West Coast Seeds

Coriandrum sativum. Cilantro "Santo" is bred to be slow bolting. Direct sow short rows of Santo Long Standing cilantro seeds every other week from spring to late summer for continuous harvest. The mature seeds, better known as coriander, are easy to harvest, and used in many dishes - notably curry powder blends. Keep an eye you your cilantro crop because the flowering process (bolting) is famously quick in this plant. As soon as a central stem appears and the uppermost leaves become frilly, it's time to harvest the whole plant, roots and all. 

If growing for seeds, simply allow the plants to flower. Cilantro flowers are highly attractive to beneficial insects like Syrphid flies, lacewings, and lady beetles. Be warned that if the seeds are not harvested when they are mature, you will have volunteer cilantro plants for years to come.

Cilantro will grow somewhat leggy, but productively in partial shade, and it is quite tolerant of cool temperatures. With the protection of a cloche greenhouse, cilantro will continue growing all winter.

CERTIFIED ORGANIC! This is the extra early hybrid that organic guru Eliot Coleman raves about for cool season growing under cover in early spring and late fall/winter. Napoli carrots become incredibly sweet after frost as they literally convert starches into sugars as a kind of carrot anti-freeze. It is rated by many as one of the best tasting carrots available, and wonderful as baby roots. Plant Napoli Organic carrot seeds in August in a raised bed or beneath a cloche, and experience the full flavour of winter "candy carrots." Winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit.

These seeds are coated with an inert, organically certified layer which helps to minimize clumping in storage and seed sowing machines. The coating is approved by organic certifiers in Canada, the US, EU, and Japan.

Matures in 55 days. (Hybrid seeds)

Seaside spinach seeds produce very uniform, dark green baby leaf spinach for fast harvests and high volume production. The leaves are thick and succulent, with well developed flavour. The upright plants grow at a moderate rate, and work well in winter high tunnels. It is the best choice we have seen for baby leaf growers, and has good resistance to downy mildew. With the correct timing, a small farming operation can produce a constant supply of baby leaf spinach nearly all year, which can be a lucrative option for your restaurant and CSA clients.

Baby greens in 25 days. (Hybrid seeds)

Ya Ya Organic carrot seeds are CERTIFIED ORGANIC! Ya Ya is a smooth skinned, uniform carrot that performs all season long. Incredible flavour in summer that gets even sweeter after frost. These are especially well adapted to the coastal BC climate and will perform throughout the Pacific Northwest. Ya Ya’s strong tops are good for bunching. This variety is a customer favourite, and many home gardeners that grow it depend on it year after year. Be sure to thin your carrots as early as possible to 4-10cm (1.5-4") apart in the row so the roots can grow nice and straight.

These seeds are coated with an inert, organically certified layer which helps to minimize clumping in storage and seed sowing machines. The coating is approved by organic certifiers in Canada, the US, EU, and Japan.

Matures in 65-70 days. (Hybrid seeds)

Flat, dark green leaves are deeply cut, with a rich parsley flavour ideal for cooking or salads. Dark Green Italian Parsley Seeds are easy to grow, sturdy plants with stiff upright stems. Holds flavour better than the curly kind when dried. Use parsley in companion planting: Parsley likes asparagus, carrots, chives, corn, onions, and tomatoes. The leaves can be sprinkled on asparagus to repel asparagus beetles, and around roses, to improve their scent. Let some of your parsley go to bloom to attract hover-flies and predatory wasps. Parsley is a biennial plant that forms a long (edible) tap root. Choose deep pots for container growing.

Matures in 80 days

Plant Forest Green parsley seeds in your organic herb garden. The plants have short, strong stems that support big clusters of highly curled, dark-green leaves. The flavour is distinctly savoury without being bitter. Parsley adds a subtle, but key flavour to a host of Mediterranean dishes. It is widely used in companion planting because its strong scent repels insects like the Asparagus Beetle. Parsley likes asparagus, carrots, chives, corn, onions, and tomatoes. The leaves can be sprinkled on asparagus to repel asparagus beetles, and around roses, to improve their scent. Let some of your parsley go to bloom to attract hover-flies and predatory wasps.

Parsley is a biennial plant that forms a long (edible) tap root. Choose deep pots for container growing.

Matures in 80 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Oregon Giant snow pea seeds produce plants with unusually large, broad 13cm (5") long pods are thick and very sweet. They are most tender when peas begin to form but remain so up to the very largest sizes. Plants stay short at only 1.2m (4'). This variety is very resistant to pea enation virus and powdery mildew, which makes it a good candidate for late sowing and summer/fall harvest. Sow as late as July, and enjoy a second fall crop. Enation virus is a serious problem for peas in our region, so if you're planting peas after April first, choose enation-resistant varieties only. Winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Matures in 70 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Mokum carrot seeds are back by popular demand! The finest flavour and so crisp and delicate that it actually has to be hand dug, not just pulled out by the tops. You can enjoy these as baby carrots (they colour up quickly) or longer at 15-20 cm (6-8"). These deep orange carrots are high in Vitamin A and sugars. Mokum is an Amsterdam type - an imperator with blunt (as opposed to pointed) ends. Be sure to plant this variety in soil that has been deeply cultivated. Use a garden fork to break up all dirt clods and remove all stones. And thinning carrots is critical if you want them to grow straight and unblemished.

Matures in 60 days. (Hybrid seeds)

Plant Strike bush bean seeds for productive, upright plants with good disease resistance. The pods are round, medium green, slender, and stringless, coming in a concentrated set for easy harvesting. The beans have a very pleasant texture when cooked, and they maintain their flavour after freezing for winter use. Perfect for the home garden, and favoured by large scale producers for their ability to ship and store well. Strike is BCMV and NY15 resistant. Try growing Strike in larger containers like half barrels or even our garden pea and bean grow bags.

Matures in 55 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Dwarf Grey Sugar snow pea seeds produce the earliest and most dwarf edible pods of all. The prolific, bushy vines grow to 1.5m (5') tall, and benefit from staking. Very attractive sweet pea-like flowers are followed by clusters of flat, fleshy, curved, semi-pointed pods. These are light green and average 6-8cm (2.5-3"), appearing at the tops of the plants for easy picking. This old heirloom variety was listed once as Dwarf Gray Sugar Cabbage Pea, and has been in production since before 1773. Dwarf Grey Sugar snow pea seeds were first sold commercially in 1892 by D.M Ferry and Company. This is one of the best choices for growing pea shoots and pea tips.

Matures in 66 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Early Wonder Tall Top beet seeds beets adapt to all seasons but are especially good in early spring with quick growth in chilly soils. They produce tall, tasty green leaves with red stems and slightly flattened roots with wonderfully sweet flavour. Early Wonder Tall Top beets makes a good variety for general table use. Grow as micro-greens or baby leaf greens for salad mixes, or enjoy the sweet round roots at full size. Be sure to thin the planted row to allow each root the room it needs to grow to full size.

Matures in 60 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

The very straight, tapered roots of Deep Purple carrot grow 17-20cm (7-8”) long. These carrots are named for the fact that the purple characteristic runs right to the core, and they keep their colour when lightly cooked. The tops are strong for easy harvests, and the storage potential is great. This is a fine fall harvest carrot that is good for juicing and it looks amazing in salads. The sweet, smooth-skinned roots were a staff favourite from our field trials. This is a high yielding, very uniform variety for the market grower or home gardener.

These seeds are coated with an inert, organically certified layer which helps to minimize clumping in storage and seed sowing machines. The coating is approved by organic certifiers in Canada, the US, EU, and Japan.

Matures in 75 days. (Hybrid seeds)

Feathery foliage on tall and vigorous dill plants that mature and form seed quickly from large umbels of yellow flowers. Sow Long Island Mammoth dill seeds at the back of the herb or vegetable bed, as plants can reach 2m (6') tall or more. In fact, it gets so tall, it makes a nice specimen plant, central in the garden. Harvest the leaves as needed. The leaves and seeds dry well.

The structure of dill's flowers is known as an umbel. Thus dill is considered an umbelliferous plant. Other umbellifers include carrots, cilantro, fennel, parsnips, and Ammi. All of these plants are attractive to predatory insects such as lady beetles, Syrphid flies (hover-flies), lacewings, and tiny parasitoid wasps. WCS recommends that organic gardeners should grow some dill precisely to attract these beneficial insects, for they will control pest insects like aphids, thrips, whitefly, and the caterpillar of the Small White Butterfly (cabbage moth).

Breen Pelleted Organic romaine lettuce seeds are CERTIFIED ORGANIC! Breen is a slow-growing miniature red romaine lettuce with an elegant, urn-shaped head. Its superb, rust coloured leaves have olive-green undertones and nicely contrasting veins. Breen is slow to bolt and looks lovely tucked in among green lettuces. The leaves are firm and crisp with excellent flavour. PELLETED SEEDS - sold by seed count. Pelleted seeds are great for precision sowing. The seed coating is certified organic and made from an inert clay mixture. Let Breen mature for harvest after most of your other lettuce has been already cut.

Recommended for hydroponic and aquaponic growing.

Matures in 45 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)