The Populuxe Seed Bank

In January 2009 I decided to start my own private seed bank. Over the course of 2009 and 2010 the original number of a handful of varieties of seeds I started with has grown to over 75 heirloom and open pollinated varieties, and is growing exponentially as each month passes, and other dedicated growers donate their seeds for preservation.

The Populuxe Seed Bank has a twitter feed here.

I warned it’d be a little quiet around here until we got to our new home!

Things are all lined up for the big move 750km away to Victoria, BC. Most of the grow outs this year will be saved by a wonderful volunteer who will be taking care of the garden after we leave here in just under two weeks. Fortunately, however, I’ve been able to save a few seeds myself (it wouldn’t feel like a whole complete year without me being able to save at least some seeds!).

Pictured above are the Slocan Snow Peas that have been harvested, dried, and banked. The weather has been really tough this year on some of the plants, so unfortunately I wasn’t able to get as much as I was hoping for. However, there’s more than enough to be banked, and some will be available to those who wish to grow out this variety as well. They’ll be offered up early next year along with the rest of the varieties I’ll have available.

I really ended up liking these, despite me not being a pea person. It was difficult not to just go out and eat them all on the vine when they were young they were so tasty. I’ll be updating the Slocan Snow Peas page as well with some more details and growth information. I’m hoping to get to it before the move happens, but it might not be until after then. I’ll be sure to add an update when that happens!

It’s been a little quiet here unfortunately, but it’s not without just cause. The past few weeks have been a frenzy.

But, I am very pleased to say, the seed bank has found its new home in our new city: Victoria, BC. Most importantly, that new home not only includes housing for the seeds in the bank, but also new land which will be transformed from grass to garden space for the growing season in 2011. It was one of my biggest concerns with the upcoming relocation that space would be the difficult thing to find, but fortunately it’s worked out to my favour. There’s a lot of work to be done with the new land for next year, and in about three weeks we’ll be leaving the Kootenays for the warm, and fabulously long, growing season of the west coast.

Isolation for this years grow-outs is also in full swing, and it’s just a matter of time before all the veggies ripen and are harvested. Stay tuned to the current seeds for distribution list to see what will be available in fall 2010/winter 2011.

If it’s a little quiet around here the next few weeks, never fear, we’re just in the throws of moving. We’ll be back with updates and more information soon!

Another weekly update from your friendly neighbourhood seed bank!

Things haven’t moved as quickly as I generally would have liked the past week or so. Lots of new developments, personally and with the seed bank.

But there are some new articles up for you to peruse if you want:

That’s all for now, more announcements coming in the next week.

Well, there’s been lots of bank-end stuff going on this week, so not too many new changes to the website.

I however am extremely excited to be finished importing all the data into our new database! This will make keeping track of the seeds about 1000 times easier then keeping it all in a spreadsheet like I’ve been doing for the past year and a half. When I first started this bank I had no idea how fast it could grow, and how many awesome people there are wanting to donate to the bank.

I even finished up a simple report, in a handy .pdf format. While I’m working on getting all the information up on the website of all the different varieties in the bank, sometimes a handy pdf is easier to read.

As for the articles this week, we have one new one up. It’s a simple chart, on what plant species will cross-pollinate with others. It’s a handy guide so if you’re saving seed, you can look up to see what other plants (mostly weeds) will cross pollinate with what you’re trying to save.

More articles coming up this week, along with some new exciting announcements within the next month.

Busy week this week. With summer (finally!) taking off, and hot weather upon us, I’m rushing around isolation and coaxing the tomatoes for seed into the seed bank.

I’m also very excited to announce that I’m in discussions with two other seed banks – both also located in Canada (one local to me, the other is the seed library run by Seeds of Diversity) so we can work together with distributing varieties and backing up each others stock to ensure safe preservation of our varieties. More news on this later, but I’m extremely excited about this new development!

There have been two new additions to the seed bank this week:

Thank you to the donors of that seed!

A few new articles up this week as well:

Three or four new articles will be popping up over the week as well, stay tuned for those.

I would also like to announce that one of the varieties the Populuxe Seed Bank is sheparding this year, the Slocan Snow Peas is finally starting to flower! I’m very much looking forward to seeing how this variety tastes.

Until next time!