Survival seed banks are good… but…
Because there has to be a “but”, right?
I recently read a good article on a very popular, well-run prepper site which extolled the virtues of survival seed banks. It’s a good article, and I’m throwing a link in right here for you to check it out.
But…
There’s something seriously missing from the article that I want to talk about, and that’s the fact that while Spice and I think that it is critically important to have, that seed bank will do you very little good unless you have the ground, the preparation, the gardening supplies, the knowledge and (likely) the water to make it all work.
Let’s look at the challenges of using a Survival Seed Bank
First, let’s just do a quick run through of the challenges of actually using these seeds if you are not currently a gardener.
- You have seeds, but you don’t have ground prepared to put them in. This means that you are going to have to clear off an appropriate amount of land and till it somehow. Do you have the tools you need? Do you have a tiller? I’ve dug garden plots with a spade, and it’s not for the faint of back or the short on time. Re-digging a former garden with a spade is much more doable.
- Unless you are exceedingly fortunate, your land will need some work the first year in preparing it and fertilizing it. You may live in prime truck food production country and just need to till and grow, but chances are you will need to add things such as topsoil and manure or other compost. Gardeners certainly will need to have mulch on hand that’s appropriate for gardening.
- You need a way to start some of your seeds inside unless you are living in the deep South or some other warm area. Without that, your growing season is greatly limited. Also, you will need to know HOW to do this.
- Do all of the seeds you are storing (and if the SHTF, you are betting your life on) grow well in your area? In your soil? With the amount of water, they will likely get? Heirloom seeds do tend to be more challenging and less productive than commercial hybrids — which is why the hybrids are so popular.
- Speaking of water, will you have to water your garden if the SHTF and your life depends on this crop? If so, what are your plans for doing this? Where will the water come from?
- Let’s say you get all of these nice plants planted and happily growing. Is rabbit fencing one of your preps? Do you have a way to keep pests like turtles, squirrels, birds, and groundhogs out of your food?
- Do you know how to prune plants & trees?
- Some fruits and vegetables, when ripe, have a VERY short shelf life. In your preps, do you have a way to preserve them that doesn’t require electricity? Do you have the canning supplies you need? Happen to have an open-air dehydrator, or at least the netting to keep pests off of your drying racks? How are you set for jars, lids, and necessary consumables?
- Do you know how to can fruits and vegetables and/or do you know how to dehydrate them?
- Have you already learned how to collect the seeds from this year’s harvest? Do you know the proper techniques to clean and store them so that they will germinate next season?
Survival Seed Bank in a can
I’ve got several different types of survival seed banks in my supplies. One I see often (since it’s in the pantry with all of my #10 cans is an Augason Farms Vegetable Seeds Supply.
Here’s what the advertising blurb says about it:
I have no idea how good these are, so I also have several other types of storage. (We also have our own seed we save from year to year. I know some of that’s good because we’ve tested out the system.)
In all honesty, I suspect it’s a load of nonsense.
Next spring, I’m planning on opening the can up and giving it a try… finding out what works in my climate and what doesn’t.
The fallacy of instant, just add water food production
Growing food is hard. Oh, the odd plant here and there isn’t; but a garden with a lot of species that must be relied upon to feed you and yours for the next year is hard. Weather, pests, and randomness take their toll (as the time I came home from work to find the roofers had been chucking the old shingles onto my garden). Inexperience and lack of well-prepared ground and ready water supplies magnify the threats.
Knowing how to grow food requires experience. I say this as someone who has learned a lot ‘the hard way’ to get to the place we are now, where most of our year-round veggies come from our garden. Sure, I read up on things before I started … and that was valuable, but no substitute for practical experience.
There’s no time like the present to fail, because if the SHTF failure can kill you. Planning to not fail is wise. Accepting that in a new-to-you, long-term project like food growing that planning might not cover every problem is even wiser. It’s a great time to find out what your plan doesn’t account for.
The Bottom Line
Buying a Survival Seed Bank is a sound idea. The problem comes, of course, with the fact that having seeds is just the smallest part of actually turning those seeds into food in an SHTF situation (or even in an every-year I-want-fresh-veggies situation).
Buying a seed bank and not addressing all of these other issues (and the many more not mentioned) is just another example of the axiom that we have developed here… “You cannot buy your way to preparedness, you have to earn it.”
