Knittlin covered most of what I intended to say... nice synopsis. With one exception, perhaps: "Let's say there's someone out there who is the only person to have an unusual type of seed. The holder of the unusual seed sends a small portion of seeds to Svalbard. He continues to grow out and share the seeds. If, for some unknown reason, the only people who accept the seed from him all lose their seeds at the same time the original holder of them does, the original holder requests some of the seed he sent to Svalbard and is able to start over again." As I'm sure you already know, Svalbard does not accept seed from individuals, regardless of the merits of the seed. To get into their bank, the seed would need to be deposited into another bank first, and that bank would need to back it up into a second bank. So in the end, Svalbard + two other banks + the original grower would all have the seed. The good news is, that because SSE (Seed Savers Exchange) is now a depositor at Svalbard, it is possible for heirloom varieties to be protected. Don't get me wrong; I am still somewhat critical of the project. As another poster stated, if the great calamity does occur, it may be difficult or impossible to get the seeds from Svalbard to the depositor. Nor am I satisfied that all legal situations have been addressed... such as what happens to the seeds if the depositor no longer exists, has been taken over legally/politically, or lacks the means to propagate the seed. I am also apprehensive of corporate involvement, regardless of what rules might presently be in place. Governments change. Rules change. Greed is a constant. There are clauses in the Depositors Agreement that could, IMO, be abused to benefit the large multi-national seed companies. But for those that see Svalbard as the salvation from famine, it may never fill that role - or not directly. It is designed to preserve germplasm, not to propagate seed on a worldwide scale. That will always be the role of the the original depositors, their supporting governments, and the private sector. Were a major disaster to suddenly occur with one of the food staples (wheat, for example) it would take many years to multiply seed stocks, and in the interim, millions would starve. Sorry to end on a dark note, but that's the reality. Svalbard is something we hope we will never need to use.

Thank you Nicky for all of your time spent and the herendous amount of organizing it must take to separate all of the seeds. My hat is off to you. I also want to thank everyone for their contribution of seeds which make the possibilities of some truly specials additions to our garden this coming year. Please everyone have a Very Merry Christmas and celebrate with family, friends and loved ones. All the best in the New Year. Keep growing. Rick

As a newbie just receiving seeds back from my first ever swap...I am completely overwhelmed and so filled with gratitude at the generosity of you all. Nearly every seed that I had ever dreamed of acquiring arrived in my package, and then some! Tomatoes, beans, cardinal flower, monarda, herbs,cream of sask watermelon, I could go on and on. (because that was one big package of JOY) Going to be a tough act for the man in the red and white suit to follow on the 25th, my morning on the 7th is off the charts!!!! Thank you all so much! Nicky wasn't kidding when she told me to start planning a new garden bed, now I will have to!

For genetic reasons one should never save seeds from just one fruit, better many fruits from one plant and better still many fruits from two plants, etc. And that hasto do with thepossibility of natural X pollinations if you don't bag blossoms or grow plants at isolation distances. There's a great article here at GW on how to prevent cross pollination which you can find by going to the top of this page, clicking on the FAQ's and scrolling down until you see that article. With pictures. Tom Wagner does single line seed saving which is quite different from the rest of us and he also uses TSP, which is very caustic and I don't reccommend it for us home growers. he also saves seed from unripe fruits and can do that b'c he is using TSP. TOm is a tomato breeder and so uses methods that many of us wouldn't. As to how to process seeds, Trudi knows that I suggest fermentation over any of the oxidative methods and the main reason for that, and I think there's a thread here which discusses it indetail,maybe elsewhere, I can't remember right now, is b'c there's no data to say how effective those methods are nor what infectious pathogens they might remove. But there is such data from Dr. Helene Dillard who had grants from Campbells and Heinz when she was at the USDA station in Geneva, NY. For sure the oxidative methods are quicker, not smelly, etc., but I'm one of many who will stick with fermentation until I see the kind of data I want to see for the alternative. Why not try both and see how it goes? Pete, you know the female parent for the cross you mentioned, which is Indian Stripe, a variety I introduced andlike very much, but how do you know what the male pollen parent could be when bees, which do most of the X pollination, can fly a very long way? If all the ovules in the tomato ovary of IS were X pollinatged then all the seeds you saved would be F1 hybrid seeds, but that's not usually the case, so with your saved F2 seeds you could get almost anything including normal IS plants that were self pollenized. But remember that if Stupice is involved, since it has PL foliage you may not see that showing up in the initial growout b'c that trait is recessive. If you have the greatest bee activity early in the season, then save fruits from later maturing ones, and the reverse holds true as well. That is if you're not bagging blossoms, etc. Having catfaced fruits early in the season is quite common and usually indicates self pollenization when temps are low. There's nothing wrong with saving seeds from cat faced fruits if you want to, but I usually pick the best fruits for seed saving and not jsut all the big ones. There;s genetic diversity within a variety so saving seeds form fruits of different sizes is a good thing. And it's sure fun to work with accidental crosses if you have the room, same for those who do directed crosses these days. Been there, done that. LOL Carolyn