by BionicMel
Seed Swap!
9:10 pm in Materials and Resources, Meetings, Other Cool Urban Ag. Stuff, Plants, questions, Starting Seeds by BionicMel
I have been browsing many a seed catalogue, and I am sure that I’m going to buy a bajillion different kinds of seeds. Just to grow one plant of each variety… so…
Let’s swap seeds!!!
Is anyone else interested?
I’m game!
Are you in the US? I wonder if seeds can go through customs… maybe not?
I’m in Seattle WA USA.
I have a huge selection of seeds, and have tried to organize seed swaps locally with friends, but not many of my friends are into gardening. With a small urban garden you never need all the seeds that come in a packet.
I hate to keep plugging another blog/social thing site here, but myfolia.com is the gardening site I use, and they have an established system for listing seeds you’re willing to share and ones you want and gives a platform for trading. I don’t have all my seeds listed, but you can see my profile here… http://myfolia.com/gardener/funkisockmunki
What kind of stuff are you hoping to grow?
I live in Canada, and I didn’t know there are rules for shipping seeds. Does one need to declare the contents of a small padded envelope?
I’m looking to grow unusual strains of plants. Why grow food you can get at the grocery store? I found a tomato that is fuzzy like a peach! It’s called “Garden Peach Tomato” on http://www.cottagegardener.com.
I am waiting for my confirmation email at folia, but my username is BionicMel.
It really depends on the company supplying the seeds and what type.
I usually pick up McKenzie Seeds, and while I got a lot of lettuce and savory seeds, the tomato seeds were few and far between.
But that doesn’t stop you from harvesting seeds from previous plants…
Also I think we’d need more of a forum for this…
Awesome – I added you on MyFolia BionicMel.
I’ve been meaning to list all my seeds on there for quite some time, so I guess I will just get to it already. I do have quite a few tomato seeds, and I also like the weird nonstandard varieties. Some are my favorites are the Striped Roman – which is a beautifully speckle-striped, horn shaped sauce tomato that is so amazingly sweet. It makes incredible salsa. I grew Black Japanese Trifele two years ago and they are really beautiful, and flavorful. I think I still have seeds for a “white snowball” tomato, but I was never able to get mature plants from them… weird because I typically have great success growing from seed.
Last night I was browsing the Territorial Seed Catalog that just came in the mail, and there are a lot of interesting plants in there that are listed as small or dwarf, with small fruits and many with short growing seasons that I’d like to try in the hydroponic system (if budget allows for more seeds!).
Exciting! I got a seed catalogue in the mail a few days ago too! Unfortunately it was marketed towards mostly commercial growers, so there was not many unusual or dwarf varieties.
Right now I have mostly store bought seeds: a few kinds of tomatoes, some herbs, lettuces… typical stuff.
I really want to grow some swiss chard with the multicolour bright stems!!
I am looking forward to using folia, its very similar to ravelry which is for knitting projects haha.
Try the Territorial Seed Company. They have small packets of seed and lots of fun varieties. I love the Rainbow chard…. I have a bunch growing outside (I think it’s the “Bright Lights” variety) but the snow and 20-degree weather snaps keep killing it back to the center. It’s supposed to be a good “winter garden” vegetable, but I’m having bad luck with it.
I’ll try to get to listing all my seeds on Folia later tonight. Trying to rig up the lighting for the seedlings right now since they are beginning to sprout and I’ve been putting that off.
Coming! Coming!
Mel – I just noticed your note about knitting/ravelry. I’m on there too… same username “funkisockmunki”. That gives me the idea of maybe knitting some cozies for the less attractive parts of the windowfarm setup, like the cord bundles for the lights. Maybe that would just be a dust magnet and fire hazard, but could be fun.
It’s funny you should say that. I was thinking a material/knitted cozy to block out light might be cooler than painting the bottles. I am down for drafting some WindowFarm knits!
I think I am either BionicMel or BiochemMel on ravelry.
@BionicMel Yes, you need to declare the contents.
That green sticker that’s usually used, with the word ‘Seeds’ and an approximate value should be enough on the outside.
Inside, though, keep the different types of seed in separate bags, and write the plant names clearly. If there’s any doubt about names, use Latin names together wih the local name.
If the enelope is opened for inspection, you want the agent to be able to quickly identify the contents and verify that it’s not something that’s illegal.
Very small zip-lock bags are good for seeds as the contents can be inspected without opening them. They can also be reused again and again.
Went to Home Depot and Loblaws today (in Canada) and they both have their seed displays out. Time to stock up.
Interesting Seeds I HAVE:
Tomatoes:
Yellow Pears
Pink Brandywine
Peppers:
Habanero (red-Orange) 250-350K SHU
Once my Ghost Chilis are ripe I will have more seeds of those. 1.04 million Schovilles
Herbs:
Purple Basil
Im on the hunt for new varieties and will be collecting and storing as many as i can find
Nativeseeds.org in Tucson has some cool seeds, they help work with the indigenous people too in preserving their unique seeds they may have. I wonder if I could grow a corn stalk by my window?