Blog #10: Ensuring Traceability of your seed

Traceability is a very important consideration.  Things that I want to consider is the origin of that seed.  Was it from seed stock from a few years ago, or was it the seed I have been growing out year after year for a while now.  This all has to be documented.  We will start by creating Lot Numbers that I will add to every Seed Crop Plan that I make yearly.  I will also include on every Seed Crop Plan the origin of the mother seed using Lot Numbers from previous years. 

I will have to start with creating a Lot Number for the seeds I have originally purchased of carrots, beets, and spinach from West Coast Seeds or William Dam Seeds.  These were the parent seeds.  Although I didn't grow them, I will start a binder with Lot Numbers and they will be the first recorded seeds.  From there I will continue to document the Lot's that I grow in the future.  There will be a detailed Lot Log Book.  As well, I will have the Lot numbers on each year's Seed Crop Plan.  The Seed packet that the seeds go into will have the Lot number from that year's harvest included. 

I think that should be sufficient for tracing the lineages.

Comments

  1. Patrick SteinerNovember 4, 2018 at 10:28 PM

    Hi Lisa; I'm glad to see you've thought through the steps you'll take in recording seed lots, even from the very beginning of giving a seed lot number to the seed you originally purchased. Tracking each subsequent years grow-out of seed and keeping it all in a binder (or computer file) will be very useful for you.

    The only other thing I'd encourage you to do, is to come up with a specific plan for how you will create lot numbers, and to use that method always. There are many different ways to develop a lot number system so you can make it work for your particular needs. As an example I used a lot number that recorded the seed type, seed cultivar, place grown, year grown, and organic status. So a lot number that looked like this: BEMXKJ16OG stood for Bean, Maxibel, Kootenay Joe Farm, 2016, Organic

    ReplyDelete
  2. mary brittainNovember 7, 2018 at 11:37 AM

    Hi Lisa - I'm pleased that you're starting by giving your original seed stock lot numbers. This is an important step that many overlook. In your lot number log, you should also record the lot numbers that West Coast or William Dam printed on their packets (if they did and if you still have them); this would enable you to get them to track their seed back to source as well, if an issue arises.
    I don't know if you're planning to do this, but I combine my lot number log with my packaging log, so that every time I package seed, I enter the number of packets against the specific lot of seed I packaged it from. This really helps track your use of the seed from each lot.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post #13: Identify Market Trends

My target market will be local hobby vegetable gardeners.  There has been a small-scale seed supplier in the area for the past 5-10 years and I would initially start with interviewing her and identifying some of her trends over the years.  She doesn't grow her own seeds that she sells, but she brings in heritage varieties and sells them locally.  Another identifier of trends in the area would be to just look at the varieties that are sold in all of the local stores targeting my audience.  They bring in a lot of the basics.  I think that would be a great place to start.  Facebook has become a great tool to create market research.  I could start a survey and send it out within the Facebook groups pertaining to different local gardening groups and see what kind of response I get back. Understanding what the customer wants will have a huge impact on what I grow.  I would start with that information and plan to grow what the people want.  I...
Read more

Blog Post #12: Storage Requirements and Provisions for Seed Crop

Storage: For the most part I imagine at this point attempting to store seeds for 3-5 years.  Therefore, I will be able to get away with drying the seeds at room temperature.  This limits me to being able to store the dried seed in paper envelopes.  Which means that I risk insect and rodent contamination.  I think I will be okay as long as I set up a mouse trap nearby with some peanut butter on it.  I will store the seeds in a cool dry area in our house.  That would be one of the spare rooms that isn't fully heated throughout the winter and kept closed in the summer. If I ever want to get experimental we do have an Excalibur dehydrator which I could use to dry the seeds down even more and then I would be able to freeze them or store them in plastic or glass containers. I looked up the Germination Standards: Carrots are 60% minimum Spinach is 65% minimum Beets 65-75% minimum depending on the grading classification As for purity.  I wasn't able t...
Read more