Tens of thousands of truly traditional vegetable seeds (from the time of grandparents) are waiting cryogenically at minus 20 degrees for future generations of young farmers to come and discover the taste and aroma. So far, only small gardeners contact the Suceava seed bank, although everything is free.

Seeds from the Bank’s strategic collection keep their “life” for 100 years

These seeds are part of the Bank’s strategic collection and keep their “life” in them for 100 years, the director of the institution Dr. Silvia Strayeru explained in a discussion with HotNews.

“The bank offers 5 types of seeds in 5 varieties each – different or from the same species,” Ms Strayer tells us. If someone wants different varieties of tomatoes, for example, they can ask and we will send them. As a rule, the most demanded: tomatoes and garlic, says the head of the Seed Bank, although there are requests for almost all vegetables. which are used in everyday life. “We have over 100 different varieties of garlic from Romania that we offer to people in the fall because it’s planted in the fall,” Silvia tells Strayer.

“I don’t know how long we can continue this program because we notice that it is not achieving its goal,” says the head of Seed Bank

The “strategic reserve” also retains its genetic integrity, which means that they remain at the level of evolution at which they were collected – from nature or from the human garden, the researcher also says.

You don’t have to meet any special criteria to request a truly traditional seed. “You have to respect certain terms and conditions and be conscientious,” says Strayer. We hope that people will perpetuate these crops, spread them in the area where they live, save their seeds from year to year and grow them continuously. Unfortunately, the feedback we have shows that this is not happening,” says Strayer.

“I don’t know how much longer we can continue with this program because we are seeing that it is not achieving its goal,” says the head of the Seed Bank.

When asked why she doesn’t get in touch with big farmers through partnerships where they grow ‘real’ tomatoes on a large scale with the smell and taste of the past, Silvia Strayerus says: ‘Big farmers are not interested in that kind of thing. This is a traditional low-yielding seed. Big farmers are interested in high yields that turn into money.”

The bank adds nearly 1,000 genes to the Apocalypse Vault

Currently, the bank has 25 employees and contributes 951 genes to the bank of genetic banks – the famous Vault of the Apocalypse – with Romanian samples of cereals, beans, peas, peppers, dill, cucumbers, pumpkins, basil, parsley, thyme, mustard and tomatoes.

This storage is a kind of final solution to the apocalyptic food crisis and is located on Svalbard, an island located 600 km from the coast of Norway. The Global Seed Vault is a “bank of 13 global gene banks” that holds the genes of 45,000 seeds of plants grown for food.

The Mysterious Vault of the Apocalypse can be visited virtually here.

Two types of collections from Romania

The Romanian Genbank has two types of collections: active and basic. If the seeds in the active collection should be viable for 20-30 years, then the seeds in the main collection can be planted even after 100 years.

The active collection is kept in four rooms, each approximately 24 square meters in area, and at a constant temperature of 4 degrees Celsius. Seeds for the distribution program are taken from these premises and inspected every five years. These are seeds of flax, corn, wheat, tomatoes, cucumbers or cauliflower, each in jars with a label and a special place on the shelf.

In total, the active collection is 17,800 samples, only corn has more than 6,700 samples, of which 4,700 are old local populations. The main collection, that is, the most important seeds in the country, is stored in the warehouses. When you open the door of the safe, steam escapes from a temperature of minus 20 degrees. As in the current collection, there is also corn, wheat, flax, and even several varieties of tomatoes – more than 5,000 samples in total. The difference is that the plants here have the best chance of adaptation and resistance. So far, researchers have never visited the main reserve.

How this seed bank got to us

On the initiative of Dr. Eng. Mihai Cristea bank project started in 1982 and its construction started in 1985, the project was carried out after careful documentation in several modern gene banks of the relevant period.

In the period 1987-1990, the unit functioned as a specialized laboratory in the field of plant genetic resources as part of the Suchav Agricultural Research Station.

In 1990, the Suchav Bank of Plant Genetic Resources became an independent state institution, which has the status of a legal entity and has a national character. Its mandate, specific to most gene banks around the world, is to research, collect, evaluate and conserve plant genetic resources, which is fully financed from the public budget and directly reports to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

In the period from December 2009 to March 2018, it was merged with the Central Laboratory of Seed and Planting Material Quality in Bucharest.

Currently, the structure has changed its name to “Mihai Cristea” Suceava Plant Genetic Resources Bank and has become a public institution organized as a public institution with a legal personality under the Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences “Gheorghe Ionescu Şișești”.