When it comes to those emergency variety seeds, what emergency is that for?

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nak00010101@reddit

I chuckle at folks that want to buy "emergency seeds" so they can survive...

Unless you have magic, super rich, bottomland soil, it can take. A couple of years work to get garden plot soil in good shape. Now take into consideration the knowledge and skill needed to successfully garden.

If you want to grow food to survive, do it now. Get your plot established. Figure out wha grows well in your area, in each season. You are going to want to stick with crops you do not need to water or can haul water for.

Figure out composting and dealing with bugs and birds without chemicals

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KimBrrr1975@reddit

I would not do something like this. What grows where you are can be pretty particular. For example my growing season is only 90 days, so I have to choose varieties that cater to our short season. I buy heirloom seeds for some things but I get them from a regional small farm who knows what grows here. Then I just keep seeds from the food going forward.

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mexican-street-tacos@reddit

1) Seeds decrease in germination rate over time, so you can't really buy them and save them for some time in the future.

2) You only want seeds that grow in your region/zone. So one size fits all seeds won't work too well.

3) Gardening is hard and requires experience to be successful. Different plants have different needs as far as light, temperature, nutrition, and keeping away pests. If you don't have experience with these things, the likelihood of you planting some random seeds and growing them successfully is slim.

Gardening is a good (and rewarding) skill to have. But you need to work on that skill.

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

Here is the problem.

The people who buy these seeds mostly don't know much, if anything, about farming, and if they do, they don't really know about subsistence farming. This isn't something that you are likely to learn effectively the first year and end up with a bountiful harvest. This is something you need to be doing ahead of time.
Even if you hit it just right, and plant in the spring, it's going to be fall before you harvest most of the plants. If you're unlucky and whatever stops the food coming happens in the late summer, you'll have at least a year before you harvest. So you'll likely need something like at least a year of food to sustain you, and probably more like two.
Not all plants grow well in all places, so you have to know what will thrive. This is kind of a restatement of point 1.
You're going to have two and four legged animals pilfering your food as its growing, something you're going to have to watch out for. And you may end up with a disease or infestation that kills many of your plants anyway.

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iambecomesoil@reddit

The biggest thing I've learned GARDENING (because it isn't farming at this scale) is that you can be pretty good at growing some things naturally in your climate, soil, etc. and some things just aren't going to happen easily for you.

That's why I don't try growing blueberries here. It doesn't work out for me so why waste money and resources. Potatoes, tomatoes, etc. grow wonderfully.

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

No, if you're planning on living off it, it's farming. There is no such thing as "subsistence gardening". It's "subsistence farming".

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iambecomesoil@reddit

I don't know who you think you are correcting when I'm speaking for myself and my own experiences.

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gonyere@reddit

Yes. No one is going to avoid an "emergency" food situation with seeds. Especially if they haven't been gardening for a while. Growing things is HARD.

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JRHLowdown3@reddit

This. Plus 1

Opening up your "survival garden in a #10 can" seeds on Day 7 of the pokey'lips isn't going to guarantee anyone a garden.

Basically if your not producing a fair amount of your own food NOW, don't expect to be after the fact.

It took us roughly SIX YEARS boots on the ground at our retreat to start producing roughly 50% or so of our own food and that included most of our own veggies and fruits and all of our meats. SIX YEARS and over 100 fruit trees, about an acre in total garden area, rabbits, chickens, goats and bees.

The lesson- take Food Storage SERIOUSLY. Put up another couple years of basic grains.

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

Thanks. Yeah, this kind of thing is obvious to me, and I don't grow any of my own food.

One other thing I didn't mention: Growing food in contaminated soil, like for instance after a nuclear war, is going to likely be a bad thing. You probably aren't going to be able to effectively get rid of all of the longer-life isotopes in the soil. That's a lot of work to move the top few inches of dirt by hand over enough acreage to produce enough food.

Isotopes like Iodine-131 is short lived enough that probably not an issue, with a half-life of just 8 days. The distaffbopper had to take a dose of that for her thyroid cancer, and I ended up having to stay away for the weekend, and I had to sleep on the couch for a week after that.

Strontium-90 has a half-life of 29 years, and it chemically mimics calcium so ends up in your bones.

Setting that aside, you've got to harvest, and that's when you need all hands on deck. Plus some. People used to have large families to help with that, and they used to use draft animals for things like plowing and hauling.

I haven't seen a horse or ox plowing except on TV programs, and I grew up in farm country.

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JRHLowdown3@reddit

There is some ways to mitigate things to a degree. Liming heavily helps with some of this. I believe some of this is covered in "Long term effects of nuclear war" by Glasstone which is a must read on this subject.

Also found some old CD slide lectures on agriculture after a nuclear attack in the early 2000's that were pretty good- actually bought a slide projector to watch them!!

We keep about a dozen old billboard vinyls around, they are large heavy duty tarps. We use those as row covers not to kill off weeds in an area before working the area. Given a little notice we will cover all the soil we can in established areas with them to keep physical fallout from landing on the soil.

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Momma-Tee@reddit

I purchased those during COVID. They were so cool! Everything grew! I had melons and turnips, onions, and more tomatoes and cukes then we could eat! The next spring, most of it grew back! If they are heirloom, the seed can be reused.

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MerelyMortalModeling@reddit

I would exactly call them a scam but they do seem largely about separating fools from their money.

I mean if the apocalypse happens and your survive depends on a stash of emergency seeds you are already Capital F er, fricked.

If you know how to garden you should already have a collection of local seeds with high sprout rates. If you don't know how to garden learning to when your life depends on it is probably going to end up with you being dead.

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Rachaelmm1995@reddit

Just regular seeds of quick growing fruit/veg kept in the freezer will do the same job.

Alternatively, plant the fruit trees now. Chuck some potatoes in the ground. Let the brambles grow.

Don’t wait for shtf.

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academiccatastrophe@reddit

I didn't know about the freezer! Does that keep them viable longer?

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Ryan_e3p@reddit

I recommend avoiding those. They may include seeds that are not viable, seeds for plants that can't grow in your zone, etc.

Figure out what you want to plant in the future, and practice now. Learn about the entire lifecycle of the plant, including how to propagate it.

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Mellema@reddit

Yeah. Just go to your local seed store or greenhouse. I buy from the bulk bins mostly at a feed store I can walk to. They stock what's good for my area. I buy enough for multiple sowings and certain seeds I keep enough for a couple years.

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hoardac@reddit

Yeah for 20 bucks you can get enough to go a few years.

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mro2352@reddit

Seeds tend to have a drop off in viability. If the kit is to set and forget then it won’t work but if you are actively using the seeds you will not need the kit. Structurally they are pointless.

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BendyBreak_@reddit

A long term breakdown in the food supply chain

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dottedllama@reddit

You will struggle to germinate seeds more than a year old. Finding that out during SHTF would be rather shite. 0/10 don't recommend.

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green_tree@reddit

I think these are mostly a scam. Rather, learn to garden and save seeds yourself. That might be on a big scale or that might be starting a few herbs in your kitchen window.

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Climax_crescendo@reddit (OP)

Ok thank you! Part of me did wonder if it was a scam.

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Federal_Refrigerator@reddit

Emergency are regular seeds that grow at a regular rate and have a regular likelihood of successful harvest, except you pay extra for them and you set them on a shelf to collect dust instead of actually planting them.

Its motto should be: “emergency seeds, because if you need them in an emergency: they’re still just going to be seeds.”

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Abuck59@reddit

🤣 Yup

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ishootthedead@reddit

Makes a fine gift for those who shop at the Patriot store and keep gold bars "just in case"

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Federal_Refrigerator@reddit

They’ll keep them next to the 10 crappy “emergency food kits” they got from Walmart 10 years ago and never bothered to check or try even one tub of ever.

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Strazdiscordia@reddit

Older seeds are way harder to sprout, they’re viable for up to 3 years or so. I’ve label all my seeds with the year I got them to keep track and try to plant as much as I can each year so they dont go to waste

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Federal_Refrigerator@reddit

This is how someone who wouldn’t buy “emergency seeds” would do things. Good job!

I think the best way to prepare for tomorrow is by starting yesterday, if you get my meaning. Love that you are already implementing sustainable choices!

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mediocre_remnants@reddit

It's not really a scam, they are selling viable seeds. But the idea that you can go from no gardening experience to growing all of your own food - in an emergency - is just absurd.

Gardening is hard. Most people completely fuck it up the first time they try to grow vegetables on their own. If you plan to rely on growing your own food due to some catastrophe, you need to start learning now. Just buying seeds and waiting for the right time is just not smart or a useful thing to do.

The seeds that come in these packages might not be suitable at all for your climate and soil. It's best to find which fruits and vegetables and which varieties do best in your particular area. And grow your own and save the seeds from the most vigorous and pest-free/disease-free plants and continue selecting seeds from the best plants year-after-year. All while maintaining garden beds with lots of compost.

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Cabbage_patch5@reddit

Yeah, it’s not a scam because all of the seeds are there.

But if you don’t know how to grow each different variety then it’s not going to help as much as you think it will.

Perhaps it’s a case of overconfidence on the part of the buyer.

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MNConcerto@reddit

Make sure any seed you save isn't a hybrid or else you will get mystery plants.

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Ok-Scar7729@reddit

The reason you want heirloom seeds in an emergency, and that you should use heirloom seeds in general, is that they have two essential qualities that modern seeds do not.

Modern seeds are genetically modified hybrids. They do not produce seeds of their own. You have to buy new seed from the seed company every year. In a disaster where there are supply chain disruptions, the entire genetically modified hybrid seed industry could collapse, and no one would have anything to plant for the next year.

When you plant heirloom seeds, they produce fruits and vegetables containing more seeds. You can collect those seeds and plant them again the next year. That one little can of emergency seeds sitting on your shelf could feed you for the rest of your life.

The heirloom seeds are also much hardier than the modern seeds. Modern seeds are built to rely on pesticides and fertilizer. When you don't have those things, many of those crops cannot survive. Heirloom seeds will grow in poor soil under natural conditions with very little upkeep and maintenance. That is essential in a survival situation.

Finally, the kits contain a well-balanced mix of the types of seeds you need to plant to survive. If s hits the fan and you need to be putting these seeds in the ground, you're not going to have the time to learn gardening, choose your strains and varieties, learn how to tend to each one, and then design your garden beds. You need s you can just throw in the ground and it will do its thing.

I suggest you buy two of those kits. Put one on the shelf, and put one in the ground right now. This is the perfect time of year to plant. Practice gardening. You should not wait till the end of the world to plant your first seed.

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smsff2@reddit

Frankly, it’s hard for me to imagine an emergency situation in which an assorted emergency seed pack would be useful. For example, if trade routes are cut off and supply chains collapse at the end of summer, you would still need enough supplies to last through the winter and into late spring, when you could finally plant those seeds. You would then have to wait until the end of the following summer to see the first harvest.

The bottom line is that, even in the best-case scenario, you would need about a year’s worth of supplies before you could make use of those seeds.

My father was a nuclear scientist, so I know a little bit about this field. I tend to prepare with nuclear war scenarios in mind.

Here are maps of the current climate and projected climate after a nuclear winter begins:

https://openclimatemap.org/

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Surface-Air-Temperature-C-changes-following-a-full-scale-nuclear-war-averaged-for_fig2_237769983

As you can see, the vast majority of currently productive agricultural areas would become unavailable. Interestingly, some regions may remain viable. For example, Buckeye, Arizona, where the current average temperature in July is about 43°C (110°F), is agriculturally productive today. After a nuclear winter, summer temperatures there could drop to a more moderate 20–30°C (70–85°F).

So it’s not that food would be completely unavailable. However, transporting food from newly viable agricultural regions to population centers could be extremely difficult, especially if oil refineries are destroyed.

I avoid assorted seed packs because the people who put them together don’t necessarily have preparedness in mind. Instead, I store specific seeds of my own choosing, particularly cold-hardy varieties, such as true potato seeds. I practice gardening in advance. I may need to relocate to new agricultural areas before I can plant those seeds.

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Eziekel13@reddit

Though would say…that if you are planting seeds, that’s long term planning, and should taken into account crop rotation and cover crops…as with any disruption of ammonium nitrate can make many modern farming practices obsolete…

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JRHLowdown3@reddit

Reason 359 why having more than "2 weeks" of food storage is important. +1

Having a couple years of at the very least an anti starvation diet of basic grains and legumes is important, doesn't cost much and comes in handy in daily usage.

We are rotating some 28 year old rice and making bread with 27 year old hard red wheat and 30 year old dry milk right now.

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HarpyCelaeno@reddit

I saw those and considered buying them. I ordered heirloom seeds from a reputable supplier instead and decided this is the year I start, grow, and harvest my own seeds for future use. This way i’ll know what works and which plants to eliminate from my plans. Would be a bummer to plant a patch of beans I’m really counting on for food only to find that they’re duds or don’t work in my conditions.

Really wish I’d started this a few years ago because there’s a whole system to learn with soil amending, plant timing, backup plans, consistent harvests, storage, etc…

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TheWoman2@reddit

I am going against the flow here and saying they can be useful if you have gardening experience. My husband bought a #10 can of emergency seeds in about 2009, I objected that they were a waste of money. We had a small vegetable garden and several years of experience, but were by no means experts.

Spring 2020, due to obvious reasons, we had concerns about the food supply, and because no one was sure if could be spread by someone coughing on the produce at your grocery store, we decided to live off our food storage for a while. We also though it would be a great opportunity to really test our preps.

We expanded our garden and wouldn't have had enough seeds left over from the previous year. Stores were quickly running out of seeds. We opened the canned seeds and planted the cool season stuff like spinach, lettuce, and peas and in about a month we had all the salad we could eat. It sure tasted better than the dried/canned vegetables we had stored. By the time a lot of other vegetables were ready we were back to buying groceries at the store, but since we had lots of extra time it was still nice to be able to grow stuff all summer.

We used a lot of other seeds from that can, we would have had enough to share with several neighbors if they had been wanting a garden. In fact, I am still using that packet of tomato seeds. What I was most impressed with were the onions. Onions are well known to have terrible germination rates if stored beyond a year, and after a few years you are lucky to get any to grow at all. I don't know how they did it, but those 11 year old onion seeds germinated like fresh seeds.

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JRHLowdown3@reddit

What emergency is that for?

Longer term situations. Some of us still prepare for long term stuff :)

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Climax_crescendo@reddit (OP)

Ah ok that makes sense.

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AlwayInForwardMotion@reddit

Sprouting seeds would be better for getting good nutrition in a pinch. No land required! I think a lot of people would benefit from trying to grow a bucket of those seeds though. Just not in an emergency as their main food supply.

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AlphaDisconnect@reddit

Paw paws. Lots of paw paws. They usually like a low lying think stream area with some shade. Plant it all up and down. It has a short planting season. And an even shorter picking season.

Blackberries. Yes they have thorns. But can be grown in a lot of areas. Salmon berries sometimes too.

So go to your local Amish, Mennonite, or similar heavy farming community. Go to them. They got a hundred years plus on those seeds. They will just work. Now you can have the how do I do this plant conversation. Now you dont just have seeds. You have pro tips, specifically for your local climate.

I would never website seeds. Well maybe the paw paw because they have eluded me. But how do you know the seeds were stored properly?

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Financial_Resort6631@reddit

Most of those seeds are low calorie low nutrients foods like cucumbers.

Find native wild edible species that go gangbusters in your area. Then seed bomb them. Fill local spaces with seeds bombs.

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rbprepin@reddit

Emergency seed packs are primarily intended for individuals who don’t currently garden but believe they can start one if necessary.

The typical scenario involves an economic catastrophe characterized by hyperinflation that has devastated the economy and rendered food unaffordable. In such situations, people resort to gardening to supplement their food supply, much like the Victory gardens during World War II.

The common thought is, “Perhaps I should convert my suburban front yard into a garden,” without realizing that years of using weed killer may not be the ideal soil for growing food. It’s quite amusing.

The seeds themselves aren’t the primary concern. The issue lies in the fact that serious gardeners tend to avoid purchasing seeds from Amazon, and non-gardeners who do buy them often don’t realize that seeds constitute a minuscule portion of the process of growing food.

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TheSensiblePrepper@reddit

The idea is that you're getting several varieties of seeds that will give you a balanced diet. Nothing wrong with that.

The idea of "survival seeds" is a bit of a gimmick. You can have the best seeds in the World, but if you have no idea how to garden, you're not going to make enough food to live without food from "the grid".

I have a small garden I grow every year with my personal favorites and have several trees/bushes that produce food already. If SHTF, I would rip up the grass in my backyard and start planting.

I also have an off-grid property that I contract out to grow cash crops like corn and soy beans. I could also use that land if SHTF for more space.

The best option is to get high quality seeds and plant a garden now. Anything, even just a single tomato plant in a pot is better than nothing.

I personally get all of my seeds from The Seed Guy and couldn't be happier. Amazing, family owned company with great seeds.

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Ancient-one511@reddit

Learn which varieties are well-adapted to your local climate. Concentrate on high-calorie-for-weight items that are simplest to grow, harvest, and store. You're gonna need friends to help out, so you'll wind up sharing. This guy provides a good way to set up a network of friends focused on just this type of effort.

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chattvegas@reddit

Okay, I am going to be the odd man out here apparently.

I’ve bought these before. You get a lot of different seeds and a lot less packaging. Typically they are heirloom varieties which is good!

It’s just seeds, and I’ve grown them, and they grew great. Just stick them in the ground and water.

Usually pretty cheap for what you get. Just as many seeds as a normal pack without all the garbage.

I’m going to buy another, bc ya never know and I can still use them.

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nanneryeeter@reddit

The emergency seems stupid. A seed vault of heirloom seeds could be a good investment for a new gardner.