Every plant that’s grown starts with getting the right seed. A gardener who plants tomatoes that turn out to be cabbages isn’t going to be too happy. A farmer who plants barley that’s full of weeds is going to take a huge economic hit. 

The seed certification process ensures that the seeds people buy — whether they be a hobbyist gardener, a hardworking farmer or a forest conservationist — aren’t going to come up as weeds or some other plant than what’s indicated on the package. The process also ensures that most of the seeds will grow. 

Before the seeds are certified, they go through a series of tests at a lab. Wyoming’s only seed analysis lab is located just north of Powell, at the Powell Research and Extension Center (PREC). 

Career paths

The center is funded through the University of Wyoming, by the Wyoming Department of Agriculture.

The lab’s manager, Pam Bridgeman, works with two seed analysts, Crystal May and Tanya Espinosa. Their jobs are in a niche area of the agricultural industry, and none of them ever planned a career in seed analysis.

Bridgeman was a gardener in Colorado. She had a friend who managed a seed lab, and he offered her a temporary position there. After two weeks, he offered Bridgeman a permanent position. When he left the lab two years later, Bridgeman took over. About four year ago, the manager position in Powell came up, and she jumped on the opportunity. 

“It was a really good experience for me,” Bridgeman said. “I love it, though I’d never have thought of doing this.”

May has been at the lab for 17 years. She started out working in the PREC fields and was later asked if she wanted work in the lab. May said she wasn’t into the job at first, but it eventually grew on her, mainly because there’s a lot of variety in what she does.

“It was kind of tedious, but it got to where it was fun. Every day is a different day,” May said. 

Espinosa served in the Air Force and came back to Powell, where her family lived. She studied at Northwest College and met her husband. Espinosa worked for Coors, which used to have an elevator in Ralston. Like May, Espinosa also worked in the fields at PREC until a former lab director proposed she come work in the lab. 

The seed analysis lab also has a part-time trainee, Austen Samet-Brown, who is learning the ropes. 

To become certified, a seed analyst has to train under a certified seed analyst and take two certification exams. 

“They are very difficult, all-day tests,” Bridgeman said. 

The analysis

The Powell facility tests seeds for clients throughout the country. They’re looking at three things: purity, germination and noxious weeds. 

The lab follows standards and guidelines of the Association of Seed Analysts.

“That way they can keep things uniform — as uniform as possible. Though, there’s always some variance,” Bridgeman said.

There’s so much diversity in seeds that each analysis ends up being a little different from the others. 

Clients send a large sample of seeds. For the purity test, lab workers separate about 2,500 seeds into pure seeds, other crop seeds, weed seeds and inert material. Once those piles are separated, they can determine the rate of purity within the sample. 

For the noxious weed seed examination, they look at 25,000 seeds. States and countries have different standards for what they consider to be noxious. 

How the lab tests germination varies by plant family, and sometimes within a species, but the goal is to test the seeds under the most optimal conditions. Many wheats and alfalfa plants are tested in germinators, which are coolers with timed lights. Grasses are germinated in plastic boxes. Western wheatgrass is germinated in darkness. 

Beans are tested for germination on towels in an entirely separate room, which is kept pretty warm. After the seeds sprout, workers count how many failed to germinate. 

The lab results go over to the seed certification office next door, which reviews the results and determines what class the seed goes into. Generally, farmers and gardeners purchase certified seeds, which receive a blue certification tag. 

Sometimes, of course, a seed sample fails one of the tests and can’t be certified; Espinosa has had some beans completely fail the germination test. 

“I’ve had some towels that are completely dead. It’s one big stinkfest,” Espinosa said. 

In cases of failure, the lab does offer to retest samples, as there’s always the chance a fluke or a mistake produced bad results. 

While the Powell lab is small, it plays an important role in agriculture. From this operation come seeds that eventually produce thousands and thousands of acres of crops across the country.