Koanga Institute Tunnel House Fundraiser

For over 30 years, the team at Koanga Institute have been developing and nurturing a precious collection of over 800 types of NZ heritage seeds. These seeds are important historically as they are part of the heritage of Aotearoa but also going forwards as they represent a biodiverse collection of food plants adapted to local soils and climates. As we move forwards into uncertain climate conditions having a bio diverse collection of food plant varieties available will greatly increase resilience and food security.

Unlike commercial seeds, Koanga seeds are selected for qualities gardeners are looking for, such as long cropping season, great taste, nutrient density, disease resistance and suitability for organic biological growing systems, and are also suitable for home gardeners to save seed from.

We grow large amounts of seeds each year and unpredictable weather conditions are particularly problematic for seed collection. Periods of very wet weather can seriously impact production, sometimes resulting in complete loss of seed if the wet weather occurs around seed harvest time. In addition some types of plants, particularly tomatoes and lettuces, produce more quality seed more reliably if they have a rain cover.

As climate change continues to disrupt our weather patterns, it is of extreme importance that we not only continue to preserve seed biodiversity but that we also increase the amounts of seed that we produce to make them accessible to Kiwis nationwide. A tunnel house will protect our seed crops from the elements, ensuring our seed biodiversity is protected for generations to come.

The tunnel house will be used mainly to grow New Zealand heritage varieties of lettuce including Odell's, Lightheart, Half century, Mignonette, Finger Lettuce, Webb's Wonderful, Batavian Red, and Tree lettuce, and tomatoes including Kings Gold, Hawkes Bay yellow, Alma, Ponsonby Red, Dalmatian Oxheart, Wonder, Watermouth, Small Sweet Orange, J Walsh yellow and more.

As a Charitable Trust finding the capital to purchase a suitable tunnel house is difficult and we greatly appreciate all contributions to assist us.