CLOSED: Come Join Us! 5th Annual Tomato & Pepper Seed Exchange !!!

Hi everyone,

I am hosting another Tomato and Pepper seed swap that will include members from a few different forums.

Here are the guidelines we will follow for this swap. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU READ ALL OF THE GUIDELINES.

1) Seeds must be received by me no later than November 15th, so for those that live in Canada, you must mail your envelope no later than November 1st.. For those in the US and overseas, you need to allow at least 3 weeks mailing time, so please have seeds in the mail by the third week of October.

You can send "named varieties" of tomatoes or peppers (or both). Do not include mixes or seeds labeled "granny's mystery mix" or unnamed bell peppers or anything like that, whether they be commercial pkts of mixed seed, or otherwise. I cannot, in fairness, send mixed or unknown packs of seed back to people that followed the instructions and only sent in "named varieties". If I receive anything like this, the seeds will be returned to you unless they are clearly marked as bonuses.

If you are sending hybrid seeds to exchange, only F1 seeds from a commercial source are acceptable. Your source for the F1 seeds must be clearly labeled on the envelope/seed packet. Do not send in seeds you have collected from a hybrid plant. They will not grow true to the original parent plant. If you are unsure if the seed you have collected is from a hybrid, please do your research online before mailing in your seeds.

2) A minimum of 10 seeds per packet. A maximum of 5 packets of the same seed. An overall maximum of 40 packets per person. Please stick to this limit. You must put your seeds into individual packets. I will not do this for you. Every year there’s a few people that push past this limit and include a note that says “I hope you don’t mind…and by the way…I’d like only rare seeds in return”…LOL. Sorry folks, that won’t work. It’s just not fair to everyone else. Bonus tomato & pepper seeds are of course, more than welcome. I just asked that bonuses be clearly labeled as such.

Please ensure seed packets are clearly marked with the name, and whether they are heirloom, OP (Open Pollinated), or F1 hybrid seeds. If you are sending pepper seeds, it would help me a great deal with sorting if you could indicate on the packages if the peppers are sweet or hot as many individuals in the last swap had clear preferences. If seeds are from a commercial source, please note that as well.

3) If you send tomato seeds, you will receive tomato seeds in return. The same idea for peppers, unless you include a note indicating you want something different in return. You can also send in tomato seeds and ask for pepper seeds in return or visa versa, or any combination. I fully expect a large variety and volume of seed types to be able to accommodate this.

4) Please include a list of what you are sending, your wish list and if there are any seeds you do not want to receive. It is very important to take the time to write out a list of what you are sending, otherwise I have to do it for you and I do not have time for that. If you are only interested in heirloom or OP, please tell me that as well. I will try my best to accommodate your wish list, but there are no guarantees of course. The variety will be completely dependent on what is sent in. In last year's swap, we were able to fill many items on people's wish lists so please take the time to prepare one - it will be worth your while. I do my very best to handle this swap fairly. I will post a separate note shortly listing the highly sought after varieties from last years swap, in case this helps those that are wondering what to send in.

5) You will need to mail your seeds inside a bubble envelope with a return label inside, along with the correct amount of return postage. I will reuse your original bubble envelope to send your surprise seeds back to you. Return postage rates are as follows:

* If you live in Canada - $1.29 return postage stamps (Canadian Stamps only)
* If you live in the US - $2.21 (CAD or US$) (includes tax)
* If you live outside Canada and US - $4.41 (CAD or US$) (includes tax)

All postage rates can be verified on the Canada Post website. For those outside of Canada, you will need to send enough funds to pay for return postage. You can either send concealed cash in the envelope or you could submit payment for postage via Paypal. Please DO NOT send stamps from your country. They will not work here in Canada :)

It's important that you send a regular bubble envelope and not the heavy cardboard insulated type. Weight restriction in this price category is 100g. Please be sure to send a big enough envelope. I would recommend a minimum of 4 x 6 so thickness stays within Canada Post letter mail requirements.

If you change your mind after registering, and no longer wish to participate, PLEASE notify me immediately so we do not delay the swap waiting for your seeds to arrive. This will also save me a great deal of time trying to follow up and track people down.

6) I will d-mail/email you privately with my mailing address once you have posted here to sign up for this swap.


Any questions. Please let me know. Let's have fun exchanging seeds !!!!

Thanks……Heather

Please note - I will be out of town on business November 18 thru 21st and will not be responding to anyone during that time.

This message was edited Sep 23, 2012 9:23 PM

Hurray! I'm in!

count me OUT.



This message was edited Sep 23, 2012 8:17 AM

Just like a bad penney, I keep returning. Count me in again.

Count me in please!

last year was great! may i join again?

kc

Glad to see everyone joining in again..and great to see some newcomers. We've had an awesome response so far in a few short hours. Last year we had 139 people sign up for this swap worldwide....so we have to beat that record !!! Can't wait to see where we land.

I received a question via private message that I thought was worth responding to in this forum as well. If you know someone that is interested in participating in the swap, but they are not a member of davesgarden...that's ok too. Please just have them get in touch with me by private email (my email is sent to you privately when you sign up). I have a number of people participating that are not members of any particular forum. As long as I have their name and email contact, I can keep track easily enough. All I ask is that you do not post my email publicly in any forum, so I do not receive spam.

We're going to have so much fun in this swap...woohoo !!!

This swap is one of my favorites. Count me in.
Alana

My first time and I'd like to try this. Sorry, but I'm not clear on this one point. Is it OK to send in fresh (purchased from last year) seed bought from a seed nursery. Or do they have to be saved from the garden?

Good morning Heather....

I'd love to join in - I sent you a d-mail also.... thanks for hosting again!! -:)

Nancy

Oh, I just re-read the instructions and aswered my own question, Duh =)! OK, I'm in. I always get too excited when I try something new.....

Thanks for your question Terri_emory and welcome aboard. Lots of people send in seeds they purchased in commercial packets. And lots collect their own seeds. The only restriction is hybrid seeds must be commercially purchased f1 seeds. I don't want to distribute seeds that people have collected from hybrid plants, as the seed will not grow to be true. Buying a couple of commercial seed packages and splitting them up into smaller packets for this swap is a great way to expand the variety in your seed collection.

Great to see everyone returning to the swap. Lots of new participants as well. We're already up to 49 participants...and we just got started yesterday!!!

Will contact everyone tonight with further detail. Just got home from work and have some catching up to do.

Hi everyone, I received a question about sending in bonus seeds for sharing. I just love the generosity of the people that participate in this swap. While bonuses are certainly not expected, if you were lucky enough to get a bounty of extra seeds this year and wish to share with the other participants...that would be awesome. As always, I randomly distribute bonus tomato & pepper seeds to the participants. If you were wanting to send in some other type of seed to this swap, could I ask you to send me a private message, as I need to plan for those differently. I need to know about other types of bonus seeds in advance of actually receiving them, as I do not distribute those the same way..as not everyone will express an interest in "other" seeds. Advance communication will allow me plenty of time to plan distribution before the deadline. If I receive other bonus seeds as a surprise in the mail, they may arrive to late for me to distribute.

I very much appreciate what is sent in for sharing with the participants, as I know so many others do too. Please don't feel that you are expected to send in bonuses. This exchange is about sharing and trying new varieties and we like to take special care of our newbies...as we love nothing better than getting others addicted to tomatos and peppers :)

Thanks everyone for all of your assistance in making this exchange a big success !

I thought it would be worth posting a note about tomatillos. Tomatillos are not tomatoes, and as such, should not be sent in for exchanging in this swap. If you want to send some in for bonuses, that's great...I'll open them up to the group to see who's interested. I did not have anyone list "tomatillos" on their wish lists in any of the swaps I have hosted, so wanted to make sure everyone is aware...that they are not considered a valid "exchange" item for this swap. Thanks everyone

We're up to 60 participants and only two days in. Looking good !!!

Sign me up please! I'm interested in heirloom tomatoes and peppers. No hot peppers - can't eat them.
Would love to have new tomato varieties known for sweetness, any size or color. Bell peppers are nice, but also love the sweet peppers. I tried Lipstick sweet pepper this yr. which have a great flavor but are small due to our drought. The Marconi sweet pepper seemed to not mind the dry weather, so try it if you're in a dry climate.

Just a few I can think of that I'll be sending: Tomatoes: Blueberry, Siletz, Rutgers, German Pink Tree, Reisentraube Red Cherry, Jaune Flamme, Mr. Stripey, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, Oranje Von Goeijenbier, Lemon Oxheart, Beefsteak, Fireball, Large Red Cherry, German Red Strawberry........

Peppers: Jalapeno, Early Jalapeno, Hungarian Hot Wax, Big Jim NuMex, Long Red Cayenne, Marconi Sweet.........

Just wondered if a mix of pepper seeds would be permissible if the seeds in the mix are listed?

Hi Midwestfarmwife - I'm sorry but we don't permit mixed seeds in this swap. Not unless you're sending them to give away as bonuses. This is because people want to be able to identify the exact tomato or pepper they are growing and tasting. Many people collect seed from non-hybrid plants and can only do so if they know for sure what they were collecting from. Sorry, please do not send in mixed seeds of any type. Thanks

Yes, it's more difficult to identify varieties in mixtures. I might send some as a bonus (lots of others to choose from). I planted an heirloom mixture of tomato seeds this year and looked each one up online so that I would be able to identify them. I haven't had trouble with tomatoes crossing so far, but did have a bell pepper that was 1/2 orange and 1/2 red. One year my Pink Beans crossed with Jacob's Cattle Beans, and a New England Sugar Pie Pumpkin crossed with a Jumbo Pink Banana Squash.

Thanks Midwestfarmwife - please don't send any seed that you grew from mixes and think you identified on the internet. A lot of tomatoes look the same. So if you are relying on pictures from the internet, you can't really identify the tomato you have grown because there are hundreds of tomatoes that will look exactly the same. Please be sure of what tomato seed you are sending in.



This message was edited Sep 22, 2012 11:00 AM

I personally would not want seeds grown from a mixture and then identified by someone looking at pictures online. What we would be getting is a guess at what it actually is. The only thing you could positively identify would be the tomato color, size, leaf type, plant size, and production. Which narrows it down to hundreds if not thousands of tomatoes that it could be.

This is just my personal opinion, others may feel different about this.

Hi everyone,

As promised, here is a list of highly sought after varieties from last years exchange. The names that appear on this list appeared frequently on wish lists, and in most cases we didn't have enough of that type to filll the wish list. Please keep in mind that there are hundreds of other types of seeds on wish lists. This list only includes those that appeared at a higher frequency level.

I will post a list of seeds that we tend to get way too much of or frequently appear on "do not want" lists shortly. Still working on that.

HIGHLY SOUGHT AFTER TOMATOES

Amazon chocolate
Anna Maria’s Heart
applause
barlow jap
Belgium triumph
Big cheef
Big Sungold Select
black and brown boar
Bulgarian #7
Bulgarian triumph
Client eastwood’s rowdy red
Cow’s tit
Dagma’s Perfection
earl's faux
dancing with smurfs
fordhook first
gary o-sena
gold medal
goose creek
Green doctors
Green doctors frosted
green zebra cherry
JD’s Special C Tex
Little Lucky
Livingston beauty
Mama leone
momotaro F1
Monkey’s Ass
Moravsky div
Nebraska Wedding
neves azorean red
omar's Lebanese
Orange Russian 117
Orange Strawberry
Oxacan jewels
Pale Perfect Purple
Portuguese Neighbour
Prue,
Purple haze f1
russian #117
Sandul Moldovan
Sara black
summer cider
sungold F1
Tarasenko 06
taylor lacey leaf
tim's black ruffles
virginia sweets
Wes
Zapotec
1884 Purple
any of the new dwarfs
any of the boar series

HIGH SOUGHT AFTER PEPPERS

Aconcagua
biker billy f1
Brazilian Starfish
Gypsy
Holy Mole
Lipstick
Manzano
Melrose
Mucho Nacho
orange sun
Purple Jalapeno
Purple Marconi
red savina
rocoto
St. Lucia Yellow Seasoning
sweets - non bells
tobago seasoning
trinidad scorpion
any rare or unusual
Superhots are always on wish lists

Hopefully this information is helpful to some. Thanks.....Heather

Me again,

Here's a list of seeds we tend to get way too much of, or that frequently appear on "do not want" lists. The intention is not to restrict you from sending these seeds in. I realize there are a lot of newer participants that are just starting out and only have these types of seeds to share. By all means, send them in. We'll make sure you'll get some new varieties in return. This posting is made at the request of a number of participants that have asked for this info, in particular those that have lots of seeds to choose from, to help guide them a bit. Here goes:

TOMATOES

Brandywine regular
Green zebra
Large red cherry
Marglobe
Regular beefsteak (simply marked as beefsteak)
roma (regular)
Rutgers
Small red cherry
yellow pear

• A note on cherry tomatoes, we do tend to get a lot of cherry tomato seeds in. A number of members send in quite a few cherry tomatoes but indicate that they do not want cherry tomatoes back. If you send in cherry tomato seeds in, you will very likely get some cherry tomato seeds back (different ones than you sent in of course). This is to be fair because of the volume of these types we receive. There are lots of cherry tomatoes that appear on wish lists. Just want you to be aware that if you send some in, plan on getting some new cherries in return 


PEPPERS

California wonder
Cayenne Red (any kind of red hot- large or small)
Habanero orange
Hot cherry
Jalapeno regular
Mixes of any kind

Hopefully this info is helpful to some. Thanks....Heather

I think that I must have muddied the water by my question about the pepper mix. I don't grow any heirlooms from seeds that I have no clue as to what they are. The commercial pepper mix packet had the varieties listed on the packet. I have not planted this one since I don't like hot peppers. The commercial tomato packet had the tomato varieties listed that were included and were easily identified from one another. I know exactly what grows in my garden and can identify all seeds. I don't search through 1000's of varieties trying to decide what I have and can't imagine who would have that much time available for such an undertaking. As farmers, we must pay attention to what we plant as our income depends upon it, just as our ancestors have done for generations.

I'd like to participate. Will be my first exchange like this.

I would love to participate, but seeing as how I lost all my seeds from our move, I'm still in the purchasing seed stage to grow and start building my seed bank up. Hopefully next year I will have some to offer.

Jan

Mostly do to time restrictions I'm out this year, but thank you for the invite. The other reason I'm not participating is that last year I received many seeds that did not come true. I found this especially with the hot peppers. Unfortunately, the x pollination is not evident in the fruit that year ( yes, I have had pepper pods that were obvious xs, even tho I've been told that is not possible,but I've seen it.). From what Ive read peppers should be kept 600' apart if they aren't isolated. I don't want to start an argument or discussion just thought I'd put this info out there. With all the work that Heather goes to I hate to see a bunch of "mixes" out there.

I'm very grateful for all the seeds I've received but I want to preserve seed types. I think many people just don't realize how easily self pollinating plants cross.

1lisac, it is unfortunate you've had this experience. I wish I would have known you had such an extensive issue with seed quality before now. I would not have moved forward with the swap.

I went back my database from last year and several of the peppers that were sent to you were from commercial seed purchases. The remainder were from people that specialize in peppers.

I have thought long and hard about this and at this point, I no longer wish to continue this exchange on davesgarden. I put hundreds of hours and invest hundreds of dollars into this exchange...and if it only serves to upset people than I don't want any part of it. I value my time too much for that.

In any event, for those people that have already signed up, if you wish to continue participating in this exchange, please send me a private message with your personal email address and I'll continue to loop you in via one of the other forums. I am closing this exchange down to new signups on davesgarden. From this point forward I will not be posting any further updates on davesgarden. This exchange is now closed !!!

OMG all I was saying that if the donor isn't sure the seeds are pure buy some to exchange. That's all I meant. I haven't posted on DG in a couple months, and now I shut down the exchange bc I shared my observations. Don't worry my subscription is up next month I won't renew it. I can't watch everything I post. This also included pepper seeds from the year before.
I NEVER EXPECTED THIS, NOR DID I HAVE ANY IDEA THIS WOULD HAPPEN. I'm SOOO SORRY!

If other people haven't had this experience then maybe it's just me. Heather, I wish I hadn't shared my experience all, not earlier not ever. Bye, everybody.

This message was edited Sep 23, 2012 10:53 PM

Well for myself I have watched and enjoyed the information from either of you,sometimes you have to expect not everything is going to be satisfying to ones own personal desire or want. I have gotten seeds sometimes that did not grow or have plain old goofed a few trades,it happens.
I believe it was Lisa I was talking with about a few tomato seeds from wintersown that had not grown. The others I had gotten are the only reason I have any garden tomatoes this year at all.
One can feel these ways emotionally from the redundant of season after season of few rewards when complaints happen.
All things being what things be or are,as you make your decisions some us will miss you regardless of the few times we have conversed or shared a contemplation or two.

1lisac, don't be upset. One person's decision not to include DG members in a seed exchange is not a good representation of most of the great gardening folks you will "meet" on DG. I am glad that I changed my mind & decided not to participate in this exchange...who needs the drama???

Folks.. I did not want to have to say this, but there are a few reasons I decided to discontinue on davesgarden....in particular, I have received a number of very ignorant private d-mails relating to this exchange late yesterday and quite frankly, I have never seen people act like this on other forums. I am not going to mention names, but I decided it was not worth it, to continue on this forum. If you saw the contents of those d-mails, I think you would understand.

If that makes me a bad person, then so be it. I wish all of you the best of luck in your gardening.



This message was edited Sep 24, 2012 7:09 AM

I started a 2nd garden this year because I was worried about cross pollination, but it was just too much work and most grew up in weeds. I do like my new raised herb bed in it though - might plant mostly pumpkins in there next yr., hoping the vines take over any weeds. The only cross pollination experiences I had were in the above mentioned post, and these were planted very close together. I think in normal circumstances, this won't happen. To clarify my posts about the commercial tomato mix I tried this yr. (1st time with a mix - just for fun), the varieties were listed in the "Rainbow Mix", and easily distinguishable from one another. A couple I was not familiar with, I looked up online. I tried only a few seeds, and they turned out to be Tigerella, which are nice and prolific, but I much prefer my Blueberry and Jaune Flamme seeds for salad tomatoes.

Please remove my name from participation in this exchange.

lol, no dmails from me! Good Riddance though. Exchanges are supposed to be fun.

This swap is a tad bit more than your average exchange and Heather puts a lot of her time and money into this swap and she has done a great job for many years. It makes me sick to think that someone here on Dave's is giving her grief of any kind over this swap.

Heather has no control over how 139 people grow and save their seeds. I would challenge anyone here to take on such a swap and do it for 4 years going on 5 and see if you don't have people saying that they are getting some varieties that aren't what they say they are. Heck, I get the wrong varieties from many of the commercial seeds that I buy. Just don't save the seeds if it doesn't come true and try again with a different source. Mother Nature always gets the last laugh, you can cry about it or laugh with her.

Good for you Heather for not putting up with it!

Heather's the best.

Thank you Heather, for not cancelling the swap on the other sites. I am looking forward to it.

That was my whole point. Heather has done a great job and no I couldn't do it. I know that Heather has no control over the seeds she sends out. I just wanted to point out that saving seeds can be a challenge and some people don't realize how difficult it is to save true seeds. I'm sorry I messed it up for everybody, that was not my intention, I never saw it coming. I thought if people realized that they were sending crosses, without realizing it, they might buy seeds (still a chance of a cross).

I didn't mean to ruin it for everybody, I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry for my ignorant post. I won't do it again. That post was meant to people sending seeds NOT Heather. I send in 3 of my own saved pepper seeds bc I know they are pure. No bees or wind in the house. All I meant to do was give a heads up. I remember Rick being upset in an exchange bc he got seeds that weren't true, and he wished somebody had let him know. I realize now that letting people know isn't a good idea either. What I do know is that Heather has no control over the seeds she sends, I thought that was obvious. I'm sorry I posted at all to begin with. I don't want people taking sides. I'm sorry for all this.

I have participated in a lot of swaps over the years and Heather's is right at the top of the list. Folks, there is no way to prevent mistakes in seed saving. Even if you blossom bag and or isolates varieties, or grow only one variety, Murphy's law alway comes into play eventually. Even if you do it all perfectly there could be a genetic twist. Yes it's disappointing to think you are growing one variety and it turns out to be something else. Although sometimes what you get turns out to be a pleasant surprise. You can always get seeds from another source and grow that variety next year and unless, of course you are dead, and then you really won't care. Keep it fun folks. Tomato garden should be fun and a stress releiver.

AGREED!!!^_^