seed and plant exchange

lindos90

Hi,
I have just joined a new yahoo group, (that had a link on the freecycle group I am a member of), it looks quite interesting, so thought I would pop a link here for you.

I have only just joined, so dont know quite how it works yet, but it looks like people share plant knowledge, seeds etc. Its free to join, (and free to get a yahoo email account if you dont already have one)

You do have to join as a member, to access the whole site and send emails to the group, but it is fairly easy to set up

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Seed_Exchange_UK

It looks like they are trying to expand their membership, so the more the merrier!

olly300

Thanks for that.

Do they take seeds you collect yourself?

I'm discovering that lots of my plants produce seeds which I'm collecting but I won't be able to use them all.

lindos90

Yes, im sure this is just the thing they are aiming at. As long as you say what the palnt is, an if its annual/perenial etc.
It looks as if its set up for seed swapping, (but whats the chance that someone has exactly the seeds you have, and you want exactly what they want to give?) and seed donation, where I guess you pay for the stamp to send seed, but then if you ask for some seeds, the sender pays to send them to you. (Im only guessing though, as Ive not been sent much info yet!)

jiblets1

thanks for this, I've just joined up - shall try to figure it all out now!

nodwah

Hi, I joined this seed exchange last year and at that time there was a discussion about reusing pre paid envelopes that you get in junk mail. I know people do that but I think that is very dodgy.

Anyway, I got seeds in exchange and what actually grew was not what I wanted eg courgettes grew when I'd been told they were spaghetti squash. So I'm afraid I've been put off by that and I'm not swapping with people I don't know any more, it's a lot of wasted time and effort to grow the wrong thing!

RAS

Hi folks

A bit of basics on seed saving, which is important if you want to swap seeds.

As nodwah notes, the most basic thing is to label your seeds properly.

Next off is that some plants will cross pollinate madly, like nearly all the squashe, pumpkins and marrows will fertilise each other as will nearly all brassicas and beets, so you get a mixed squashy thingie or a cabulicole instead of what you are expecting.

Other plants will come true because they are self fertile. This includes tomatoes, lettuce, french beans and peas, although you need a bit of space between two lots of peas. if you hand polinate then you can keep squashes and pumpkins pure and sweetcorn.

The other thing is that seed saved from F1 hybrids will not save true, if they are real hybrids.

Frugal_Mouse

Hi seed-swappers,

I thought you might be interested in the following link if you are looking to swap or maybe just to store your own seeds:

http://www.thecountrygardener.co.uk/library/files/Seed_Packet.pdf

Happy and successful swapping :-)

F M