How the Seed Savers Exchange Works

There has been a lot of discussion on garden blogs lately about seed exchanges, so I thought it would be a good time to post about how the Seed Saver Exchange (SSE) works.

It’s worth pointing out that what you see on the SSE Internet website is something different from the seed exchange. The website is a commercial operation designed to raise money for the SSE activities. On their website they sell seeds they themselves grow, and not what their members grow for the seed exchange. By all means, buy seeds from their website, they are a worthy organization, but don’t draw any conclusions from their limited selection or order policies.

I think there are two main reasons why a post like this should be interesting. First is the SSE has been around since the mid 70s, are experts on seed exchanges and we bloggers probably have a thing or two to learn from them. The other reason is I think not many people join the SSE is because they don’t really understand what it is or how it works. Hopefully if I explain something about it, it will seem more interesting to more people as an organization worth joining and participating in.

By the way, there are many things besides seeds on offer via the SSE, but for simplicity I am going to refer to them all collectively as ‘seeds’ in this post. There is fruit trees, garlic, jerusalem artichokes, horseradish, potatoes and multiplier onions just to name a few things besides seeds.

First, and perhaps most importantly, all seed exchanges are done on a cash basis (unless you come to another mutual agreement). This means, for most of the seeds offered, anyone can have them by simply buying them. There is no other obligation beyond paying for them. If what you are looking for is interesting seeds, and don’t want to offer anything in return, it is an option to simply buy the seeds. Among other things, everyone has to start somewhere, so you have to make it possible for people to get seeds in the first place.

The Domestic Prices in 2006 (in US$) for members who are currently offer seeds for trade:

Small Seeds $2
Large seeds and biennials $3
Potatoes, garlic and other non-seeds $4

Prices for members not currently offering seeds are $1 higher. International prices are $2 higher still, except that no price is given for potatoes and garlic because their shipment internationally is often not allowed. For example the price of a package of bean seeds sent internationally to someone not currently offering seeds would be $6.

There is no minimum order. All orders are placed directly with SSE members, so if you want 25 different seeds that different SSE members are offering, you must send 25 different orders. You are not allowed to place a ‘double order’ or an order for 2 of exactly the same thing, and quantities of seed are normally small. It’s normal to expect to have to grow the small initial sample first and save the seeds, before you will have enough seeds for a large planting.

It’s worth noting that some varieties are set aside for people who are either members offering seeds or for people who promise to grow the seeds out and reoffer them to the SSE the following year. Most varieties however are available to everyone for purchase.

If you never offer any of your own seeds via the SSE, you would be defeating the purpose of the SSE, but not it’s rules. I think it fair to say that most people who order seeds from the SSE also offer some of what they grow back.

So what are the advantages or disadvantages to ordering seeds from the SSE? The most important advantage is the number of plant varieties available. In 2006 there were a stunning 12,284 unique varieties offered by 756 members! It is truly a jaw dropping experience to read through their yearbook and realize everything you have to choose from. The main disadvantage is you are not placing your order with one place, but many, with some extra costs as a result and if there are any issues to sort out with your orders you have to do it with several different people. However frustrating dealing with many different people can be sometimes, they are (almost) all really wonderful people. They are not in it for the money and mostly they are there to help out if you have problems with your order. I have made several friends placing orders via the SSE.

People living outside the US need to realize this is a US based organization, needs a little extra patience and you need to play by their rules. Most importantly, all payments are in US$ and generally in cash. The idea is that you too will offer seeds, and get US$ from other people, that you can then use to purchase seeds from other people. Think of the US$ as a sort of coupon or trading stamp. In any event, you will need some small denomination US$ notes to get started with. I might be able to help with this, and perhaps some other bloggers can as well. Feel free to send me an email.

They do not currently have an electronic version of their seed listings, so international members in particular are confronted with very high membership fees, that go almost exclusively to sending you printed material.

Anyone placing orders with them should realize many SSE members are country folk, many of them are aging and for international members they often don’t have a lot of experience dealing with foreigners. For some reason seed saving and technology often don’t go hand and hand, and many of them do not have email addresses. Some of them that do have email addresses don’t have a lot of experience with computers and some of them don’t check their email regularly. For many of them the phone is the best bet.

Finally one of the most important reasons for joining the SSE is it needs your help. I mentioned above they had 756 members in 2006, but in 1995 they had 1031 members. Where are all the members going? A lot of them are aging and dying, and there simply aren’t enough younger members to take their place. There has been a steady decline since 1995. In 2005 there were 801 members, so that’s a loss of almost 50 members in the last year alone. It would really make a big difference if 20 or 30 of us bloggers became active participating members.