Frequently Asked Questions
Requests WITH DONATION typically have a turnaround of 2-10 days from the time we receive your request
Add up to a week in transit, so you should expect to receive seds from us in 1-3 weeks from the time your request was made.
If we get slammed & our wait times exceed this, it will be posted at the top of the main page.
You should email an inquiry with your request info if you made a request accompanied with our suggested minimum donation & have not received seeds within 3 weeks from the time you sent your original request email. If you mailed in a request add another 10 days
Requests WITHOUT DONATIONS are primarily filled in bulk when we have the resources.
It could be 2 days or it could be a few months.
We have a limited amount of time to donate to this,
so please do not email to ask when you will get seeds,
as this could move your request to the back of the line or even cause it to be deleted.
More info about requests without donations can be found further down this page.
How is this possible? -
Free Heirloom Seeds is supported by donations from individuals & small businesses.
All of the donations received are used for producing, acquiring, packing & distributing seeds, so a little goes a long way!
2. How many seeds will I get? -
Seed count varies by variety, based on availability.
You could get as little as 1 seed of a certain variety (extremely rare & will say in the variety description), or hundreds depending on what you request & what's available.
We also hand pack the seeds so count can vary greatly just by chance.
We also have limits to how many seeds we pack because of the way they are shipped
A standard envelope (4-8 packs of seed) cannot weigh more than an ounce, with packing material.
Also envelopes cannot be too thick (more than 1/4") or it risks getting returned for parcel shipping.
Most variety descriptions have estimated quantities listed.
Requests without a donation will usually have 5 packs of seeds, not on our oversized list, providing you gave us 5 selections that are in stock & will not cross pollinate.
If you request without a donation & request seeds that will cross pollinate you may get as few as 3 packs of seed or we may elect to not fill the request.
We offer this service in hopes that people will grow & save pure seed so they can have free seed forever & we prioritize requests wiothout a donation if the seeds requested do not cross pollinate.
3. Where do the seeds come from? -
Some of our seeds we grow or wildcraft, others are donated to us by individuals & businesses, some seeds are "grown out" for us by members of our community & some are purchased from trusted seed producers & packers.
We also admin the Facebook group - Free Heirloom Seeds Community Group. There people can trade seeds freely amongst each other &
we will be using that as one of our tools in our Species Preservation Initiative.
We are creating a database to track who is producing what kind of seeds to help prevent species extinction.
It is our plan that eventually our seed distribution will become more regionally localized by the creation of Species Preservation Living Seed Bank Farms & by inspiring more people to grow & share seeds.
4. Why are there 2 different seed lists? -
USPS will charge a parcel rate if the envelope is not flat enough.
Seeds on our oversized list are too large or too sensitive to be sent in a standard envelope.
The cost for us to pack & send parcels is in excess of $6 currently which is genreally more than we can afford to spend on requests without donations.
If requesting without a donation it is much more likely your request will be filled if you choose only seeds that are not on our oversized list.
As it is, our local post office has identified our packages as carrying seed & demands we pay an extra fee for
hand canceling, for a current shipping cost of $1.27 per envelope, at the time of writing.
We created our suggested donation guidelines to allow us to send you the most possible seed for the least amount
of postage.
We sponsor parcel shipping when we can, but our capacity to send parcels of seeds & pay the $6-10 to do so is very, very limited.
When you submit your request please combine seeds from both lists into a single alphabetical list with 10 codes per line, as described & pictured in our request instructions.
5. How can I grow seeds to support this effort?
Simply put, just do it! Grow any given seed variety with proper isolation from varieties that will cross with one another.
We cannot micromanage others efforts to grow & save seeds.
We make the seeds available & would be thrilled if you grow them out & save seeds from them.
More information about growing seeds to donate to us can be found on our Donate page.
6. How can I get involved? -
We need volunteers from all walks of life & skill sets!
You can join our volunteer list by send us an email that says "volunteer" in the email subject line.
(it may be a while before we get back to you but we will get back to you eventually)
You can also share our link on social media & tell your friends & family about us.
This is a tremendous help & it is very very easy.
The best thing you can do to help this cause,
is to grow a single variety of any given species & save pure seed,
which you can share with this community & your local community.
This can be done on a very small level & those that have access to a couple square feet of dirt & are not saving seeds are missing the most direct opportunity to help this cause
Our 8 year old grows a seed crop of peas every year in a small green space next to a dumpster behind our office.
Anyone can save seeds!!!
We encourage you to join our Species Preservation Initiative by choosing a variety & keeping it going by growing it with proper isolation & saving pure seeds
You can also join our facebook group - Free Heirloom Seeds Community Group
Perhaps the easiest way for many to help is through direct financial support.
We are a small family run service & we give all we can to keep this going.
There is no big money behind this. Your contributions really do make a difference.
every penny helps keep this going!
7. What is a Free Heirloom Seeds Retail Partner & how can my business become one? -
FreeHeirloomSeeds.org is partnering up with small businesses all over the world to offer Free Heirloom Seeds in as many communities as possible!
Retail partners provide promotional & financial support to FreeHeirloomSeeds.org, in turn they are able to be an official distribution location for FreeHeirloomSeeds.org
Distributing seeds for FreeHeirloomSeeds.org is a valuable promotional service that can bring hundreds of new customers into your store, shows that your business cares & gives back to the community,
while also giving you global exposure online & with our promotional tools.
This program is in development & should become active in 2026.
To be notified when we have more info about Free Heirloom Seeds Retail Partnerships simply email us with subject line "retail partner"
All about requests without a donation -
Top Reasons your request without a donation may not get filled -
1. Your request did not say "no donation" in the email subject line.
2. You or your household made multiple requests without a donation in the same year.
3. You did not choose seeds. It costs us about $2 to send these, you must choose at least 5 varieties of seed & substitutes that are not on our oversized list.
4. You chose seeds from our oversized list, which cannot be shipped in a standard envelope & we did not have the resources to grant your request.
5. The seeds you requested are out of stock. List substitutes to avoid this!
6. You ask us to "do" something, other than fill your properly formatted seed request
7. You did not follow our request instructions or format.
8. You sent your request email to the wrong address. It happens. Make sure you typed our email address letter for letter.
9. You chose all seeds that will cross pollinate & are in short supply
10. You sen an inquiry about your request without a donation & used the time we had set aside for your request.
Requests without a donation, are filled when we have the time & money to cover your postage.
The last few years, requests without a donation made between December & February, have been filled in bulk in March & April.
We suggest making your request without a donation between June & November for the fastest service.
We will likely not fill a request without a donation from someone who also made a request with a donation.
Priority is given to those that cannot afford to donate.
Priority is also given to requests without a donation that do not request seeds that will cross pollinate.
We want you to save seeds, that is why we do this, so you can have free seeds forever.
If you request all seeds that will cross pollinate we may not fill your request or we may only send you 3 packs of seed.
When we get multiple requests in the same calendar year without a donation from the same person, or going to the same address, we may block them.
We have limited resources to do this & give priority to those requesting one envelope per year.
If you send us an inquiry asking where your request without a donation is, we will search the name & then when we see that it was a request without a donation we will erase both emails. No one is getting paid to open your email & search for you.
We will open one email to fill a request without a donation, if you send multiple emails it will absorb the resources that otherwise would have been used to get you seeds.
If you send a request without a donation & it does not say "no donation" in the email subject line, we will search for a donor & if we do not find one, the request will be moved into a folder for incomplete requests. In order to join the que for seeds without a donation your email absolutely must say "no donation" in the email subject line.
Failure to write "no donation" in the email subject line wastes our time & you will not get seeds.
Please, do not include detailed hard luck stories & ignore our request guidelines.
The way to get seeds is to follow our request instructions, doesn't matter if you are rich or poor.
We offer this service to everyone & all we ask is that you follow our request instructions.
We rarely have the resources to send seeds from our oversized list in a request without a donation.
It's $6 average in shipping alone to send more than 8 packs of seeds or even just 1 pack of seed from our oversized list.
If you request oversized seeds & they get put into your envelope, it will get returned, we will have wasted our time & the $2+ it costs us to pack & send an envelope.
We try to get at least 5 packs of seed per request without a donation, & will sometimes send up to 8 packs.
If you request all of one variety, example would be a no donation request for 4 varieties of tomatoes, you will probably only get 3 packs.
Some extreme cases we may not send the request at all, if you are requesting 4 poppy varieties, for example.
The reason for this, is that poppies will cross with one another & we will run out of them.
By requesting multiple varieties of an outbreeding plant, it tells us, you are not likely to save seeds & are also not likely in a tight spot, where you really need these seeds. Since this is a variety we, as of yet, cannot keep in stock, we would prefer getting the seeds to someone who has a higher chance of saving seed from what we send.
Priority is given to those that request seeds that will not cross pollinate.