Hello Richard. I checked out what you wrote on p 1 of the intro section. Sounds like you are juggling three things--taking classes to become a science teacher (presumably in winter), doing gigs as a contract botanist in summer, and gardening and plant breeding in summer. And you mention that the botany contracting often interferes with the gardening or eliminates it, such as when you end up spending all summer out of state. It seems to me that the contract botany and contracting in advance for ungrown seed crops would be incompatible. When you grow on contract for a retail seed company, they are counting on you. They might forgive an occasional crop failure, but not the level of failure to deliver your situation would likely involve.
However, there is no reason you couldn't grow a few likely seed crops without contracts and sell wholesale to retail seed companies without a contract. Retail seed companies usually prefer to buy what they need from inventory anyway, where this is possibe, rather than have to make a special contractual arrangement for the crop, and maybe end up with more or less than they need. However, this leaves you in the situation of gambling, as you may be unable to find a buyer for all or part of your crop. If you go that route, I'd suggest you learn to dry seed well enough for freezing and invest in a freezer just for seed storage. You will also need a good dehydrator.
To sell a dozen or so seed crops wholesale may involve a relationship with only one to a few seed companies. Usually you will need to prove yourself. Or get an intro from someone the seed company trusts.
As for selling packets retail via your own website, you will usually need to spend far more time packing seeds and running the business than growing the seed. And that will interfere with all other winter and summer employment. Very few one person or one family retail seed companies earn as much as a teacher's salary. Maybe none of the dozens I know of. Those that make it out of abject poverty usually struggle more than a decade and have employees before they get there.
Most one family retail seed companies are conducted in addition to a full-time job rather than instead of. Or are started after retirement from a full time job, so there is already a retirement income. Or one of the couple has a full time real job. Or is, indeed, a teacher in winter, and does seeds in summer, and spouse does seeds too. Or were running a farm or market garden already. Selling retail means a lot of work jan thru april filling seed orders in addition to growing the seed in summer. It takes MUCH more time and work selling seed retail than it does to grow it. selling wholesale need not take much time if its a dozen or fewer crops and a half dozen customers. Growing seed wholesale would combine better with teaching.
(Rowan and others in Australia and New Zealand are in a totally different situation. There is no equivalent to Johnny's, Fedco, Territorial, Hi Mowing, or Southern Exposure there--regional seed companies from which you can buy, mail order, an incredible variety of high-quality seed of regionally appropriate, excellent varieties. Most people in Australia and New Zealand buy packet seed of multinational companies from garden stores. Selection is very limited. And what there is is not necessarily of the best varieties. Quarantine laws make it difficult or impossible to import any seed of most food crop varieties without a government growout, a very expensive proposition. There are very few mail order seed companies, even tiny ones. In Australian and New Zealand, more mail order seed companies are desperately needed.) (In the USA there are already hundreds of small one family seed companies. So getting noticed is much more problematic. Though OSSI association probably helps.)
So, what to grow? If it's widely sold, there is no reason anyone is going to buy it from you at hand-processed prices rather than from their regular big wholesale grower, who sells it for cheaper. Ideal is if it is a new variety you have developed yourself. Especially if it is OSSI-Pledged. Any excellent variety that you have discovered in your trials that is not commercially available or commercially availabke wholesale is another possibility. You need to be able to make a case for why it deserves to be commercially available.
In most but not all cases you'll do better trying to sell a reasonably uniform variety, not variable landrace material. The bigger retail seed companies have customers very few of whom save seeds and approximately none of whom want to breed plants. And they want every plant to be prime, not just some of them. There are exceptions. But they are a harder sell than pure varieties.
Beans and other legume seeds are problematic because of the possibility of spreading diseases. Most bigger retail seed companies buy certified bean seed from big wholesale growers in Idaho, where there is a huge state-run inspection program.
There are special opportunities in growing OSSI-Pledged Seed and selling to OSSI Partner Seed Companies. I'll address that in a separate email. Give me a few days.
