Winter Sowing Seed Swap

********Please see part 2 of this thread, continued...
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/668131/



This message was edited Nov 8, 2006 4:31 PM

Me, please!

:-)

I'm in...thanks!

Sounds fun...please count me in!

Thank you,

Rhonda

I wanna play too!

Same here.

Suzy

Me too -- sounds like fun! Should we wory about zones? Meaning -- if a lot of southerners participant, I won't be able to grow their tender plants. Or is that just the luck of the draw? And how will you manage to divide and identify all these seeds -- will you need help with labeling them?

I think seeds should be sent in individual packets, clearly labeled and with as much culture info as you have, including if you WS'ed them successfully in your zone. I always put my DG name on seed packets also, so people can check my zone and can Dmail me with questions. More info is always better, and we've got plenty of time to make up good labels... If I'm doing a bunch of packets, I like to print up inserts and just tuck them into the little zip baggie with the seeds.

I'm not worried about more tender plants -- as long as they're identified, I know to start them in early spring rather than sowing them here in winter.

Well, critter.....I think that's a great idea....but I won't be able to say if they're ws'able or not....I can give a link to a really great wintersow forum tho! ;-)

Sure...sign me up! I won't have anything real exotic to share but I have been collecting seed from my garden and I am sure I will have way more than I could possibly use.

- Brent

I agree with Critter, however, I'm not adding anything inside the individual packets except for the seeds (which will be 25). Yes, the size of the seed does matter. With larger seeds, I think that 12-15 seeds per packet are more than enough. Any thoughts on this?

I print as much information on the outside of the packet as possible:
Botanical name (if known)
Common name
Perennial, Annual, Herb, Vine, Veggie
Height
Sun, pt. sun, etc.
Any other information that I feel the person should know such as - seeds are poisonous, self-sower, germinates well, etc.
Zones are great if you know them. If not, the person can look them up in Plant Files.

What grows as an annual in one part of the country may grow as a perennial in another area. I wouldn't worry about this.

Alice: Will you provide a list in the original bubble wrap envelope that lists who the seed swap will go to next? Do you want people to sign in on this thread or another one when they receive the envelope and/or when they are sending it to the next participant? That way you can keep track of the envelope.

Alice can correct me, but as I understand it we will each mail Alice an envelope with 20 packs of seed. Once she has all 400 packs, she will divide them up and send everybody back an envelope with 20 packets of seed.

BTW, I have never shared seed. The first year I harvest seed I was so afraid that none of them would germinate or that I was saving the chaff. It turns out I had great luck with the seed that I harvested so I am hoping for the best.

- Brent

Oh, I thought the swap would be done like a Round Robin. Now, I'm confused.

Brent: Don't worry about chaff with your seeds. I wintersow chaff along with the seeds in all my containers. The chaff doesn't hurt anything. Sometimes the chaff is a real pain to separate from the seed. Make it easy on yourself.

Count me in also. I'm going to try Winter sowing this year and I will have plenty of seeds. Just think this is good way to get a variety of seeds. Lou

OK, I'm in and setting this thread on Watch!

Can I paly as well? this is my first big swap I'm excited to do this.
Thanks,
Bryan

Shirley,
Brent is correct, when I receive all the seeds from everyone, I'll divide them up and mail them back to all who sent them in.
That's why you enclose a return address and postage.
It's the same as any other seed exchange just on a larger scale.
Alice

Oh, and a big YES PLEASE! on the idea of using botanical names, especially if you're not including other information on zone, height, wet/dry, etc... if I have the botanical name, I can look up all the rest in PF!

Ok, I'm a little slow on the draw here. So I haven't harvested any of my own seed. But I can play by getting about 500 seeds of one plant, and dividing it into 20 packages myself, which I carefully label. I thought originally you wanted me to send 20 different seeds, enough of each to divide amount 20 people, so I'd get 400 seeds. Seemed a little excessive! I'd still be sowing in August!

Count me in too please,

Critter, there is alot of seeds I have no idea what the names are. I have done a lot of trades since starting here in May and alot of the names I can't even make out. So printing the names clearly would be a big help too. Now I am going to show how dumb I am :o), what is the botanical name?


Connie

happy, she meant you could do it either way, most ppl send a variety if they have it. :o)
CG

But do we divide it up into groups of 20 -- so I might send 20 impatiens packages, and 20 salvia packages, and 20 forget-me-not packages?

No just a total of 20 packets :0)

say you had 5 impatiens packages, and 7 salvia packages, and 8 forget-me-not packages, or 20 of all one kind.

This message was edited Sep 15, 2006 10:37 PM

So then Alice will decide how to divide them among the 20 of us? (Which is fine -- I just want to understand how this works -- just a little mysterious. I haven't collected seed, so I'll need to buy some for this purpose.)

Yes, count me in too, this will be so much fun. I'm new at this but I look forward to WSing! ;0)

Hi garden6, this will be my first year too. I can't wait :)
cg

Hi to you Ce, my gallon milk jugs are washed, dried and sitting in the garage. thanks to everyone for the info and encouragement to WS ;0)

Got it, thanks Alice.

Just 20 packets of seeds total per participant.

Latin Botanical Name (example): Rudbeckia hirta
Common Name (example): Black-Eyed Susan
If you don't know, it can be easily searched for in Plant Files.

And are the number of seeds per packet as suggested by Shirley? 25 for small and medium size seeds and 15 for large? I'm asking because in previous threads about the number of seeds per trade, the number has always been 10.

Hey, how about some zone 3 and 4 people joining in?

Oh Sign me up too please!! I love wintersowing. Thanks for hosting this! : ) Nancy

Well I am not sure of the number of seed per pack, don't know how many I will have :(

Connie

With the number of seed heads on some of my plants, I think my packets will contain way more than 25 seeds! I try to pack as generously as I can... some seeds are more scarce, or hard to clean, and some purchased seed packs just don't have much in them even if you're only splitting them in two. I think you have to use good judgement... 25 mixed zinnia seeds might be a disappointment, but 25 seeds of some gorgeous, unusual hybrid zinnia from a purchased pack might be very welcome.

I'm not sure there's a consensus on "how many seeds," but I figure I'll get back 20 packets from 20 different people, so some will have more seeds and some will have fewer, and it'll all work out just fine. :-)

I copied this from the seed trading primer on seed trading forum: That depends on the seed - its size, the typical germination rate, and how rare it is. A general rule of thumb is to put at least a little more than the commercial seed catalogs offer in a package of similar seed. Very tiny seeds are usually measured in fractions of a teaspoon (1/16th, 1/8th, etc.); larger seed that are easily counted should be listed as number of seed.

If your seed is rare and/or you have a small amount to trade, the general rules of thumb don't necessarily apply. Just be sure to let traders know how many seeds you can send, and they can choose whether it's worth the postage expense.

I think if we stick to the standard trading etiquette everybody would be happy.

I agree with critterologist, I try to add more when I have more. And some seeds, like foxgloves which is just barely larger than dust, you could never count them.
And if the seeds have a lot of chaff I try to double the amounts I would normally send to insure a fair amount of actual seeds.
Most the plants in my garden have come from winter sowing, I've yet to find anything that I can't winter sow with at least some level of success even though we have very little winter here most years.
Alice

Thanks to you all above, who are taking the time to give us newbies to WS and seed swap some reasonable gudelines for the seeds ;0)

I'm a newbie & would love to be in on this. I will be sending Bright Lights Cosmos since I've had a bumper crop this summer!
Etravia

Oooh, I'm in as well please! At least with a month or more I can hopefully label my seed packets with more info than I usually do!

Thanks for the great opportunity AliceWho :)

~Sunny

Would love to join this swap! Count me in.
JoAnn

hi there

count me in please

pamsue:)

I'm off to a good start! This afternoon, I collected seeds from agastache ('Honey Bee Blue' and 'Honey Bee White'), Chocolate Daisy http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1605/index.html, Lion's Ear, Black-Eyed Susan, Salvia lyrata 'Purple Knockout', Nicotiana, and a burgundy hollyhock.... unfortunately, I think I missed the main flush of seeds on the creeping thyme, as they seem to have fallen during the recent rains.

Are only this year's seeds acceptable for the swap? I have several reseeding annuals (in quantity) that are good wintersowing candidates, but the seeds were collected last year... germination was just fine this spring, and they've been stored in the dark at air-conditioned room temperature. If they're not OK for the purposes of this swap, that's fine, but I figured I'd ask for the sake of variety. :-)