The Whole Kids Foundation has a collection of garden resources.

Collecting and storing seeds

• If you want to store seeds at home, you can see if the Kew Botanical Gardens Seed Information Database has advice. Different kinds of seeds can call for different storage methods. (Note: this particular resource is favored by our Seed Conservation Lab and is fairly technical. See the “mini-seedbank guidelines” below for help in decoding the information provided)
• Tips for saving vegetable seeds from the University of Minnesota. Includes advice for common vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, peas, and beans. Talks about how to harvest and store seeds as well as which plants are likely to give useful seed.
• Mini-seedbank guidelines (PDF) from the Kohala Center. Includes detailed how-to guide for the interested amateur, including tips for “decoding” information from the Kew Botanical Gardens Seed Information Database (linked above).
• To delve deeper, check out Saving Seeds (PDF) from CTAHR. It is more technical than the above resources and goes more into detail about the biology of seeds.
• Obtaining Seeds and Plants for Conservation (PDF) from CTAHR. Covers importation concerns and advises on where to buy seeds for Hawaiʻi.

CTAHR Home Gardening Series

CTAHR (UH’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources) has started a series about starting your own home garden, even if you live in an apartment.

• Article: Micro-hydroponics in your Apartment. UH News has an accompanying article, “Farm at Home“
• Article: DIY Container Gardening in Small Spaces
• Article: Potting Mix, Fertilizer, and Irrigation
• Article: Container Gardening in Small Spaces
• Article: Need Seeds? Check out the seeds from CTAHR
• Article: Where to Plant Your Home Garden
• Article: What’s Easy to Grow, Healthy, and Tasty? Beans!
• Article: Microgreens: the Perfect Indoor Crop
• Article: Edible Flowers? Yes!
• Article: Put Your Garden to Bed (Raised beds are a good option for home gardens if your soil is poor or you want to grow over concrete)
• Article: Germination is a Beautiful Thing
• Article: Hydroponics vs aquaponics
• Article: Fast Green Food (Grow a salad bowl in your backyard)
• Article: the Case for Collard Greens
• Article: Small, Cryptic, and Devastating (Recognize the pests that threaten your backyard garden)

Other gardening resources

The CTAHR Master Gardener website is filled with useful resources for gardeners in our state.

Check out the informative videos by Dr. Eric Brennan. He’s a graduate of University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s CTAHR! He made a playlist of videos about elementary school gardens.

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