Shido Seeds — Non-GMO Seed Packets

Flowers, vegetables and herbs, each sold as an individual seed packet, with a handful of houseplant packets in the mix. Every packet is vacuum-sealed, non-GMO, and third-party lab tested for germination before it leaves the building. Browse by category or shop the full range on this page. The selection runs from basil to ranunculus. The packaging does not play favourites.

Vacuum-sealing removes oxygen and moisture — the two forces that degrade a seed’s stored energy over time. Standard paper seed packets begin losing germination viability within roughly a year. Shido’s hermetic seal extends that window considerably; each packet carries a printed three-year viability date, and the engineering suggests well beyond. The seed performs the same job either way. The envelope is the variable, and Shido settled that argument before the seed went in. 

Every variety in the range qualifies as non-GMO seeds — produced through traditional open pollination and crossing, no genetic engineering anywhere in the line. This applies to heirlooms and F1 hybrids equally, since neither involves laboratory gene transfer, a distinction the consumer-labelling industry has spent the better part of a decade making almost heroically difficult to communicate to a public that was simply trying to buy some seeds and go home. Shido’s contribution to this discourse is a packet that says non-GMO on it and contains seeds that are, in fact, non-GMO. We realise this sounds like a low bar. We invite you to look around and reconsider.

Every lot is germination-tested at independent third-party labs before being approved for packaging — seed packets that fail the threshold do not ship. Specific rates vary by variety, since a rosemary seed and a radish seed are solving different biological problems on different timelines. If a packet underperforms once planted, Shido replaces it or refunds it. The test happens before the seal, not after the complaint. That sequence is the whole point.

Yes — every packet includes sowing depth, germination temperature, spacing, and care instructions specific to that exact variety, not a generic insert shared across the line. Shido seed packets arrive with enough detail for a beginner to succeed on the first attempt and enough specificity for an experienced grower to skip to the part they did not know. The instructions travel with the seeds. Separating them has never once made anyone’s garden better.

Cool, dry, and sealed — how to store seeds well comes down to keeping oxygen, moisture, and heat away from the embryo’s stored energy. A Shido packet arrives already meeting that standard: the hermetic vacuum seal does the work a mason jar in the refrigerator does for loose seed. Keep unopened packets in a drawer at room temperature. Once a packet is opened, fold it tight and use it within the season for best rates. 

When to start seeds indoors depends on the variety’s frost tolerance: tender varieties start inside six to eight weeks before the last expected frost, then transplant out; hardy and fast varieties sow directly once the soil warms. Every Shido product page states which approach that variety prefers, with depth and spacing alongside. The calendar is a guideline. The soil temperature is the actual authority, and across most of Canada it runs late. 

Shido seeds are sold in Canada through chive.ca and at the Chive Plant Studio shop at 702 Queen Street West in Toronto. Every packet is priced in CAD, ships across Canada from our Toronto studio, and can be collected in-store during shop hours — order online by 3 pm for same-day pick-up. The vacuum seal means a packet ordered in autumn is the same packet you sow in spring, wherever in the country it lands.