The Seed

Bred for or near short seasons and hard winters. Start here for Zone 5b.

• 1Seed Savers ExchangeDecorah, IAZone 5b pickThe gold standard — nonprofit, the largest non-governmental seed bank in the country, ~3.5 hrs away. Catalog plus a member-to-member Exchange of ~20,000 rare varieties. Upper-Midwest adapted.
• 2Jung Seed Co.Randolph, WIZone 5b pickWisconsin's own, family-run since 1907. A dedicated heirloom line plus organic seed, all trialed in our climate.
• 3MIgardenerPort Huron, MIZone 5b pickHeirloom/OP packets famously priced around a couple dollars. Great Lakes climate, generous packet counts — cheap way to trial many varieties.
• 4Prairie Road Organic SeedFullerton, NDZone 5b pickCertified organic, bred and selected on the northern plains for Zone 3–4. The most cold-hardened seed on this list — your hedge against a brutal year.
• 5Seed TreasuresN. MinnesotaZone 5b pickOff-grid northern grower preserving heritage open-pollinated varieties specifically for cold, short-season gardens.
• 6Fedco SeedsClinton, MEZone 5b pickCooperative, plain-spoken, inexpensive. One of the few houses that genuinely specializes in cold-hardy, short-season varieties.
• 7Johnny's Selected SeedsWinslow, MEZone 5b pickEmployee-owned, northern-trialed, and one of the original authors of the Safe Seed Pledge. A mix of heirloom/OP and hybrids — read the listings.
• 8High Mowing Organic SeedsWolcott, VTZone 5b pick100% certified organic, grown largely on their own Vermont farm, with a stated focus on cold-climate performance.
• 9Pinetree Garden SeedsNew Gloucester, MESmall, affordable packets sized for the home gardener — New England house, good for trialing without overbuying.

Purists and preservationists — for rare, true, and endangered varieties.

• 10Baker Creek Heirloom SeedsMansfield, MOThe purist's catalog: 100% heirloom/open-pollinated, never hybrids, ~20,000 rare varieties from around the world. Best for the unusual.
• 11Southern Exposure Seed ExchangeMineral, VAGrower-owned cooperative with deep heirloom stock — and some of the clearest seed-saving instructions in the business.
• 12Victory SeedsMolalla, ORA family operation devoted to preserving rare and endangered heirlooms that bigger houses have dropped.
• 13Experimental Farm NetworkPhiladelphia, PAOpen-source plant breeding and rare OP seed — collaborative, mission-driven, often varieties found nowhere else.
• 14Native Seeds/SEARCHTucson, AZConservation nonprofit safeguarding arid-Southwest heirlooms. Less Zone-5b, but a model of seed stewardship and worth supporting.

Broad, reliable catalogs — all Safe Seed Pledge signatories.

• 15Botanical InterestsBroomfield, COHundreds of heirloom and organic varieties in beautifully illustrated packets printed with real growing detail.
• 16Territorial Seed Co.Cottage Grove, ORA deep, well-trialed catalog spanning OP and hybrid — a dependable one-stop for the bulk of a vegetable garden.
• 17Sow True SeedAsheville, NCOpen-pollinated, heirloom, and organic only — a smaller house with a strong preservation ethic.
• 18Renee's GardenFelton, CACurated, well-described heirloom vegetables, herbs, and cottage flowers — tightly chosen rather than overwhelming.

Regional breeders doing distinctive work.

• 19Adaptive SeedsSweet Home, ORRare, diverse, organic OP seed with real attention to short-season northern adaptation — known for strong germination.
• 20Hudson Valley Seed Co.Accord, NYNortheast heirlooms and OP varieties, plus their well-known artist-designed "Art Pack" seed packets.

The whole point of buying open-pollinated: take the seed back off the plant and you never buy it twice.

The first rule is the only one you can't bend. Save seed only from open-pollinated or heirloom plants. Those breed true — their offspring resemble the parent. F1 hybrid seed does not; its seedlings scatter into a grab-bag of grandparents. So when a packet says "hybrid" or "F1," eat the harvest and buy fresh seed next year. Everything below assumes you're working with open-pollinated stock from the houses above — or from your own garden.

Crops differ in how readily they cross. Begin with the self-pollinators; they keep their identity with almost no effort.

A self-pollinating plant fertilizes itself inside its own flower, so it rarely crosses with a neighbor and you barely have to keep varieties apart. A cross-pollinating plant relies on wind or insects to carry pollen between plants — let two varieties of the same species bloom near each other and the saved seed will be a mongrel. Keep different varieties of the same species apart by the distances below (varieties of different species never cross — a tomato can't pollinate a pepper).

Every crop is processed one of two ways, depending on whether the seed rides in a dry pod or a wet fruit.

Dry processing — beans, peas, lettuce, brassicas, grains, most flowers. Leave the pods, heads, or husks on the plant until they're brown and crisp; if frost threatens, pull the whole plant and finish drying it under cover. Then thresh (crush or rub the seed free) and winnow (pour between bowls in a breeze, or breathe across it, so the light chaff blows off and the heavier seed stays). Bean seed is ready when it shatters rather than dents under a hammer tap.

Wet processing — tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, melons, eggplant. Scoop the seed and pulp from a fully ripe (even over-ripe) fruit. Squash and melon seed you simply rinse clean in a strainer and dry. Tomatoes and cucumbers do better with a short ferment first, which dissolves the jelly coat, kills some seed-borne disease, and removes a sprouting inhibitor:

1. Squeeze the seeds and juice into a labeled jar. Add a splash of water.
2. Let it sit somewhere cool and out of the sun for 1–3 days, stirring once a day. A film of mold will form on top — that's the work happening.
3. When it's foamy and a little funky, fill the jar with water. Good seed sinks; pulp and dead seed float — pour those off.
4. Rinse the sunken seed in a strainer until clean.
5. Spread on a coffee filter, paper plate, or fine screen — never plastic or a paper towel it will glue itself to — and dry. Fermented, fully dried tomato seed stays viable up to ~6 years; quick-dried without fermenting, more like 1–2.

Moisture is the enemy. Dry hard, store cool, label everything.

Spread cleaned seed in a single layer on a screen, coffee filter, or paper plate, somewhere cool, dry, and airy, for one to three weeks. Stir now and then. Do not use a food dehydrator or oven — even gentle heat cooks the life out of seed. Seed is dry enough when a bean or pea shatters instead of squashing, and small seeds feel hard and rattle.

Then store it cold and airtight. Slip each variety into its own labeled paper packet — variety name and the year, always — and pack the packets together inside a sealed glass jar. Tuck in a desiccant: a packet of silica gel, or a spoonful of powdered milk folded in tissue. Keep the jar in a spot that stays consistently cool; a fridge at about 35–40°F is ideal, a freezer for the long haul if the seed is bone-dry. A cool closet works for a single season. Before you sow next spring, test a doubtful batch: roll ten seeds in a damp paper towel, keep it warm, and count how many sprout in a week or two.