poisondartfrog's "Not from the Seed Rack Seed Swap" might be absorbing some potential traders.

Probably. It's okay.

If this one goes I will be here , But i am about traded green this year , Lots to try and tons to do a pound at a time ,per say
Growing lots of garden spiders this season , Trying to sort my mind (if that's possible ,
Yes i am that mood today ,
Hopefully next season will be bright and cheerful , hoping winter is too

What about a semi-active participant? I should have time to offer some seeds, but may not be available to claim any during that time frame.
Alana

I invited poisondartfrog to join us the night before she started the NFTSRSS she said she was just about to post it but thanked me for the offer and invited me to join her swap. I doubt I'll have enough seeds to do her's also but we will see as I'm still harvesting seeds. I'm also going to be looking at some vendors to see what seeds they have that might be fun to add in the mix.

I plan to be in both swaps.

Hey, Ella isn't running her Hog Wild Piggy Swap this year, so I HAVE to make up for it SOMEhow!

I was in both swaps last year. Both were good. But the timing of her swap is just too late for me. I should be wintersowing in December and sowing seeds indoors in January. I just volunteered to start seeds for a friend so I HAVE to stick to my schedule.

Rick you are a seed trading animal my friend.
Alana that wouldn't be fair to you to give seeds and not accept any in return. I do hope you can find the time to join us but don't worry about joining if you don't think you'll be able to claim any seeds in return.

De - WELCOME!!!

Alana, How generous to join to offer seeds up, while not necessarily being able to claim any!
I plan to do your swap as well, Im just pacing myself to make sure I have enough good seeds to offer. I have purchased some as well recently. Hoping they are here for this swap and I can get them ready, etc...and of course, should be here by January! :D

Jim, hope you get some sunshine and head clearing and feel better...

Rick, Was Ella's "piggie swap" different than DnD's and Alana's (Poisondart's)? Just curious

Elena, Hope your friend appreciates you! Do you do alot of your seedlings inside?

Shout out to everyone else! (Dont want anyone feeling left out)! :D

I am in!

Alana, that is very generous of you. For purposes of participation, entering seeds is the primary component so that we have enough (new) variety to make it worth the swap. Your 'sign up' would certainly count towards the 15. I would love to have you join, although I do hope you will consider claiming dibs on seeds, too!

Gerry - glad to see you throw your hat in the ring, too!

It sounds like we're going to have some veterans and some new faces for our fall swap membership-that's great!


... Can we get 1-2 more people to sign up to clearly cinch the deal on this November swap?

Val,
Pretty much everything in my garden I grow from seed. I usually start my seeds for Spring flowers & veggies in January. Then I do a second indoor sowing Feb/March for summer plants. I usually get better germination than I expect so I end up giving plants away. Hardly anybody in the city grows their own plants. They just go to Home Depot & pick up plants there. We used to have nurseries just outside the city but most have closed down. The few that are left are ridiculously expensive. Much cheaper to start seeds & you get a better variety.

My friend lives upstate and has lots of nurseries nearby so typically buys plants. But with a new job with a long commute won't have much shopping time. I figured I can save her money and time. I usually end up giving her plants anyway. Ive even gotten her to buy, start & save seed! Can't get her to swap yet because she just doesn't have the time.

Is this swap just for daylily seeds?

profesora It is an everything (seeds) but if you ask to trade dayliy seeds , several will

Thank you, Jim. I have a lot of 2016 daylily seeds, and I am starting to gather other seeds from the gardens.

vma4922 said: ...
Rick, Was Ella's "piggie swap" different than DnD's and Alana's (Poisondart's)? Just curious
...

The basic plan was the same, but Ella had a much longer trading period, and it was all-manual.

1. Prep: everyone lists what they will offer. Each person had one or more pages online where they listed what they were offering as free-form text.
2. Trading period: online requests, which Ella called "oinking for seeds".
3. Everyone mails the requested seeds to Ella / DND
4. Ella or DND sort the FROM bundles into TO boxes and mails them back.

However, Ella's swap was manual so that you had to page through each persons HAVE list and figure out what you wanted most (there are no "stars" and no combined "everyone's swap list" and no search tool like "Hide zero quantity items" or "show only Lillium).

Then, let's see if I remember the next steps. I think each person did this a little differently. These are all manual operations, not automated.

Making Requests

1. Post a request on the Request thread. BOLD the name of the person you are requesting from! (That established who-asked-first if two people ask for the same, last packet of something.)

2. C-mail the person offering it and repeat the request. (This lets people without much time participate. They can just watch their Inbox and know about all requests made to them. That saved reading the ENTIRE Request thread, which could run to MANY pages each day.

(Then I record my REQUEST in my "Incoming Trades" doc, usually marking it as requested-but-not-gotten-yet.)

3. When that person emails you back, you know whether you got it or not. (If you got it, record it in your INCOMING doc so you know what to expect is coming to you, and also so you know what you have already requested!)


Fulfilling Requests

1. In theory, check all of the new posts to the Requested thread one or more times per day.
2. In practice, check your Cubits Inbox at least daily.
3. For each Request you receive:
- 4. Check your HAVE list to be sure you have a packet remaining
- 5. Mark that packet as TAKEN, and record who you are going to send it to.

(I do that twice: in an OUTGOING doc and also in my HAVE doc, so that I have a double-entry double-check, and have each outgoing "oink" already sorted by seed variety, and also by WHO.)

- 6. Reply by C-mail AND in a thread that the trade went through OK ("You GOT it.")

At the end of the swap, you have to sort your OUTGOING trades into a list per-person so you have a "shipping list" kind of a double-check. Then bundle it up and send it out.

Ella also had some second and third phases that were optional. I think the second phase was something like "do you want to send in a bunch of "whatever" seeds, and get some "whatever" seeds back?" I may have forgotten what Phase two was, because Phase Three was the "bottom of the barrel" phase. "Bottom of the barrel" seeds were typically old and re-traded ... or maybe I forget.

That was probably more than you wanted to know! Short form: because it was not automated, there were many manual steps and the trading period took a lot of time.

Rick,

Very interesting, and seemingly very intricate as well. I do have to admit to being impressed with the way the ATP swaps run. I think it works SO well for the participants and for the host as well.

I agree, Val. Dave makes it really easy to swap seeds.

I hope this becomes a powerful "draw" to the NGA site, and that Dave starts adding bells and whistles to the seed swap tool.

one thing Rick's explanation doesnt convey is the spirit of fun and hilarity of the Piggy swap. we were oinking for seeds, posting pig sound effecta and cartoons...SO it was fun as well as time consuming

I'm going to skip this one, but I'll be ready for more swapping next year for sure. Don't have too much fun without me!