Planting by hand, Florida
Divers
- Protects seeds
- Yes, buried by hand
- People
- Trained divers
- Equipment
- Dive gear and a boat
Seedfall seagrass restoration: Seagrass seeds that plant themselves
We're designing a biodegradable pod that buries seagrass seeds in the seabed, thrown from any small boat.
Seagrass meadows are disappearing
Seagrass meadows are nurseries for fish, homes for seahorses and natural coastal defences. Britain has lost a large share of them.
We're designing a cheaper way to bring them back from seed.
1 in 5
of the world's biggest fisheries use seagrass as a nursery for young fish
Source: Unsworth et al., 201973%
of seeds left on the seabed were eaten by a single crab within a week
Source: Infantes et al., 201613×
more shoots grew from seeds buried in bags than from seeds sown in the open
Source: Unsworth et al., 2024Burying seeds works. Doing it at scale doesn't.
Seeds just under the seabed are safe from crabs and currents. Eelgrass grows best from the top 2 cm of sediment5.
But every way of burying seeds today needs lots of people, expensive equipment, or both.
How seagrass is planted today
Every method trades protection for people, machines or money. Seedfall aims to need none of them.
Seagrass on a hessian mat
Seed bags on ropes
- Protects seeds
- Yes, inside hessian bags
- People
- ~2,000 volunteers for one 2-hectare UK site
- Equipment
- Boat, ropes and bags
A research ship craning a robot
Cranes and robots
- Protects seeds
- Yes, buried by machine
- People
- Specialist operators
- Equipment
- Specialist vessels and machines
A seed ball (land example)
Seed balls
- Protects seeds
- Partly: they sit on the surface
- People
- A few people
- Equipment
- None
The goal: meadows like this
Seedfall
- Protects seeds
- Yes, buried 15 mm deep
- People
- A small boat crew
- Equipment
- Any small boat
The Seedfall card shows our design goal. We're testing it now.
How Seedfall works
Scatter pods from any small boat and each one plants its own seeds at the right depth, then breaks down.
01
Drop
Our dispenser rides on any small boat and releases each pod where it should land, logging every drop.
02
Land upright
Each pod settles upright on the seabed.
03
Wait
It waits until it has settled.
04
Plant
It plants its seed 1–2 cm into the sediment, where seeds survive best.
05
Disappear
The pod breaks down. The seed stays buried.
The team
We're students at Eton College, building Seedfall for the Conrad Challenge 2026–27 (Energy & Environment).
Jermaine Antwi
Co-founder
Orwell Scholar at Eton College. Co-leading Seedfall’s engineering, research and operations.
Austin Huang
Co-founder
Student at Eton College. Co-leading Seedfall’s chemistry, research and operations.
Kaius Vun
Creative Director
Student at Eton College. Leading Seedfall’s creative direction, film production and visual storytelling.
Fund the next stage
We're raising £5,000 in three stages, with a £3,000 stretch goal. Each stage is tied to a result, so you'll see what your support proved before we ask again.
Giving £5,000 or more? Email us and we'll arrange a bank transfer.
£1,000
Build and test real pods
Now – December 2026
£1,000
Prove the planting depth on camera
December 2026
£3,000
First small trial in the sea
February – April 2027
+£3,000
Stretch: a second, larger sea trial
Summer 2027
After that: a full trial plot with a restoration partner, and a dispenser built for real boats.
Help us get it right.
Do you restore, study or fund seagrass? Fifteen minutes of your advice could change our design.
Email the team