Organic gardeners use untreated open-pollinated seed. Open-pollinated seed varieties are selected for vigour, nutrient levels and flavour. Your students can save mature seeds from these species because they reproduce true to type. The benefit of saving seed from your own crops is that the seed will have come from plants that have adapted to your local climate and soil conditions.
This program includes a lesson on saving seed, so check before purchase that seed is open-pollinated because hybrid seed can't be saved. See Easy Organic Gardening and Moon Planting pp 138-140 for information on different types of seed.
Open-pollinated vegetable, herb, flowering annual and green manure seeds are available from a range of suppliers, including those on the list provided with this program (see link below). Seed packets are approximately $3.00-$4.25 each. Try to include a few seasonal flowering annual plants in your school garden. Flowering plants encourage beneficial insects to make regular visits to gardens.
Some suppliers have on-line catalogues for easy browsing. The eastern mainland states of Australia can order seed by mail from other states if there are no local suppliers, but Tasmania and Western Australia have restrictions on some species of seed. Suppliers for Tasmania and Western Australia are listed separately.
You will need a small quantity of vegetable seeds, and a few corn and pea or bean seeds to conduct the experiments in Lessons 1 and 2.
Click here for a list of Open-pollinated Seed Suppliers in Australia