Professional Growers

Bulk Seed Program

Superior to Conventionally-Grown Seeds
Planting organic seeds is best for the environment, because no pesticides were used in seed production. It allows you to utilize germplasm grown on organic farms and selected for adaptability to organic growing conditions. A 100% organic farm is the key to a healthy soil, a healthy ecosystem and sustainable agriculture—and nobody knows organic seeds as well as we do.

Commitment to Open-Pollinated Seeds
At Seeds of Change, we practice and encourage conservation by selling open-pollinated seeds that reproduce true to form... helping to preserve genetic diversity worldwide. Yet we realize hybrids also have their place on organic farms—so we offer the most exceptional hybrid varieties that organic growers have asked for.

Many Heirloom and Traditional Varieties
You'll find many rare varieties that have been saved for generations in this catalog. With good reason - all have treasured traits that are well worth preserving, and all convey exceptional flavor and aroma from the field to the table.

Total Control from Our Fields to Yours
Unlike some companies who merely repackage organic seeds from wholesalers, we monitor every step of our seed production—through our network of highly-skilled organic seed farmers across the country.

Extensive Breeding and Variety Trials
Just north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Seeds of Change staff cultivates over a thousand varieties of vegetables, flowers, and herbs. Every year we rigorously evaluate hundreds of new varieties from around the world along with our own on our research farm, working organic farms, and university-based trials. We continually monitor and trial our varieties to develop superior traits and adaptability to a wide range of growing conditions.

Our Growers, Chefs, and Distributors Network
Seeds of Change sponsors regular events that link the farmers who plant our seeds with the distributors and chefs who bring their produce to market. We make certain our varieties flourish not only in the field, but also in gourmet marketplaces and the finest restaurants. Make us your partner for crops that deliver the flavor, fragrance, and beauty that keep your customers coming back.

Just as the earliest farmers selected seeds from their best plants to assure an improved harvest for the following year, we work hard to bring the best seed possible to organic farmers to assure success with their crops. Every year our extensive research program evaluates hundreds of new and interesting plant varieties from around the world. When we find one we think is worth preserving, we often work to improve the selected strain before we begin production. Over the past four years Seeds of Change has established a network of organic farmers who trial Seeds of Change varieties on their farms.

Throughout each growing season, a representative from Seeds of Change visits each field to collect data and evaluate the performance of each variety with the grower. The farmers compare varieties from Seeds of Change with other commercially available varieties and provide feedback on the varieties' performance. The field evaluations focus on agronomic traits such as:

• plant vigor
• pest and disease resistance
• yield

• superior flavor
• attractive appearance
• varietal integrity (trueness of type).

The on-farm trials represent a variety of climatic and cultural growing conditions, from moist, cool conditions along the Pacific coastline to extremely dry summer heat of central California. This allows us to test a variety's performance in a range of environmental settings and various bioregions.

Recognizing that flavor is the essential quality that keeps farmers' customers coming back, we work with specialty produce distributors and professional chefs—in addition to growers—to evaluate our varieties. The goal is to identify varieties that deliver flavor while meeting market demands. Consider tomatoes. Uniform, shippable produce is often a first consideration for a conventional grower and distributor. Whereas, by working with our network of specialty produce distributors and chefs, Seeds of Change evaluates the acidity, sweetness and subtle flavors of varieties such as Marvel Striped, Zapotec Pleated and Red Calabash tomatoes to determine their best applications in the kitchen and on menus. When produce is harvested in our farmer network field trials, it is delivered to our chefs' kitchens. Utilizing their expert palates, our chef network participants will evaluate produce on its culinary attributes, from cooking performance and texture to aroma and taste. After all, you can't compare apples to oranges—or tomatoes for that matter, and each variety needs to be evaluated on the attributes and characteristics that define and distinguish it.

Trial crop evaluations are an ever-evolving process. Data from our entire farmer and chef network, combined with research conducted at our research farm in New Mexico, as well as other cooperating university trials in other parts of the country, directs our bulk seed catalogue offerings. The process can take years of selection and seed saving to achieve a line that's performance-worthy both in the field and in the kitchen. But we believe it's worth it.

We work continually to maintain and improve our current Seeds of Change offerings while developing and introducing new and improved varieties. Through concerted efforts between our certified organic seed growers and our research staff, varieties are evaluated in our seed production fields annually and rigorously rogued to maintain trueness of type and desirable traits. In addition, both at our Research Farm and in our seed growers’ fields, we are working on a number of plant variety improvement projects conducted with traditional plant breeding techniques. Variety improvement projects include, selection for optimal fruit or leaf shape, color and texture, disease resistance, higher yields and optimum plant architecture. Please look for variety descriptions and highlights in our eNewsletters of improved strains and Seeds of Change original varieties.

In addition to our on-farm trials, we are working closely with a number of universities through out the U.S. to conduct a series of randomized, replicated field trials to evaluate the quality of our strains with others, as well as to explore possible new germplasm to extend our collection. Data collected from these trials will aid us in offering the highest quality germplasm and further our informational offerings to the grower in regards to yield, post-harvest handling capacity, taste etc.

1. 100% Certified Organic: All Seeds of Change Seed is certified organic in our growers’ fields. Additionally, our seed cleaning facility and our storage and packing facility are certified organic by Oregon Tilth.
2. Clean Seed: All Seeds of Change seed is scrutinized by our highly skilled seed cleaning staff and cleaned in our own seed cleaning facility. Every seed lot sold in units 1lb or greater are additionally tested by a professional seed testing laboratory for purity regarding debris and weed seed. In addition, our seeds are evaluated to meet and exceed the USDA standards regarding weed seed specifications.
3. High Germination Rates: All of our seed is germination tested every six months by a professional seed testing laboratory. We maintain high standards for germination rates exceeding the USDA requirements. All bulk seed is labeled with the percent germination on the package so growers know exactly what they are planting.
4. Seed Born Disease Prevention: We are currently testing a selection of our varieties for pertinent seed borne diseases and investigating disease-preventing seed treatments. We are acting cautiously by not offering crops that we feel need further testing before sale. Our seed growers are primarily located in areas with low disease pressures and our seed crops are inspected in the field to ensure the absence of seed borne diseases before harvest. We are continually developing disease prevention protocols with our seed growers.
5. GMO Free: All of our corn seed is tested by a professional seed testing laboratory to ensure it is GMO free.
6. Quality Assurance from Seed to Seed: We perform on-farm audits of our seed growers to ensure that appropriate organic production techniques are being used as well as identifying any possible genetic or quality contamination issues.

Answers and Advice:
Our toll-free GrowerLine, 1-866-339-3876, is available to answer questions and provide technical support for professional growers. Whether you have questions about our varieties or are looking for planting recommendations please call us. Calls are answered by our research farm staff, so if you don't reach someone immediately please leave a detailed message and the best number to reach you. Like you, they may be out in the field, but will call back with advice within 72 hours.

Agronomic Information:
Success in organic crop management requires extensive knowledge. Much of that knowledge is gained through experience, but helpful guidance from other growers, university based researchers, and field professionals can prove invaluable. To this end we've developed agronomic growing guides for each major vegetable crop to support professional organic growers in the field. Please look for our agronomic guides throughout our 2006 Professional Seed catalog and in the Growing Information and Resources section of our website.