Jessie, it's great that you will be in the swap! As long as your description of your pkt size is pretty close, that's a fine amount to offer. Someone who really wants to try out a variety will welcome enough seeds to get a few plants. Someone who wants to scatter-sow a block and eat them all summer will pick out larger packets.

I think that "20 seeds" is a minimum for things that are not rare or expensive. That might work for perennials where you only need a few plants, and then you have as many as you want forever. I think that if germination is low or unknown, more than 20 seeds is kind. For hand-pollinated big seeds like daylilly seeds, or5 hard-to-collect Salvia seeds, small numbers might be appropriate.

And for common, annual, edible crops, I try to include at least enough seeds that they will get enough plants to really know how they like them, even if germination is low. What would that be, 5-10 row feet?

Mostly, I divide up whatever amount I have and try to get 5-10+ pkts out of it. But I learned from past swaps that if my pkts "look small" to my eyes, I'm not happy. Maybe the person receiving it won't be happy either. That must not be!

Now I figure that I would rather give away fewer packets, big enough to make me feel proud. The unusual and expensive hybrids are exceptions, because it might take several commercial packets just to add up to 1/8th tsp! Then I put "SMALL PACKET" in the description, and figure that someone who picks it, must really want to test that exact variety, even if they didn't get enough seeds for succession planting.

When I make up trade packets, the size depends on the size of the seeds, age, how many seeds I have, or how much they cost me. When I get a bulk pack at a great price, like a whole OUNCE of small Brassica seeds, or inexpensive OP seeds, I'll put 1/8 tsp or more.

If they are a pricy Brassica hybrid and I only got a small pinch myself, the packet will be 1/16th tsp ~~ 125 seeds

Lettuce was mostly 1/4 tsp to 1 tsp, except for some varieties that were more expensive - 1/16th tsp or 1/8 tsp.

I only bought small, single pkts of Frank Morton's "Flashy" series lettuce because they were newish and pricey that year, so I made just a few pkts of 30-50 seeds each: "scant 1/32 tsp ~~ 30 seeds SMALL PKT". I see that the online price of those new varieties is already dropping!

For chard or spinach (big cheap OP seeds), I made packets of 1/2 or 1 teaspoon. One kind of chard was older and I had a lot, so I made pkts of 1.5 tsp >150 seeds >2.5 gram. When my seeds get a few years old, I would much rather several people had enough of them to sow lots and not worry, rather than just let them keep getting older in a tub inside a box!

I just LOVE saving, collecting trading seeds. You meet the nicest people and a HUGE variety of seeds, without paying an arm, a leg and a kidney for S&H.

In my case I have an extra reason to feel good about seed trading. I make some other people feel LESS crazy!

@Jessie6162 I saw your wishlist and would like to ask you if you could list plants that butterflies like. I actually don't like butterflies so I have no idea what flowers they like. I will have some Queen Anne's Lace seeds soon. Would they like that?

I may also have some small flowered daylily seed crosses (mostly with Buffy and Siloam Little Girl as pod parents). I may also have some seeds from last year that I kept in the fridge if you'd be interested. I started some this summer and got good germination rates.

Elena, one of the biggest things that butterflies like is milkweed.

For more butterfly-attracting flowers, here is a list put out by the Farmer's Almanac:
http://www.almanac.com/content...


I noticed that lavender is on the list, so I might see if the goldfinches left any seeds on my lavender bushes for me to collect. I'm also going to try and collect seed from my shasta daisies and see if I can get some snapdragon seed from my neighbor. I never did end up planting all of the floss flower I got from a previous swap, so I might offer some of what I have left of that, too.

Edited to add: oh, and there will be daylily seeds in there, too. I should have quite a few this time around!

Asters
Fleabane Metamark
Hollyhock several , unsure
Stinging nettle questionMark , red Admiral
Sunflowers unsure
Mustards the White's
Some of the Butterfly Host planr seeds I can do ,
My dill Fennel
parsley
Some others did not do well this time , super easy , but hey ,, sometimes ,,,


Littlecheryl has the prairie Dock , that is a host plant of a Hairstreak ,

Thank you for all the great info!
Butterfly plants for my area:
Ironweed, butterflyweed (also a good host plant), joe-pye weed, summer phlox, thrift, buttonbush, abelia, lilac, liatris, native asters, sunflower, tithonia or Mexican sunflower, purple coneflower and zinnia. 
Sunflowers also attract goldfinches, so that's a plus.

I had a feeling it would be a lot of native and wildflowers. I don't grow any of them because I don't have the space. Anything that grows to be over 2 ft and is a perennial isn't going to be grown in my garden. I did grow zinnias one year (a friend gave me seedlings) but they didn't attract any butterflies, only bees.

Jessie there are several there I usually have , Some I may or can do , My seeds are looking a litte less this year , most of those I usually have ,
Coneflowers You may have to refrigerate to stratify , I don't know your weather ,
Milkweeds I usually have bunches of seed of three or four species but as said looking a litte thin here ..

Purple Coneflower seeds drying now look good , 3 A seeds .. very few seeds like that this year , Their actually better than you could buy usually ,
I will see what I can put in the trade , I have to look some ,,

jimard8 said: Anticipations ...








DnD A possible is , Question , are peeled Half Cloves Okay ? I remember something About some things being to large , Boxes being Weight oriented (no matter of weight ) The question might be silly I thought i would ask anyway .

Jim, I don't know if I ever answered your question--sorry about that! As far as weight is concerned, don't be concerned. The fee is set where it's at so that the overall amount paid for shipping by everyone should cover all shipping charges for everyone, regardless of weight or number of packets any one person gets.

I went to the grocery store yesterday to pick up some organic shallots or organic garlic and they didn't have either. Are you still planning to offer cloves of either in the swap? If so, I'll hold off purchasing them to see if I'm lucky enough to get dibs on them in the swap.
supposedly they can be planted up until November. What variety do you have?

...And, come to think of it, I still have some organic garlic cloves in my pantry. I might even be able to offer a packet of them myself!

DnD If I can get enough of them I will offer a few . I brought in a bulb in for Pasta yesterday
I have been thinking about putting a few pods of bubils in the ground after I dig them ,
Garlic is small here , no giant bulbs ,
I will get digging fork before long I see how I many are there I usually grow a two to three foot square of them , Bulbs are about 8 small cloves at best , Not one of my giant growers here .

One is probably at the market Not always a good season , and even suppliers are getting pricey Out west is a better grower , Like corn is here Garlic is someplaces there and further south

Yes they are a fall planted , like some shade here with a better grade of soil than usual They taste better in cooler weather , Usually they sprout about early mid spring

Thank you for answering , I was wanting to see if there was any interest before I put a few in the swap ,

Jim, I grew garlic for the first time last year and was really happy with my harvest (a friend gave me some extra cloves). I'd definitely bid on your garlic if you offer it! I don't get big bulbs either but the stuff you grow yourself is much better tasting!

Elena I bubils in the trade as I update my list I will look and see about cloves ,

DnD German Red .and
Polish Snake , which is listed someplaces as Siberian and something like Striped ,, (both are a hard red )

some cloves around a quarter

I ordered three kinds of pole snap beans (French beans = green beans) from farncii and added them to my swap list. But I won't "check them green" until they arrive from Franchii.

Purple Pole Snap Bean Phaseolus vulgaris 'Trionfo Violetto'
Name means “Purple Triumph”
OP 75 days. Lavender flowers
Purple bean turns green when cooked.
Climbing French type pole bean.
Beautiful bean, long, slim and very crisp.


Pole Snap Bean Phaseolus vulgaris ‘Smeraldo’
Long flat roma type from Northern Italy.
Pale green and stringless. Name means “Emerald””
Excellent taste & texture & production.


Pole Snap Bean Phaseolus vulgaris 'Santa Anna'
Deep green pole French type bean. Excellent taste.
Pick when no thicker than a pencil. Good producer over a long period

I've had trouble logging in to Johnnies Seeds lately, anyone else?

The swap is fast approaching and I'm just beginning to get seeds dried enough in the garden to harvest. I'm afraid that I will have alot more thru Sept and Oct that wont be ready to offer, but will do my best to offer some goodies of what I DO have.

Jim, I would bid on some garlic as well. Have never grown it, but would like to try. I love that I can plant in fall and harvest in spring, as I'll actually have some ROOM to grow it

We'll see how this year goes having the swap in September. Our previous swap(s) were in the winter and I knew I wanted to move the swap to the fall, so I'd hoped that September would be a good month, but it's all still a learning process. If the general consensus is that September doesn't allow enough time for seeds to ripen, I may bump the swap back to October or November in future years to see how that works out. When I had decided on the dates for this year, I had a couple of reasons that I didn't want to do October or November, but hopefully in future years I'll be able to work around those and they won't hinder the option of later-season swapping.

Maybe later in September would be a better idea. It would give us a few more weeks for seeds to ripen. Even early October could be good. But by November people are in holiday mode and don't have time to spare for a swap. And after the holidays is far too late as far as I'm concerned. I start seeds in January so any seeds gotten in a swap wouldn't even be planted until the next year.

October was my initial plan for the 2016 swap, but, as I mentioned before, there were a couple of things that made me change to September for this year that shouldn't be an issue for next year.

If I forget to do a poll after this swap, will you remind me to? I'm going to ask everyone at end of this swap if this was a good time or if they would prefer a different time (and, if a different time, whether early-October, Mid-October, Late October, or early November would be best). I don't know if it is prudent to ask for replies just yet, though, I want to give it a whirl in September and see if it works out better than most people thought it might.

DnD For the Fall start it has a good possibility , Also a more time to set up wintersowing , Not bad at all really , rotation from year to year ,

As for me , Much easier to collect onions and Garlic this time ,as last time was too late , I don't really like dry holding them any length of time ,
I did get several plants from the last swap , did not get enough of them in the garden , so truthfully I am still trying
more goodies .

This evening I'll likely be adding my daylily seeds from 2015 crosses that I have available. @jimard8 - there will be some red crosses that I think you'll like!

Also, I listed a pack of red columbine, but is anyone interested in blue columbine? If there's a lot of interest, I'll try to do 2 packs of the blue, but if there isn't much interest, I'll only do 1 or none at all.

DND I'll try and remind you about the poll at the end of the swap.

Not sure about the columbine. I planted seeds I got in a swap and have several plants that are still waiting to be put in the ground. No idea what colors they are. I probably wouldn't bid on any this time around.

The heat has broken for a couple of days so I'll see what I can pack up and list. Need to go out tonight and look for more ripe cosmos seed.

I dug a few Garlic bulbs today and they look rather poor , Afer they dry a little another look

I have been trying to replace no return plants and die outs , Takes me a few years if I stay feeling well to do that

next couple after dinner agenda are sorting ,flowers . Vegetables , and butterfly plants , and empties into seperate freezer bags . then all will be relabeled
and crisper stored ,

This season I will see if I can control myself a little and only pick half a dozen or so to try ,I way over did it before
and myearth mixes and mulches take me forever to do as the ground here is well ,,, Bad ,,,,