Seed Certification

Certified seed is produced and increased under a limited generation concept that is supervised by GCIA. There are three classes of certified seed; foundation seed produced from breeder seed, registered seed produced from foundation seed, and certified produced from registered seed.  Each generation increase is field inspected by GCIA.  Varietal purity is determined by using distinct morphological characteristics of the variety, inseparable other crops and weeds are rogued from the production field, and the seed is monitored by GCIA from the field, to storage, through the conditioning facility, sampling and labeling.  Seed meeting or exceeding GCIA quality standards (germination, no noxious weeds, varietal purity, other crops seed) are tagged with the appropriate certification tag.

Five reasons for planting GEORGIA CERTIFIED SEED are:

1. They are from adapted varieties of known performance.
2. Never more than two generations from Foundation seed.
3. Field and bin inspected for trueness to variety, inseparable other crop and noxious weed seeds.
4. Conditioned in an Approved Plant.
5. Laboratory tested and meets or exceeds GCIA’s minimum germination and purity standards.

For additional information, contact Billy Skaggs, Seed Certification Program Manager, at billy.skaggs@georgiacrop.com or Joy Cooper, Administrative Assistant, at becki.hicks@georgiacrop.com. 

For a complete list of the GCIA Certification Standards, click HERE.

To view Seed Buyers Guides from previous years, click HERE.