Everything But The Kitchen Sink Swap

[MissS]

This must be where you throw as much chum in as you can into the sea and hope that you land a...

[habitat-gardener]

..What do you consider to be "crap seeds"? I'd like to avoid unintentionally sending crap seeds into swaps, but I honestly don't know what other tomato people consider to be crap.

Old seed (using something like the chart here https://awaytogarden.com/before-you-ord ... viability/
which shows that each reference has a range of dates for average seed viability). I've germinated lots of seed older than these, but for a swap, I wouldn't want older seed taking up space in the box.

Undated seed! Or illegible labels.

Seeds mixed with lots of chaff, such as a quart bag of flower seed + chaff, only a small fraction of which is actually seed.

also: insufficiently sealed baggies, or envelopes that leak seeds, or spiky seeds that poke holes in other seed bags.

[Tormato]

..What do you consider to be "crap seeds"? I'd like to avoid unintentionally sending crap seeds into swaps, but I honestly don't know what other tomato people consider to be crap.

Old seed (using something like the chart here https://awaytogarden.com/before-you-ord ... viability/
which shows that each reference has a range of dates for average seed viability). I've germinated lots of seed older than these, but for a swap, I wouldn't want older seed taking up space in the box.

Undated seed! Or illegible labels.

Seeds mixed with lots of chaff, such as a quart bag of flower seed + chaff, only a small fraction of which is actually seed.

also: insufficiently sealed baggies, or envelopes that leak seeds, or spiky seeds that poke holes in other seed bags.

The only old seed, if any, will be very rare varieties.

Receiving well over 1,000 packages over the years, I've seen just about everything that could go wrong, with seeds that were packaged wrong.

And, here, Murphy's law is in effect. If I spill seeds, and will eventually step barefoot on the one(s) not found and picked up, I will become quite familiar with spiky seeds such as spinach.

[NYTomatoNewbie]

I consider crap seeds to be the following:

- Dollar store seeds that cost a quarter a packet or common seeds you can buy at a big box store like Home Depot or Lowes
- seeds that are not properly labeled with either the correct variety name or a very detailed description of the variety if the name is not known
- varieties that are abundant in a swap (If there is already a bunch of one variety in the package, don’t add more of the same variety).
- marker on the baggy that smears
- not enough seeds included in an individual baggy
- not sealed envelopes or baggies that spill out
- non dated and outdated seeds except for varieties that rarely come through a swap
- collecting seeds incorrectly such as immature seeds or especially for flowers sending in seeds from varieties that are sterile or sending in parts of the the plant that aren’t the actual seed and omitting the seed.
- seeds for aggressive, invasive or restricted varieties
- using the ETBTKS to get rid of seeds that no one would want

[Tormato]

There should be plenty of tomato, pepper (if they get sent in to the MMMM) and bean seeds in the big box.

What else would participants want as for types, not specific varieties, of various veggies and fruits? Examples of what gets sent into the MMMM can be found in the master list for non-tomatoes/peppers/beans.

And, those lists are far outdated for the upcoming MMMM.

[Homegrwoninillinois]

Going to try and make my way back through the binders but count me in for this one as well as MMMM please. I’m waiting on plated seeds to dry so I can start endlessly bagging .

~Sam

[calko42o]

The EBTKSS. It's not a part of the MMMM. But, I'd like to again start up this swap, which I haven't done for well over a decade.

It's a one-way only trade. Near the end of the year, or just after the new year, after gathering up all of the extra seeds from all types of veggies, fruits and flowers (maybe things like garlic, too), I pack it all up into a medium ($16.10 for postage?) or large ($21.50 for postage?) USPS flat rate box. I then send it along to someone who likely has a fairly diverse collection of seeds. They take out what seeds they like, and put some of their collection back in. They'll need to get a flat rate box that the updated contents will fit into, and pay for postage...

to send it along to the next person, who will do the same, and pay for postage...

to send it along to the next person, etc...

I would hope that any participants would go through the contents in less than a week, and send it along to the next person quickly. Flat rate shipping takes 1-3 days, so the package should get to a new person in 10 days or less.

If anyone wants in, I will supply more details.

I'd love to participate in this! I do a couple of these every year in various fb groups. We usually call them round Robin's. Glad some boundaries are being voiced about what varieties we don't want lol looking forward to it!

-caliko

[Stitchingmom]

I'm in. I am really mostly a tomato girl, but I grow cucumbers, beans, peas, and a few peppers. Did I mention the tomato seeds?

[TomatoNY77]

I would like to participate in this.

[Tormato]

Going to try and make my way back through the binders but count me in for this one as well as MMMM please. I’m waiting on plated seeds to dry so I can start endlessly bagging .

~Sam

I'll keep repeating it so almost everyone sees it, do not rush in the packaging of seeds. Try to make sure they are well dried, and then wait a bit longer.

Here, when the oil burner/forced air heating system kicks in, it really dries our the air in the house. I usually remember not to boil any water in the kitchen for a couple of weeks, and take that time to pack up the new seeds. Then things go back to normal.

[Homegrwoninillinois]

Going to try and make my way back through the binders but count me in for this one as well as MMMM please. I’m waiting on plated seeds to dry so I can start endlessly bagging .

~Sam

I'll keep repeating it so almost everyone sees it, do not rush in the packaging of seeds. Try to make sure they are well dried, and then wait a bit longer.

Here, when the oil burner/forced air heating system kicks in, it really dries our the air in the house. I usually remember not to boil any water in the kitchen for a couple of weeks, and take that time to pack up the new seeds. Then things go back to normal.

Everything will absolutely be dry. These days I seem to work at a snails pace.

[JayneR13]

This sounds unique! I've never done a round robin seed trade, so count me in!

Jayne

[Tormato]

The EBTKSS. It's not a part of the MMMM. But, I'd like to again start up this swap, which I haven't done for well over a decade.

It's a one-way only trade. Near the end of the year, or just after the new year, after gathering up all of the extra seeds from all types of veggies, fruits and flowers (maybe things like garlic, too), I pack it all up into a medium ($16.10 for postage?) or large ($21.50 for postage?) USPS flat rate box. I then send it along to someone who likely has a fairly diverse collection of seeds. They take out what seeds they like, and put some of their collection back in. They'll need to get a flat rate box that the updated contents will fit into, and pay for postage...

to send it along to the next person, who will do the same, and pay for postage...

to send it along to the next person, etc...

I would hope that any participants would go through the contents in less than a week, and send it along to the next person quickly. Flat rate shipping takes 1-3 days, so the package should get to a new person in 10 days or less.

If anyone wants in, I will supply more details.

I'd love to participate in this! I do a couple of these every year in various fb groups. We usually call them round Robin's. Glad some boundaries are being voiced about what varieties we don't want lol looking forward to it!

-caliko

One thing that I will be doing is separating varieties into several categories. Just for tomatoes, it will likely be the approximate 20 categories of the MMMM, where all small baggies of a category will go into a large zip baggie. (there is one shark who wants every Russian/Ukrainian variety on the face of the earth, so we'll see how that category goes)

For beans, it will be bush dry, bush snap, pole dry, and pole snap, as major categories. I haven't decided if wax beans, half-runners, true "runner" beans, Asian long beans, limas, etc...will all go in one "other beans" zip baggie. Peppers will be sweet and hot designations, no guarantee on my end to be accurate. Pepper experts will be free to move varieties into the correct large zip baggie, if needed.

Depending on what comes into the MMMM, and enough will be left over for the EBTKS, there will be many other individual large zip baggies. This will be done, so that participants can go straight to the seeds that they want, bypassing the others, and getting the package out to the next person as quickly as possible.

And, do not be shocked if there is a new unused pooper scooper dog baggie labeled "crap" seeds in the box.

[ValsBackyardHeirlooms]

I am also interested in participating in this one too!

[JenJoy383]

I’m definitely interested in doing this one. Sounds like a lot of fun and I’m always excited about sharing my collection with others. Thanks for starting this back up. I can’t wait to see how it all goes.
Jen Joy

[habitat-gardener]

I'm in. I just hope I can manage to put more seeds in than I take out, without bumping up to the next size of box.

[rxkeith]

too many sharks in the water.


i am staying out of this one.



keith

[ranegrow]

I would love to join this one too ! I participated in one we called a round robin many years ago when Garden Web was around and it was fabulous !

[MelinKS]

I'm in

[marisolstice]

I'm in...this sounds super fun

Melons and watermelons are my next favorite category. Maybe also sweet corn?