Seed trading is a wonderful hobby. It's an excellent way to acquire new garden seeds at a very economical cost, and friendships between traders are always rewarding. Seed trading can help you fill your seed box quickly with many different seeds, and your garden will be more beautiful than you can imagine because of all the new and exciting varieties you germinate and grow from those seeds. How do I start trading? You need to post that you have seeds available to trade. In your post you list your seeds or you ask people to look at your trade list on your GardenWeb member page. You may also add your "wish list" to your post, or add any special information that you would like your traders to know when they trade with you. How do I do it? By trading your own seeds for the seeds of another gardener. You offer a list of seeds to each other to choose from, you select what you want to trade for from the other gardener's list. The other gardener will make selections from your list. You both agree on the trade, then exchange mailing addresses. You mail your packs of seeds in protective wrapping. Use bubblewrap to encase the seed packets and place that in an envelope, or you use a padded mailer. The padding helps prevent the seeds from being crushed while in the mail. When the seed arrive you email the other trader to let them know that their seeds arrived and then your trade is complete. That's how you trade seeds....it's easy, it's fun, and it's a wonderful hobby. Trudi

As long as your older seeds have been kept away from severe fluctuations of temperature and/or stored away from direct sunlight they'll be fine. Many seeds can last for several, several years. What you can do is that when you post your list of seeds put a little note into your post to let the traders know how well the seeds have been cared for by being stored well, and put the collection year next to the plant name. The other traders will know from the very beginning that they're trading for older seeds. That will be good way to post your seeds.

It's YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to keep track of who you are trading with. You print a copy of the trade for your records, or save it into a notebook. An easy way to do this is to print out the address correspondence and write on it the day you mailed out your envelope. Save your correspondence in a brightly colored pocket folder and use it ONLY FOR YOUR TRADES. Keep it by your computer and never walk it out of the room!!! If you don't have a printer you can keep track of your trades by writing down the info in a spiral notebook. Use one sheet per trade/sase. Write down the email of the person you're mailing to, what was sent, what is expected in return, and write down the day it was sent. An excellent suggestion is to put a piece of long ribbon through a ring-hole in the spiral binder and TIE IT TO THE COMPUTER TABLE so it can't disappear. When the seeds come in you can look up right away who they're from and send a THANK YOU via email. Then draw a line through the page to indicate that the trade has been completed....now you're done! I save my "address" emails to a folder in my inbox that I've created called "seed trades". When the seeds come in, I pull up the corresponding letter, and I hit the "respond button" and I say, "thanks, I got the seeds!". Once you say THANK YOU your responsibility is done....all GOOD TRADERS acknowledge the receipt of the other trader's seeds and say thank you. You can then delete the email or move it to another folder called "completed trades". Once you've sent a "Thank You for Trading" you're done with the trade. Store your seeds where they'll be safe and dry until you sow them, and dream and plan for your new garden and future trades. =====================================

Hi you guys... I'm realbusy on GW. (Gina from NJ)....Good to see some of your old names here and I've even traded with many of you... I've lost the addresses of many a gardening friend over the years now and I'm not happy about that. But oh well, what can you do? Hope everyone will come back on here...I know I was in a round robin exchange but I can't remember who the admin was *sigh*.....maybe ishareflowers ? Anyway, maybe when I have time I will go back over the old e-mails from over a year ago now I guess... Trade on!!! I've posted my new list under my profile.. I have no idea if that is where it is supposed to go but that's where I put it...LOL... gotta figure how to navigate this new site.....