What to look for when buying seeds for a wholesaler

When buying seeds from wholesaler, seeds are sold by weight. Seeds are mostly described with the following terms :

Common name

Some common names of tree species would be : maple, pine, boxwood.

Latin name

Latin name of the previous mentionned would be : acer for maple, pinus for pine and buxus for boxwood. These latin names constitute the scientific name for each species.

After the description section, the next information are the technical ones. First, every supplier will have a monitor measure. Two measures are commonly used. The first is the count of seeds per pounds, and the second is the weigth per thousand seeds.

Purity

Purity is expressed in %, and it represent the number of seeds versus the number of debris (dead leaves, stem) in the batch of seeds.

Germination rate

Germination rate is also expressed in %, it represent the number of seeds that will germinate with proper condition.

Origin / source

The origin and source will determine the country the seeds originate from, where they were collected. Some supplier will also list the state or province of origin.

Growing info

Growing info will refer to the needed condition for germination. Common details are, pre-treatment, such as scarification and stratification, both hot or cold, and sowing technique.

Common use

Supplier will often state the common uses or classification of species. For example, you could find all of the following : Edible Fruit/Nuts · Fall Color · Medicinal · Rootstock · Shade Tree · Urban Tolerant · Tree · Poisonous · bonsai · Drought Tolerant.

Conditions of seeds

You can get, winged or dewinged, refering to seeds who grows with a wing or two. Usually, dewinged seeds cost more, since they require an additionnal step of preparation before they are sold.

You can get clean or uncleaned seeds. This usually happens with seeds that come from fruit trees. A clean will have the pulp of the fruit remove, while an uncleaned seeds will almost come with the complete fruit.

You can also come across green or dry seeds. Green seeds are the freshiest. The supplier have skip drying the seeds for proper storage and is selling untreated seeds. A dry seeds is not completly dry, but rather as a 5-8% humidity rate. The treatment is done to prevent decay of seeds in a shelflife. It mainly prevent rot.