Stockpiling Seeds For a Doomsday Event

Let's take a few minutes and talking about stockpiling seeds for a doomsday event. for people who are new to stockpiling seeds, I am going to keep this real simple.

Heirloom / open pollinated - Bear true to form. Meaning, if the seeds are saved and planted, the resulting plant will be just like the parent.

Hybrid Seeds - Cross pollinated between two related plants. The seeds can be saved from the cross pollinated plant, but the child may or may not be like the parents. Saved seeds from hybrids may or may not be like the parents, may be sterile... chances are will not bear true to form.

There is a misconception that stockpiling hybrid seeds are bad. Hybrids can sometimes be more drought, pest and disease resistant than their parents. It is perfectly fine to stockpile hybrid seeds, just realize saving the seeds is a gamble.

GMO Seeds - Modified on the genetic level.

Growing Period

I like plants that produce over a period of time, such as:

• Peppers
• Okra
• Tomatoes
• Spinach
• Snap Beans
• Squash
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers

Crops such as corn are harvested, then the plant dies.

In a letter my great aunt wrote my grandmother in the late 1940s, my great aunt told my grandmother to get rid of her rabbits and plant some asparagus. The logic being, my my grandfather and dad could hunt rabbits, so there was no need in having them. On the other hand, asparagus would make a good side dish for a meal.

Whole Plant is Edible

How much of the plant is edible? Take corn for example, just a small portion is the plant is edible, while a whole radish is edible.

Would we rather grow a doomsday crop where most of the water, time, effort, fertilizer is thrown away, or a crop where the whole plant is edible?

Examples include:

• Radishes
• Turnip greens
• Rutabaga

My aunt use to boil the whole radish plant, greens and root.

High Fertilizer Requirements

While corn is idolized because it was grown by native Americans and can be used for so much, todays corn is different than yesterdays corn.

While stockpiling seeds for a Doomsday / SHTF event, I would avoid stockpiling too much corn, and crops such as watermelon. Stockpile corn, cantaloupes, watermelons.. etc, but realize they have high fertilizer requirements.

Plant Nutrition

Look for seeds that are packed with nutrients.

Examples include:

• Squash
• Zucchini
• Spinach
• Beans
• Peas
• Asparagus
• Tomatoes

Beans are a wide range of crops - pinto, contender, roma II, blue lake bush.. etc. They are probably the perfect seeds for a doomsday / SHTF situation.

Canning / Preserving

While squash has been mentioned several times, squash can not be canned.

Canning examples:

• Beans
• Peas
• Corn
• Peppers
• Okra
• Asparagus

Those can all be canned or pickled.

Beans, peas, peppers and corn can be dried.

There are some plants which are best eaten fresh, such as greens, spinach, squash and zucchini.

Storing Doomsday Seeds

When stockpiling seeds for a doomsday / SHTF event, put the seed packets in a freezer grade ziplock bag, get as much of the air out as you can, then store the bag in the freezer.

How long will seeds last? See this thread on Germinating Decade Old Seeds.

I took seeds that had been bought in 2007, germinated them in 2017, and grew a garden with them.

Final Thoughts

Here we are on July of 2018 and the big box stores will be putting the seeds on deep discount.

In 2017 I bought a bunch of seeds from the Dollar Store that had been marked down to 25 cents a packet. The packets were organized by type, or by season, placed in one gallon ziplock bags, then put in the deep freezer.

For example:

Spices, such as peppers and cilantro are in one bag.

Fall crops, such as winter squash, greens and onions are in a bag together.

Tomatoes are all in a single bag.

Various spring / summer crops, such as peas are in a bag.

I think that should be good for now. Please share your thoughts and suggestions.

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Stockpiling Seeds For a Doomsday Event