Incoming Seed Collection Process & Forms

[Bega Liz]

Hi brains trust,
An ongoing issue for our group is making sure we have all the pertinent details for any new seed that is brought in for the group. We've tried a couple of different iterations of forms and checklists for people to fill in when the seed is handed in. We've had varying levels of success with this process.
What do you do that works? What information do you collect? How do you make sure that the process gets followed and you don't just end up with a paper bag of seed with a variety name on it and no idea where it came from and whether the grower managed any required isolation distances or used appropriate seed to start with?
Do you have a grow out process to check any mystery seed? Or do you just dump it if there are doubts about it? Put it in a green manure mix?
Thanks,
Liz

[Arian]

Hi Liz, this is what Canberra Seed Savers has been using. We're mostly keen to understand how much is donated of what varieties but also to be reasonably confident about potential cross-pollination (lots of small suburban growers) and to harvest stories along with seeds! This is the longer version of the form, we also have a shorter one that I'll post soon. It's always a bit of a compromise as we don't want to make it so long that it's a chore but we do want to prompt people to give us as much info as possible. Some people like to keep track of this info and like to be able to record and provide it. We also find that the questions are handy prompts for talking about what is relevant to know about seeds for seed saving purposes for newer seed savers. In a lot of cases, people use a single form for multiple varieties of a single type or even multiple types of seeds if there's no cross pollination possibilities. By the way, we don't get rid of potentially cross-pollinated seeds, we grow them out and see what happens or put them in a 'lucky dip' box that we have at markets!

[Bega Liz]

I just came across these from seed libraries in the USA and thought I'd share their approaches.

MASL_Donation_Page_Six_Forms.pdf

UMass Amherst

(97.81 KiB) Downloaded 8 times

donation-slips_fillable.pdf

Pima County Public Library

(339.12 KiB) Downloaded 10 times

[Arian]

Thanks Liz, I like both of those. Although I don't think the 'food', 'fibre' etc. options on the UMass one is necessary if the common and botanical names are used. Am I missing something do you think? I do like the framing of 'attempts to prevent cross-pollination' style question as I think it helps to prompt the ideas of what could be done to ensure seeds are true.

[Bega Liz]

Maybe they have specific sections for food, flowers etc and just want to know what section to file it in? It might be obvious to you from the common name but not everyone would know whether something is for food or for fibre etc., particularly for some of the more uncommon things. I can also think of examples like linseed where some forms would be grown for the edible seed/oil, others are grown for fibre and they are also ornamental (or at least I think they are a pretty plant but not everyone might agree with me ).
Our group does distinguish between edibles and flowers. We're still arguing (nicely of course) over how to present them in the collection to make it easy for people to find what they want. For example if you are looking for flowers in general do you have to look through all the collection and find each one alphabetically among the vegetables, or do you just go to the flower section and browse through that? Then do edible flowers like calendula go in the flowers or edibles section if they are separate sections?