Look for seed in garden centres, hardware and discount stores, farm supply stores, and your own kitchen shelves, where whole dried beans, dried peas, whole spices, garlic cloves and sprouting potatoes can all be planted. Seed sold for planting in bulk or in colour-dyed form is usually chemically treated, so keep it out of your food and away from animals. Plant seeds that can grow true and be saved again before you rely on seeds that cannot.
Part of Seed & Food Salvage
Seed is the part of salvage that keeps feeding you after the cans run out, but it looks like food and may be poisonous. Retail stock, kitchen stock, existing plants and your own harvest are the four sources.
Seeds Are the Part of Salvage That Keeps Feeding You
The parent article puts it simply: canned food keeps you alive for months, and seeds keep you alive after that. A packet of seed can produce food for a season and, if the variety is suited to saving, for every season after. The risk is that seeds look like food, and seed sold for planting is often treated to protect it from disease and pests.
Four Sources
- Retail seed — garden centres, hardware stores, dollar and discount stores, and farm supply stores. See Commercial Seed Packets.
- Kitchen stock — dried beans, dried peas, whole spices, garlic, sprouting potatoes and some fresh produce. See Seeds From Food.
- Existing gardens and wild plants — seed heads from plants already growing. The parent article covers this in its wild-collection section, and positive identification is essential.
- Your own harvest — the long-term source. See Saving Seeds From Your Harvest.
Treated Seed Is a Poison, Not a Food
Farm and agricultural seed is commonly coated with fungicide or insecticide before sale. The coating is often coloured pink, red, blue or green precisely so that it is recognised as not edible. Do not eat it, do not grind it, do not feed it to livestock, and wash your hands after handling it.
Dyed or "treated" seed
Seed that is coloured pink, red, blue or green, or labelled “treated” or “do not use for food or feed”, carries a coating of pesticide. This page gives no safe amount, because none can be sourced here. Do not eat it or feed it to animals. Handle it with gloves if you have them, wash your hands afterwards, and keep it out of reach of children and animals. If someone swallows it, treat it as a poisoning and see First Aid.
What You Need
- Labels — read packets and tags for “treated”, the variety, and the packed-for year.
- Dry, cool storage — to keep what you find alive. See Building a Seed Library.
- A way to test — see The Paper Towel Germination Test.
Method: Find, Sort, Test
Step 1: Collect from several sources Variety in species spreads your risk. Take a mix of calorie crops, quick crops and crops you can preserve.
Step 2: Sort treated from untreated Separate anything dyed, coated or labelled treated. Keep it away from food.
Step 3: Prefer open-pollinated or heirloom The parent article says seeds from these varieties grow true to the parent. Hybrid (F1) varieties can be planted but their saved seed does not reliably repeat the parent. See Saving Seeds From Your Harvest.
Step 4: Check age and condition Seed life varies by species. See Seed Longevity by Species.
Step 5: Test before you commit Run a germination test. See The Paper Towel Germination Test.
Common Mistakes
- Treating seed as food — it may be poisonous. Read the packet.
- Planting everything at once — keep part of every kind in reserve.
- Relying on one variety — a single failure should not take everything.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Commercial Seed Packets — what stores hold
- Combine with: Finding Preserved Food in Ruins — the food side of the same trip