A good seed production is the foundation of successful plantation, which needs good seed year and orchard. Seed orchard should be free from hybridization, especially when selected provenances or genetically improved trees are being used. For native trees, it is generally better to use Nepal-grown seed where this is available. This is usually cheaper, and saves foreign exchange; also trees growing in Nepal will tend to be better adapted to local conditions than those growing in distant areas, often with very different conditions of climate and soil.

The simplest kind is the seed production areas. These are good stands, chosen by phenotypic characteristics, that are thinned or otherwise treated to stimulate seed production; sometimes poor phenotypes are removed. The seed orchard is restricted to stands planted for seed production and composed of trees to be of desirable genotypes from test of their progeny. They are usually established by vegetative propagation from the chosen genotypes and must be isolated from sources of contaminating pollen.

To maintain a large and variable gene pool in the progeny, it is desirable to start with enough trees to have at least a dozen genotypes represented in each orchard unit that ultimately becomes a single seed source. Trees of the same genotype should be separated so as to enhance cross-pollination. The trees should be widely spaced and can sometimes be pruned in such a manner that they are easily climbed with the crowns remaining close to the ground. Seeds are collected from the seed orchard to produce seedlings. Storing surplus seed produced and collected in good seed years for use in poor seed years will reduce the need for imports.

Within Nepal, Seed production and collection has been organized on a national basis through the National Tree Improvement Programme, on a divisional or district basis, or by the staff of individual nurseries from nearby forests.