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483/2 "2023-01-05T05:13:51Z")

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[https://www.thebuffaloseedcompany.com/?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=true](https://www.thebuffaloseedcompany.com/?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=true)

They just updated the site for the year and were doing 10% off using code SEEDS2023  
Dunno how long they will keep the code going.

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**Author:** ![KadenceLunemann](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/goingtoseed.discourse.group/kadencelunemann/32/539_2.png) [@KadenceLunemann](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/u/KadenceLunemann)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 5:16am UTC](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483/3 "2023-01-05T05:16:19Z")

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EFN has up they plan to update the site on the 12th. I’m eagerly awaiting! I have several things I want to get… Supposedly so that I can stop ordering seeds but (pshhh!)… well we’ll see how that goes! 😉

> **[Experimental Farm Network Seed Store](https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/)**
>
> The Experimental Farm Network sells rare heirloom vegetable, grain, and other useful plant seeds to support our non-profit organizing mission.

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**Author:** ![UnicornEmily](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/goingtoseed.discourse.group/unicornemily/32/530_2.png) [@UnicornEmily](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/u/UnicornEmily)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 6:03am UTC](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483/4 "2023-01-05T06:03:41Z")

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I love the Experimental Farm Network, and I’m eagerly awaiting their new stuff being unveiled on the 12th, too! I hope there’s awesome stuff. I expect there will be.

I source seeds from anywhere I feel like. I bought some thornless zucchini hybrids from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. I’ve bought some parthenocarpic zucchini hybrids from Burpee on Amazon. I’ve picked up seed packets at grocery stores, from random sellers on Ebay, and from random sellers on Etsy. Random sellers on Ebay and Etsy are _great_ sources for unusual seeds.

The Seed Savers Exchange is a really good place to go, too. The main site has some good stuff, but what you really want is this part of the site:

> **[Seed Exchange](https://exchange.seedsavers.org/)**
>
> {xpath://content/page/@description}

There are oodles of regional seed companies. There’s a list at the bottom of this page of a lot of good ones:

> **[Regionally Adapted Seed: The Secret of Great Gardening - Fruition Seeds](https://www.fruitionseeds.com/learn/blog/regionally-adapted-seed-the-secret-of-great-gardening/)**
>
> When Heirloom Gardener asked me to write about the significance of regionally adapted seed for their Winter 2019 issue, the fact that such a story

This is a great source for banana seeds:

> **[Seeds from around the world](https://seedsandsmiles.com/)**
>
> We ship seeds , plants , flower bulbs and rhizomes . We delivery high quality seeds collected from our growers and collectors worldwide Our shipping methods are Airmail , Fedex, DHL. All offered seeds are true to species. Shipping is free on all...

They have a lot of other interesting and unusual seeds, too.

As a general principle, when I’m looking for rare seeds or varieties, I tend to go to Google and type in “(thing I want) seeds for sale” and check out all the top results. I also run a search on Etsy and Ebay and the Seed Savers Exchange.

Sometimes I don’t find anything. Often I do. Yay! Sometimes I find something, but the price is too high, so I put it on a wishlist I’m compiling and tell myself to live without it unless I find it for a reasonable price later.

Trades with other gardeners are awesome. Gifts from friends who are gardeners are awesome, especially if they’re seeds they’ve saved themselves and they live really near you. A neighbor of mine gave me some lima bean seeds from a population she’s been saving for years the other day at church. So nice of her!

Oh, yeah, one final place to get good seeds. Go to your nearest farmers’ market and check out the locally grown produce. Buy some fruits that look delicious. If they are, save the seeds. I’ve done that quite a few times. Even if they weren’t grown organically, they were grown fairly near you, which means those are probably good seeds for you. If they were grown organically, even better! You can always ask the farmer, who is generally right there.

Heck, you can even pick up fruits from the grocery store and save seeds from them, especially if you find something unusual and tasty. I bought some organic, locally grown honeynut squashes at a health food store near me a few months ago. They were delicious, so I saved their seeds. They’re probably crossed with other moschatas. I call that a bonus!

You can even buy root crops and replant them to get them to go to seed. I haven’t had luck doing that with carrots, but I’m going to try it with a rutabaga this year, just for the heck of it. It would be fun to see what rutabaga flowers taste like. I bet they’re great.

Does that help? 😃

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**Author:** ![KadenceLunemann](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/goingtoseed.discourse.group/kadencelunemann/32/539_2.png) [@KadenceLunemann](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/u/KadenceLunemann)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 6:18am UTC](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483/5 "2023-01-05T06:18:23Z")

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> **[native seeds search arid-adapted heirloom seeds from the southwest](https://www.nativeseeds.org/)**
>
> Native Seeds Search is a non-profit that conserves and sells heirloom seeds, foods and Native American art and jewelry from the Southwest. We provide education on seed-saving, sustainable agriculture, and desert gardening.

[Victoryseeds.com](http://Victoryseeds.com) (has the dwarf tomato project seeds)

> **[Resilient Seeds](https://www.resilientseeds.com/)**
>
> Resilient Seeds provides open-pollinated, Non-GMO seeds with a focus on dry legumes and grains adapted to the Pacific Northwest. We grow all our own seed on certified organic farmland.

> **[Home - Wild Mountain Seeds](https://wildmountainseeds.com)**
>
> Organic Vegetable Seeds for Cold Climates in Carbondale, Colorado

> **[Giving Ground Seeds: Organic, Open pollinated, Small farm grown seeds](https://givinggroundseeds.com)**
>
> Grown in southern Idaho, our seed varieties are selected to yield abundantly even in short seasons, and to provide fresh garden eating all year long. Here, challenging conditions are a given so our quality seeds naturally come with a "wind-swept seal...

> **[Snake River Seed Cooperative](https://snakeriverseeds.com)**
>
> Our seeds are sourced from over 50 family farmers around the Intermountain West. Adapting seeds to our region guarantees success in your garden! All seeds are grown free of synthetic chemicals.

> **[Cultivariable](https://www.cultivariable.com/)**
>
> Cultivariable is a breeder and supplier of unusual vegetable crops, including the Andean root and tuber crops yacon, oca, ulluco, mashua, maca, mauka, and achira; Andean potatoes and true potato seeds; and other minor crops like skirret, root...

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**Author:** ![julia.dakin](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/goingtoseed.discourse.group/julia.dakin/32/12_2.png) [@julia.dakin](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/u/julia.dakin)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 1:48pm UTC](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483/6 "2023-01-05T13:48:14Z")

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Hi Cynthia!  
We have a seed ‘category’ in the forum here which has a post about recommended seed companies, so I might move this thread there in a bit, and here’s the page with all the seed companies people have gathered so far:

[https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/pub/seed-companies-sources](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/pub/seed-companies-sources)

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**Author:** ![kdurivage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/d9b06d/32.png) [@kdurivage](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/u/kdurivage)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2023, 6:09pm UTC](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483/7 "2023-04-04T18:09:01Z")

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I love seeing all my favorite seed companies on this list! One more that i particularly love is [www.fedcoseeds.com](http://www.fedcoseeds.com). I have noticed that even though they dont have anything listed as “landrace” they do have varieties described as “genetically diverse” or “being consistent in on trait and variable in all other traits for increased vigor.” I like that they are blurring the lines, giving options between landraces and heirlooms, and providing tidbits of education in their variety descriptions. They also have lots and lots of seeds, but also have separate tuber and tree catalogues and are in maine, so a lot of their catalogue highlights shorter season or cold hardy varieties.

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**Author:** ![UnicornEmily](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/goingtoseed.discourse.group/unicornemily/32/530_2.png) [@UnicornEmily](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/u/UnicornEmily)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2023, 7:46am UTC](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483/8 "2023-04-05T07:46:47Z")

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You’re right, that’s great! It seems to me that they may be seeking for absolute clarity by being descriptive, rather than using a somewhat-niche specific word. I imagine the word will become more and more mainstream with time, but since it’s a bit niche now, simply describing what they mean will make it easy to understand for everyone, no matter how experienced or new to gardening they may be. I call that well done!

Edited to add: I think that approach may also make it easier for people to get into landrace seeds, too. There are probably some gardeners who think landraces sound too wild or out of their comfort zone. But if they find a genetically variable population they like, that might make it easier for them to make the leap later.

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**Author:** ![Randy\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dec6dc/32.png) [@Randy\_Simmons](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/u/Randy_Simmons)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2023, 5:05pm UTC](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483/9 "2023-04-05T17:05:27Z")

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Most of what I would have posted has already been mentioned. Some more are Adaptive Seeds and Territorial Seed. I recently bought seeds from Ujamaa bought haven’t had a chance to grow them yet

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**Author:** ![markwkidd](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/goingtoseed.discourse.group/markwkidd/32/297_2.png) [@markwkidd](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/u/markwkidd)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2023, 1:00pm UTC](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483/10 "2023-05-26T13:00:38Z")

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I would like to share a link to the Free Heirloom Seeds project. It has different objectives than Going to Seed but I would say it is a kindred effort, and a potential source of genetic diversity for landrace growers. They are accepting requests for this season until the end of May before going on break.

> **[Free Seeds from FreeHeirloomSeeds.org](http://freeheirloomseeds.org/)**
>
> FreeHeirloomSeeds.org is a community resource connecting people with the means to produce our own food.
> We offer Free Heirloom Seeds to individuals, organic gardening & sustainability resources, as well as a community hub for people trying to...

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**Author:** ![Naomiupland](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/goingtoseed.discourse.group/naomiupland/32/2875_2.png) [@Naomiupland](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/u/Naomiupland)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 3:05pm UTC](https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/t/seed-sourcing/483/11 "2024-01-09T15:05:40Z")

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Hi Folks,

Just wanted to let you all know that today [Experimental Farm Network](https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/) rolled out their 2024 seed inventory that has many grexes in it. Some of their stuff sells out fast so if you want the cream of the crop, so to speak 😅, shop sooner than later.

💚 🥬
