Hey Carol,

I can't write much right now. I like the idea. Here are just a couple of suggestions.

1) For most vegetables it's best to send a minimum of 25 seeds (and that's just for seed saving/production purposes).

2) Small bubble mailers are definitely the way to go. Regular envelopes allow much damage to the seeds. I believe, however, that I've received some small seeds in regular envelopes, which came through alright.

3)Because of postage and cost of materials (especially envelopes) I'd recommend that folk be willing to pay at least $2 for a packet of seeds, unless they are actually swapping. In that case each would pay shipping one way. I send out a good many seeds each year and find that it is all too easy to "run up a big postage & materials bill."

Okay, that's all for now. Must run!

George

I was on one of these over in the Winter Sowing group a couple years ago, and what they did was have each person send one package, containing their seed to be sent out to others, and a number 10 self-addressed, bubble envelope with postage on it. Our PO was charging $1.14+ for a bubble envelope before the price rate increase. The person who acted as the distributor divided seeds sent amongst those who signed up, and packed their envelope up to the amount of postage they provided. It was like Christmas! I got lots of different kinds of seed. Some people did package up their own contributions, and they put their names and e-mail address on their packets and that was nice because you could e-mail them if you had questions about growing what they sent. The only problem with this was, being as it was USA-wide, I got a few things that just don't do well here, some things that are considered weeds here, and some seed that didn't germinate no matter what I did, though the fault may have been mine on that one.

I think it would be a good idea to have a sign-up period beforehand and then close it, so that you will be able to tell everyone how much seed to allow. I wouldn't be opposed to packaging seed in individual packets if I knew how many to make. I guess a deadline would be necessary for when to get your seeds to the distributor so as not to hold things up.

If that "bowling ball" that's hanging from my grape arbor continues to do well, I'll have bushel basket gourd seed to trade. I'll have to do some thinking about what to gather, because I just let some of the flower seed fall to the ground and what comes up next year is up to the elements.

A person could include a note saying "no flowers" or whatever; otherwise everyone's packet would be the same, except that what they sent would be omitted, that is.

It sounds like a lot of work for the distributor. Are you volunteering? ;~) I think rather than put postage on the envelope, maybe a specified dollar amount might be more easily included for postage to make it easier for the distributor. If you fill a number 10 envelope with, say, beans, and take it to the PO and have them weigh it and tell you how much it would cost to send in Zone 1, then you'd get a good feel for the maximum postage. I wouldn't mind if the distributor ended up with a little money left over, but I wouldn't want whoever's doing this to go in the hole, after all the work involved.

Another thought, since some of us have traded with each other before, we might be duplicating each other. It might be good to know what kinds of seed each person is going to be sending so that we don't duplicate, and so that, if we already have that seed, we can ask that it not be included in our packet.

I like them in individual envelopes and ready to go to the next person. I buy small plastic bags in the wedding department at Walmart for mine. As long as the seeds are dry they work fine.

If someone has asked you for a specific thing and they are part of the swap, just put their name on that envelope that you send in.

Yes, I volunteered to do the swap.

It is a MUST to include your gardenweb USERNAME in your package. I will post as I receive things, and at the specified mailout time, I will post that they are being mailed.

George suggested the number of seeds (25) for the swap. Now would someone like to specify the number of packets to send. Understand that you can send more than that if you want, but not less than the specified amount of packages. Just tell me what you want done with the excess, or otherwise I will just divide it up for everyone.

Ilene, the old postage rate of $1.14 was the parcel post rate and sometimes you have to get a little tough with the post office over it. Seeds can travel in a bubble mailer as "large envelope rate" as long as you keep the envelope from being more than 3/4 inch thick. That might mean that you have to tape your bags to a piece of paper before you slide them in the mailer to keep them from shifting around. When you ship "large envelope rate" they will push the envelope through a template to make sure it is not too thick.

I guess my feeling about the cost is this: Even if it cost $1.50 each way to get your seeds, you get to try a lot of things for $3.00. A lot of packages of seed cost that much or more, and some of them don't even have 25 seeds in them.

Some of you are seed savers and can select right from your own plants. Others of us buy too many and have plenty to share. Some need only a few seed of one type for the season and the others don't get used. I think it is nice to be able to try a few of a variety to see if you like it or if it does well in your garden, before you invest in a bigger quantity....hot peppers come to mind. I would love to have dozens of ancho peppers, but a couple of chili peppers is plenty for me to plant in a season. This year I have about 3 dozen pepper plants, but they are probably 8 or 9 varities.

This also provides a challenge for those people who don't normally plant from seed, and an opportunity for those who do to add a few new things to their garden.

How many packs?????

Also, I would like to limit it to everything being mailed in the same week to ten days, so I don't have them at my house forever. If we set a date, like mail between Nov 1st and 10th, then I could have them all on the way back to you by Thanksgiving and they wouldn't be in my way for the holidays. I think some of you will still be saving seed in October so we probably need to go later rather than earlier. Ideas?

At the spring swap I took a small pack of beans from George (macmex) because I wanted to try a "greasy bean". I probably had 35 beans in the little bag and I didn't plant them all. I held back a few in case this planting didn't work. I have an arched trellis that is made from a 16 foot cattle panel. I have cukes on one side and George's beans on the other. I planted down both sides of the wire, so they have plenty of root room, but they are climbing the same wire from both sides. I think planting this small amount will give me the chance to eat a few (to make sure I like them) and save a few seeds (so I can grow them in the spring). Thought this would give you a good idea of what you can do with a small amount of seeds received in a swap. Of course, if it had been 25 tomato seeds I would only have planted 3 or 4.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Carol, those cattle panel trellises are wonderful, aren't they?

I agree that postage and some seed packages are a small price to pay, especially if there are lots of contributors. Seed packages can also be made by folding paper. There are several sites on the Internet that show how. You are a dear for volunteering to be the distributor.

I don't know if my bushel basket gourd seed will be ready by November though. Does anyone know if, as long as I'm willing to sacrifice the gourd itself, can I cut it open while green and heavy (once the stem has shriveled), and will the seed be viable?

Ilene, You can always hold the gourd seed for the spring plant swap because several of us were lucky enough to get seed at that one last year. In addition, if we do the swap one year and everyone has fun, they will want to keep doing it. It's another gardening addiction. LOL

The radar map looks like you are going to get rain all day. We only got .8 inches last night, but the next one is headed straight for us. I told DH that I caused it because I deep watered my peppers yesterday. I just had a call from a friend in Kay county and their 6 inch rain gauge ran over last night. I called them last night when I could see they were getting hail. That storm hung over Kay and Grant County for hours yesterday. Mesonet says Grant got 6.6 and it is still raining. Poor farmers. First a problem with wheat, and now they didn't get their corn dry enough to get it out of the field before this happened. I think that is mostly cattle feed this time of year. Just one more thing that will cause food prices to go up.

So...limited wheat, limited corn, farmers are selling their beef cattle because they can't afford to feed them. A tomato blight in 24 states, California with problems, a serious drought in south Texas which is our fresh vegetable growing belt. Can you see the prices going up and the cash register going "ka-ching". Just listen---you will hear it soon.

Carol, we are getting rain right now. It apparently doesn't know how to stop once it gets started. My apple tree went ahead and fell over night before last. It's been wobbling for about a year so I was expecting it. It had hardly any roots at all. I've got a Stark Brothers catalog and there's 20% off if you order before October something. I'm thinking about getting a 2 in 1 tree, as they are self-polinating. I may get several different ones, and put them in the front yard, where there are no obstructions in the ground or up overhead, and then just devote the entire back yard to raised beds and arbors.

I met a man last winter on the seed-exchange forum who said he expected we'd have a food shortage this year because he had heard WMT top execs were told they may be having trouble getting enough to fill their shelves. I thought at the time that he was a nut-case and I'm pretty sure from the way he acted that he was hoarding seeds, but it certainly does look like we're going to have some shortages in the future. We went to Marienthal, KS, which is almost on the Colorado border, last spring, and we passed wheat field after wheat field. It made me feel so good to see so much land bearing crops. But, after our trip was over, it started to rain there. It rained and rained and rained and the report was that they couldn't get their machines into the fields to harvest. Crop failure is nothing new, I remember my Dad talking about it, worrying about it, when I was a little girl before we left the farm. Back then, farming was strictly a partnership between the farmer and Mother Nature. And Mother Nature has a dark side. I just wish, when crop failures happen, that there weren't those opportunists allowed to place themselves between the farmer and the consumer, jacking up the price even more and making millions while the farmer goes belly-up and the consumer gets gouged.

I want to try to make the next spring get-together. It was just impossible for me to do it last time but maybe it will work out this year. There are so many people on this forum I'd love to meet.

I have bought all of the seeds that I "need" to plant next years garden, but that doesn't mean I will not buy more. However, I think trading is fun.

I have been in trades that were mostly flowers, but I think it would be fun to have one that is mostly veggies, with just a few flowers thrown in.

On radar it looks you are getting rain again and that we should be getting it soon. It looks like this one is really going to give us a shower. We have a cloudy sky and a little wind so I believe it is on the way.

Oops, forgot to submit the message in my haste to get a few things done before the rain. I did them but got sprinkled on. Maybe we will get more than a sprinkle, I hope.