Winter Seed Swap

I know that it is technically fall for a few more days, but I wanted to get folks thinking about our annual MA Winter Seed Swap. Several of us were conversing about this at the Fall Plant Swap at Ric and Holly's and thought that it might be good to hold it in January. Many seeds require starting indoors 10 - 12 weeks before the last frost, and most native plants give best germination results when winter sown. Some of these seeds need 3 months of cold exposure, and in fact, I have winter sown over 30 species this past week. If our event is scheduled for February, and weather forces a postponement, then there is insufficient time to properly utilize some of the seeds acquired. Please add your input to this matter.

I agree. It's better to plan for January so that we have some wiggle room in case Old Man Winter is grumpy again.

This message was edited Dec 15, 2014 10:17 PM

January is fine with me as far as I know. I personally am not counting on sowing seeds nor have much to share that would need special treatment. So maybe I shouldn't vote.

Ok here too...I do not sow all that many seeds.
Seldom WS. Never had much luck.
Cuttings are taking up most of my lights space right now.

FYI--ALL of my Fig cuttings are rooted and are growing leaves.
Let me know who may be interested.
I will pot them up individually for the Spring Swap.
Right now they are in a "group container".

Gita

I'm flexible and will enjoy the get together whatever date is decided on. I haven't had much luck with seed sowing either - my own fault due to time management. I've gotten things to germinate using the winter sowing method, but never seem to get the seedlings transplanted or up-potted when I should. I usually kill them off in that in between period sigh...

I was just looking at the calendar and thinking along the same lines... glad I saw this thread!

January 31 is a Saturday, as well as being the day before Groundhog's Day -- that's my usual time for starting to winter sow seeds, because I've had too many seeds pop up during a January warm spell only to die when temps plummet again a week later.

So my thought before coming across Greenthumb's post was to schedule for Jan 31, with a "snow date" of Feb 7 or 21. Does that work well enough?

While we're talking about seeds... I'm putting in a small order with Hazzard's Seeds, so if you want something (with no shipping charge) please let me know asap. They have big packets for splitting and sharing. I know it's last minute, but I'd like to get my order in first thing in the morning, as there are seeds in it for Starlight's Piggy Swap.

1/31 sounds good!

The sooner we decide on a date the better it'd be for me.

That timing sounds great to me.

We'll wait for David to chime in, and if he's good with 1/31/15 also, we can mark our calendars.

Check your calendars too, please, and let me know which date would work as a "snow date" -- either Feb 7 or Feb 21. I can ask Chef Lin to pencil in a snow date for us (especially if it's further out like the 21st), and we can try to hold that afternoon free on our collective schedules... hopefully it'll be a moot point.

In previous years, people have argued against a January meeting time because of winter weather. But I think we're as likely if not more likely to get bad storms in Feb. Maybe picking a late Jan date and a snow date will turn out to be the way to go from now on.

Either snow date works for me.

Chiming in for David here. He says that the 31st is great and that 2/7 works for us as a snow date. What a treat to get together a bit earlier and visit!

Good! Let's set the date for Jan. 31, then, and maybe shoot for "by/before Groundhog's Day" as our annual time from now on.

If 2/7 is the best snow date, 'm not going to ask Donna to hold 2 Saturdays in a row for us -- she won't have much of a chance to fill the 2/7 slot if we come on the 31st. We'll hope the weather cooperates, and if not we'll take pot luck with whatever she has available the following weekend. Or we'll punt and *gasp* find another venue.

Frederick schools are out 2/13 and 2/16, so we'll likely have other plans for that long weekend -- that's why the 14th isn't a possible snow date. Plus, the Young & Restless among us might have Valentine's Day plans!

The 31st sounds good to us. Yippee!

lol Ric!

Since I haven't made it to a seed swap yet I have no preference. Just hoping those that may be scheduled to work on Sats like Sallyg can arrange their schedules! I like the snow day provision, too.

I haven't checked but should be OK

Shoot!
I only have one month to get my seeds organized!

There goes my DR table....again. I just cleaned it off and decorated
it a bit with greens and a big Santa. It looks nice not to have junk all over it...
G.

I'm in but I don't have anything to share. Would just be nice to hang out with all you crazy critters though :) The 31st is 3 days after my birthday :)

Don't worry, swapping seeds is just a cover for visiting and stuffing ourselves at the buffet.

Haha, sounds good to me! Where's it at?

Jill (critter) has made the arrangements for a number of years and will undoubtedly post particulars in the near future. The venue has been at Chef Lin Buffet in Frederick ,MD where we dine in one area and retire to a separate room for our activities.

Oh ok, got ya

Hope you are coming, Seq! I don't plan to do much swapping either, but much visiting and eating, yes

Yep, it's as much a midwinter social event as anything else... fun to visit with folks whose eyes don't glaze over after 38 seconds of "talking plants." Spouses, kids, friends welcome of course. Jim often just comes and visits during the meal and disappears once the seeds come out. LOL

The "event thread" isn't up yet, but last year's thread will give you a good idea: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1347154/

Please don't post on that thread, though, or it will be "bumped up" and cause confusion!

Find the theme to this page
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/search.aspx?searchterm=baby&isusersearch=1

; ^D

Lol...'people who's eyes glaze over when talking about plants.' I get that a lot.

awwww, Sally. sweet.

*humming*
"____, I'm-a want ya, ____ I'm-a need ya..."

awwww, Sally. sweet.

*humming*
"____, I'm-a want ya, ____ I'm-a need ya..."


BTW, does anybody else want something from Franchi (US retailer is "Seeds from Italy" at ihttp://www.growitalian.com/ ) ? There's a thin-stemmed chard that's supposed to be very spinach-like that I'd like to try, and I'd probably find a couple other goodies.

They have sharing-sized packets, for sure... in the past, what I've ordered from them has had easily 2-3 times the seeds of any other retail pack. Theresa's family often orders from them. Their shipping starts at $6 I think, so splitting an order makes sense. For simplicity, let's say add $1 per packet for shipping -- and of course if we order more that amount will go down. The size of the packs makes that extra dollar worthwhile, especially on things like lettuce mixes where you'd like to do multiple sowings.

Actually, I think I need to move further discussion of the above to the new group buys forum...

I'm going to make a general thread there for sharing/splitting seed orders. I know it's the time of year that a lot of us are browsing seed catalogs, and often there's just 1 thing that you'd like -- but not if you have to pay that minimum shipping charge on it!

So, please go there to post where you're planning to order from, or what you'd like from where, and we'll see if we can save ourselves some money!

link coming soon...

Here's the thread for seed company orders, if you're willing to let people add things to your order:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1383527/

Officially, I'm going to say it's a local offer only, if somebody from outside our area posts... it's up to you if you want to Dmail them and offer to send seeds. If we open the thread to everybody, it would become an incredible zoo. If you want to do a larger offer like that, I can help with details, but you'll need your own thread in the group buy forum.

Already started my seeds.Have plenty.Happy New Year everyone. Hope 2015 is a much better year for myself and my family!

Happy New Year Sos07. Hope you will come to the seed swap even if you don't need/want any more seeds. You live so close by and we would like to meet you in person.

Nice to see you posting! I hope you'll come.. and bring your sweet DH!

I'll look at Pinetree Seeds today, in case anyone wants to share an order, and shipping.
DMAIL me if you want to talk.

The only seed I need to buy is Sun Sugar cherry tomato. I hear it's the best tasting cherry tomato and it consistently wins tasting competitions.

I'll probably sow 15 seeds and keep 7-8 plants at the most. Is anyone else interested?

SS--

Last summer, when we had loads of Tomatoes plants available
on the "Bonnie" tables, I once asked one of the Guys, who bring
us the veggie plants, why we were not getting more "Sun Golds" in??

He said that "they" (?) had, sort of, re-named the Sun Gold as "Sun Sugar"
and that they were one and the same.

I grow "Sun Golds"--and they ARE the sweetest and best.
Be interesting to grow it side-by-side and compare tastes......

Just FYI....Gita

ssg I would be happy to take a leftover sun sugar or two. DO you already have seed?

Pinetree lists both Sun Gold and Sun Sugar and says Sub Sugar is sweeter if you can believe it. That might be too sweet!

Gita, I think the guy may have been confused about the names. Bonnie has both Sun Sugar and Sun Gold on their website, and Sunset Magazine says Sun Sugar is sweeter. For me, the sweeter the better!

Sally, I was going to order Sun Sugar along with some bell pepper seeds, possibly from Bonnie's.

I hope to give away the extra seeds at the seed swap and also have extra seedlings at the spring swap.

thanks ssg, I might just order packets myself too, to be sure, $1.95 each packet of fifteen seeds.

Anyone know a great sweet pepper ripening to red for this area?
MD Extension probably has recommendations here if I poke around some more

This message was edited Dec 31, 2014 9:54 PM

[quote="sallyg"]thanks ssg, I might just order packets myself too, to be sure, $1.95 each packet of fifteen seeds.

Anyone know a great sweet pepper ripening to red for this area?
MD Extension probably has recommendations here if I poke around some more

aha

http://extension.umd.edu/sites/default/files/_images/programs/hgic/Publications/HG70_Recommended_Vegetable_Cultivars.pdf