CLOSED: Can you Oink? Can you say SUUUUU_EEEEEEEEIIIIIIII?

Chele, I hope you're settling in well at your new home! The seeds will do fine for you -- most seeds are good for at least 5 years, stored at controlled room temp (not in a hot attic, but most don't really need to be in the fridge either although I know some folks do so).

I don't have to do anything to my persimmon seed but take them out of the fruit, do it?? I didn't realize tomatoe seeds had to ferment, so glad for the info. Now I need to know about my dog-gone persimmons. I also have a China Berry seed, I didn't list it.

I've been packaging up my Japanese MG seeds and hate to be miserly, but I'm only putting 10 seeds in each pack. I have the Purple streaked and the Pink streaked and some gorgeous dark purple with red stars . The thing is they just get blooming really good and our resident woodchuck comes up on the deck and gives them a haircut. The mailbox out front is covered in blooms but no seed pods. They like morning shade and afternoon sun.

Forgot to say Maxine. The question is are you gona be afats enough piggy to snort oink and bulyl everybody els e out of the way to the trough? hehehehe

Oh and folks, her e is another "What not to do thing when packaging up seeds."

Today I decide d to make up soem mroe packets for the piggy swap. Things wa s goign goood was goign through seed and dividing what I ha d up. Did some Violas adn then decide d to do some Lisianthus.

Now if you have never seen Lisianthus seed, let me tell you it is tinier than bread crumbs, tiner than groudn pepper or even salt for that matter. It just plain tinier than dust.

Last year when I was tryign to get soem ready for the swap, I had my nos e down in the plate tryign to see them and breathe d to hard and either snorte d them up without realizign it or blew them off the plate. See how tiyn the period is at the end of this sentance. That abotu how big the see dis maybe and when yoru half blind, I have a tendency to get in the face of my work.

Well, I remmebre d the mistake I mad elast year and said ok, I gonan try and keep my face back this year and get thes e seeds coutne d and bagged. Thinsg wa s starting off good. Had sorte d and bagge d a few.

Then it starte d gettign hot in here so I opened the back door up to let in some fresh air. Now the table is only a few feet from back door. Thinsg wa s stil going good. Did a couple mroe packets and decide d to open the front door so that air coudl blow from front to back. I opene d doors wid e open adn seen my humemr s out playing, so grabbe d my coffee and stoof outsid e for a fe w watchign them. it was so much fun and so relaxing.

Well, finishe d the coffee and back in a come. I sit down and start makign mroe Lisianthus labels and stickign them to baggie s and then I get ready to add the seed.

I lookign aroudn for the seed. Now I knwo somethign is wrong, but can't figrue out what yet, but have this niggling feelign going on in the back of my head. I pick up the big seed packet to go to pul the seed out from it. The packet is empty. Abotu this time I realiz e that little niggly feeling is really a remidner to me of the fact that I had already dumpe d all the little seed on the coffee saucer to split. up easily.

Now I lookign on top my saucer, I lookign aroudn the edge s of my saucer. I even pick up and check unde r my saucer, but not the first seed can be found. Then I said naw........... surely naw..................... Wher e my seeds?????? I hung my head and said oh no can't beliv e this , not again.

Why... What happened?????? Did a seed fairy walk in and snatch them whiel I was standing on porch? Did one of the tiny birds that liek to fly in the house when doors open come in and have a free lunch?

Nope. By openimg the back and the front door both at the same time, oh I ha d a nice little bree e alright and it was nice and cool then in trailer , but was enough wind blowign through that it blew all them little .........'s all ove r creation in here.

I couldn't find oen seed on the table. Now beign a seed hog , the s ethinsg are runnign through my mind. I wodnering if I cna get out little vacuumn and see fi I cna possible try adn vacumm them back up and then try and distinuish the differenc e between a seed and a dust dot. I thinkign I wodner fi I cna lay tape on the floor and mayeb have the see d stick to it and try and do a fak eout liek it the newest thign in seed tape growing. You'd be surprise d at the crazy ideas runnign through my mind.

But alas, there is no way to fidn them seed s again. I so sad, on the good side. Was glad I had most of the seed packets done. : )

Moral of the story. Make no wind when working with teeny weeny seeds. : )

Mistty. This is a swap. This not atrade. so if you cna onyl giv e three seed s in a apcket and make mor epackets ot share with folsk than that what ya do.

The idea is to share what yaa have, get rid of the stuff ya don't want anymore that been sititgn aroudn ya not gonna sow or left over from trade s an d ya have bit s and pieces of seeds from packets you sowed and ya get a chance to get some new stuff, and have fun and make friends and learn and share yoru knowledge of what you grow and yoru favorites.

Don't feel ba d if ya only put three or fiv e seed s in a packet. Folsk be oinking for just a couple of seeds if they want it. They be fighting over two or three seeds heheheheh

I'll be offering some rudbeckia seeds (Maxine - one is Tiger Eye) but they'll all be F2. The Autumn Colors that I planted from collected seed came pretty true for me this year but Critter's right, it's always a gamble with Hybrids. I'm glad to hear that some other foks have ruds that are new to me and I'm wondering if this is a good idea to even be talking about this yet. Perennially only has a few Maya seeds and I'm already trying to figure out how I can beat everybody else to the punch. LOL!

Another good story, Ella. I thought you were gonna end up saying you poured your coffee into the seed cup and drank the seeds, and I was thinking good thing they're not toxic. Well who knows, maybe they blew out the door and will grow there and you'll have more of them next year.

Lala, I still have flowers on the "maya", so likely I'll be able to get some more seeds before it's over, and I think I have 2 small packs so far. I'm also going to try to collect seeds from its pseudo-maya buddies, though the gorgeous one has only 2 flowers.

Starlight, never a dull moment here, but maybe vacuum the floor and empty the vac in the flower pot and hope some seeds will sprout. Maybe salvage something. Use sticky tape, turn sticky side up and place in pot and sprinkle soil and water. Got to save the seeds.
By the way, I still laugh everytime I think about your seed collecting.

I have been out gathering Mock Orange seeds from my shrub, smells great in the spring when it blooms. Well after opening the pods, I couldn't tell the seed from the chaff, so I packaged pods unopened. Just plant the whole package.

Same for my Crazy Lady shasta daisy seeds. Glad you're not to particular about seed protocols. I can share more this way.

Mittsy, I only just discovered what the shasta daisy seeds look like today. (oh I was so very happy with myself as I almost gave up!) They're hard to find, but look like little sticks that have striations on the side of them. Maybe a bit lighter in color than the chaff. It helps to look in good light. I found about a dozen or so per flower head.

Perennially, I'm finding loads of seeds in each head so hopefully you'll still have plenty. I'm not running short on seed, just time to get them cleaned and bagged. I'd like to have enough so I can share with anyone who wants them, but I'll have to watch a few more movies (I do my cleaning in front of the TV ) before I can make it an unlimited offer. LOL.

Star I swear you and I are kindred spirits. Remember all the troubles I had last year? I don't think I'll ever get over the dog upsetting a tray and mixing about 20 different seeds into one big pile on the floor.

Lala, please do watch tons of movies (and leave the dog in another room)! I've taken to cleaning seeds in front of the tv as well lately, otherwise I probably wouldn't have gotten nearly so far. But the hard to find ones I still have to do at a table with good light.

roflmao!!! i thinks ya did drink the seeds!

Ya know jsxiger. You probably right . Dang I didn't even think of that cuz right next to the seeds while I workign is my coffee cup. Nevr is a cup of coffee fa r from my hands. I wouldn't knwo hwo to survive if I didn't have non stop cups of the java. So the wind probabyl did blow in my cup and I probably drank them. heheheheheh

Wonder if I will go to sleep tonight with visions of bloomign flowers in my head. Might make me sweeter.. hehehe snort. snort.

Well, I and a fe w othe r folsk have dial up and I don't want to open another thread just yet, so everybody make the jump to here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1033667/


That way w e can chat and talk and discuss and help and teach and ask questions or just share or whatever and I can just leave this threa d for the last few folks that may want to sign up.

OH!!!!!! And before I forget, if any of the folks that have signed up abov e and are any type of storm survivor that wa s not on last years list, pelase make sure ya let me know , so we cna get you marked in th especial group of oink to your hearts content and you wont need to do anything else. Well, othe r than send me your addy at the end and name. ; )

Ok everybody grab the in front or behind ya and lets waddle on over to our chat area for the moment.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1033667/

Suuuuuuuuuu eiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!! come on piggy piggy.. follow me. : )