National Seed Swap Day is coming up on January 25, 2025! As someone who has participated in several seed exchanges, I can tell you it’s one of the most rewarding ways to connect with fellow gardeners and expand your garden’s diversity.

This year, I’m sharing everything I’ve learned to help you organize your own successful exchange.

Why I Love Seed Exchanges

I’ve discovered so many benefits since I started participating in seed swaps. Beyond building my seed inventory, I’ve made wonderful gardening friends and discovered varieties I never knew existed.

In this age of limited diversity in commercial agriculture, I believe participating in this age-old swapping practice is one of the easiest and most fun ways to help the environment while expanding our gardens.

Documentation: What to Include With Your Seeds

Through trial and error, I’ve learned that good documentation makes all the difference in a successful seed swap. When packaging seeds for sharing, always include:

• The variety name and the year they were collected or purchased.
• Add growing instructions including planting depth, spacing needs, and sunlight requirements.
• If the variety has an interesting history or special growing quirks, make sure to note those too.

Seed Quality: What I’ve Learned About Sharing

The quality of seeds we share matters tremendously. I’ve found that different types of seeds remain viable for varying lengths of time. In my experience, tomatoes and pepper seeds stay viable for 4-5 years when properly stored, while onions and parsley seeds are best used within 1-2 years.

Before sharing any seeds, you might want to perform a simple germination test.

• It’s easy – just place ten seeds between damp paper towels, keep them warm, and check daily for about a week.
• Only share seeds if at least 75% germinate.
• Store all seeds in a cool, dry place and use moisture-proof containers to maintain their viability.

What you need to host a seed exchange

You don’t need a lot to host your own seed exchange – but there are a few things you will need:

1. Seeds – either seeds you have saved yourself or seeds you have in abundance. If you save your own seeds, make sure they are from open-pollinated plants. Heirloom varieties are also fantastic for saving, but you cannot legally save GMO seeds.

You should also be careful if you’re saving seeds from hybrid plants because they might not reproduce true. As long as you don’t mind a little mystery, that’s fine. But if you are swapping seeds with a group of people, it might be a better idea to pass along seeds where you’re assured of the outcome. Read more about the different types of seeds here.

If you don’t have any seeds, you can always order seeds from your favorite seed supplier and share that way.

2. Envelopes or some sort of seed storage method. Feel free to download my seed saving envelope! It’s free for blog subscribers and works very well for seed exchanges.

3. A seed swapping group of friends

Finding Swap Partners: Building Your Garden Community

If you’re wondering where to find people for your seed swap, start with your friends! That’s what I did. Local friends are convenient for in-person swaps, but I’ve had great success with mail-based exchanges too. I found my current swap group on Instagram, and it’s been wonderful.

How to Exchange Seeds Through the Mail

To host a seed swap through the mail, first decide on the number of participants. The group can be as big or as small as you’d like. I think ten is a good number, but it’s your call!

1. Find participants – social media is a great place to find willing friends. Asking a couple people to join in is a great way to start. Then, perhaps they know people who’d also like to participate. 
2. Decide how many people you’d like in your group. How many is too many? How many is not enough?
3. Decide on a host. Who should compile all the seeds and take responsibility for mailing them back out?
4. Decide on a date – when would you like to have all the seeds?
5. Decide on a fee – should everyone contribute a little bit of money to cover shipping and envelopes? $5 per person covered  envelope purchase and postage for our little group of 11.
6. Decide on a minimum amount of seeds. Ideally, you’ll send enough seeds to each person so they have a reasonable amount to grow the crop. Good guidelines might be 15 to 25 seeds for smaller crops (beans, corn, flowers, herbs, etc); 5 or so for larger crops like pumpkins or squash.
7. Make sure your seed packets are secure so seeds don’t fall out during mailing. It might be a good idea to add a little extra tape just to be safe!

Ready to Start Your Own Swap?

I’ve made my seed packet template available to all my blog subscribers – it’s perfect for organizing your seeds for exchange.

Simply subscribe to the blog and get instant access to my free seed saving envelope!

I’d love to hear about your seed swapping experiences in the comments below! Have you participated in a seed exchange before? What interesting varieties have you discovered through swapping?

Have you participated in a seed exchange? I’d love to hear about your experience!

If you liked this post on seed swaps, you might like these posts too:

Everything you need to know about starting seeds 

How to Grow a 3 Sisters Garden

How to Store Seeds

11 Tomato Growing Tips