8 January 2025 | A recent workshop at Kickstart Arts in New Town brought together Landcare nursery volunteers and community members to learn tips and tricks on native seed collection and propagation in an engaging and fun learning environment.

Nothing beats getting hands-on when it comes to learning and this principle applied in the workshop, which saw everyone rolling up their sleeves and getting busy examining wild specimens to better understand native plants and collecting their seed. Examining seed samples up close gave participants the opportunity to explore the amazing diversity in seed shapes and sizes.

Facilitated by the Ruth Mollison (environmental consultant and seed propagator extraordinaire), we welcomed 40 participants, including volunteers from the three volunteer nurseries around southern Tasmania: the Understorey Network in Glenorchy, Nipaluna Nursery in New Town and the Huon Valley Landcare Nursery in Huonville. Other attendees were community members interested in collecting and/or growing plants for revegetation projects for their Landcare group or on their own property.

Ruth's depth of knowledge around native seed collecting, storing, and propagating is hard to match, and we feel lucky that she is keen to share these skills.

She shared her experience on how to tell if seed is ripe and how to carefully extract seed from ripe capsules. Another highlight was hearing about how best to store seed once collected, and learning the art of folding your own seed packets and creating fun seed scoops from scrap paper. 

Ruth Mollison from Island Seeds and The Understorey Network, shared her insights on the best places to collect seed, when to collect seed, how to process and store seed and the legalities around seed collection. Photo credit: Landcare Tasmania.

Some key learnings from the workshop were:

• You need a permit to collect seed from threatened species, even on your own land. 
• Dry your seeds really well before storing. Humidity will kill your seeds.
• Storing seeds: store bags of seeds in a plastic tub with silica gel in the container. Always store seeds in paper bags not plastic bags.
• Carry a GPS or use phone GPS for recording where you have collected. This is required if you get a permit to collect seed from threatened species.
• Only take a maximum of 10% of the seed from an area.
• The best time to collect seed from native plants is from December through to March. 
• Some seeds like acacias and peas have a hard shell called a testa. Their germination can be sped up by pouring near boiling water on them.
• You will get insects with your seed. When cleaning seed, spread them out into a large container and let the insects escape. 
• Local provenance is important, but as the climate changes we may need to reconsider what we are planting where. But for the moment while research is still being conducted, collecting seeds from within 10 kilometres of where you plant is best practice.

Want to find out more?

Join the Native Seed Collectors Network Facebook group. Open to anyone with an interest in native seed collection, no experience required!

Read more on our Seed Resilience Project. 

This workshop was delivered as part of our community outreach and landscape restoration programs, with funding from the State Government's Landcare Action Grants Round 7.