Glad I helped BUT my dh just informed me that time change is going to "fall back" this weekend. I don't know how that will change things...

I sent a pretty big email to all of the new swappers this year. Anyone who has joined any swap using Dave's system can comfortably, and happily skip it.
It's a lot.

It can be confusing for a new swapper but once you get started is easy and so much fun! I was lucky to get in on the beta test swap so we learned as we went along, not as much pressure

Alana,
Got your tree-mail today. And all I can say is WOW! Getting over a 100 seed packets for less than $5!?! And that's without any extra dibs earned. This has got to be one of the greatest gardening bargains. Not to mention a lot of fun in the process. I've enjoyed discovering all kinds of plants I'd never heard of.

My one question is on the start time. I've seen two different times listed: Is it 7:00 or 8:00?

Thanks for all your work. I can't even imagine such an undertaking.

I'm pretty sure all of Texas is Central Time, which would be 6:00 pm your time.

Don't know who started it, but I am really liking the seed offers that indicate not only the year of the seed but the origin of the seed....(G or B or T)
2017G = 2017 Garden of swapper
2016T= 2016 Traded
2017B= 2017 Bought

Thanks all. I'll try to include this on the packets I'm doing up.

@Rharbison to Alana.

@MariposaMaid I didn't see that coding, but will try to amend my listings if not indicated in my notes.

Great. That info on the packets will help me prioritize...oldest first...sow more thickly etc.
I also appreciate "suitable for Winter Sowing" in the data base, or "needs stratification"

Hugs and hats off to Alana

FYI, gardenquilts indicated that she has to drop out. She has not removed herself from the swap, so there are entries from her still in the master list. If you have wish-listed one of those, you should look for a substitute.

Thanks.

We will miss her. Thanks for letting us know.

I've been putting where the seeds are from, the year, and the Latin names on my packs. I was putting how many seeds were in there but in 99% of the packs I put more than it said anyway, so i gave up on that part.

Am I allowed to post any corms?

Thanks for all of your hard work Alana, I'm so excited to be part of this!

Kelli, if you post corms they should be small ones. If someone dibs on them and the corms cause their package to be oversized they may have to pay priority postage whether they want to or not. Otherwise, I'm okay with it.

They're pretty small, shouldn't be bad on shipping. A bunch of beans is probably more I've got some ranunculus I could post too...they're even lighter.

Pardon me if this has been addressed already, but I thought that I'd mention it since D&D's swap starts tomorrow.

If any traders are in both this swap and D&D's swap, you may want to make some separate, exclusive listings for each swap (preferably reserving some choice seeds for each swap to be fair to the other swappers). Since the other swap starts and ends before this one starts, you could have all of your seeds dibbed/promised in D&D's swap and then have nothing to offer in this swap. In order to dib seeds in this swap, I believe that the system requires that you must be offering seeds first.

(Alternately, if you have 2 or more packets of each type of seed, you could offer half in DnD's and then update the quantity after DnD's swap ends but before our NFTSR swap begins. That gives you only a 24 hour period to update quantities.)

Also, for all NFTSR swappers, if you check your wishlist starting later tomorrow night and notice that a lot of entries are disappearing or have zero quantity, it would be because the seeds that are marked as available to both swaps are being dibbed/promised to players in the other swap. Keep them in your wishlist, though, because quantities might be updated later.

I have some stuff listed for both swaps, but I have at least what numbers are promised here put aside to replenish the numbers once they are gone for the other swap. The numbers for the amounts of packs available will go up in some cases. I've got quite a bit more listed on this one, there's more people here! If there's anything wishlisted on my list and it goes down to zero because of the other swap, don't worry, I have more saved for this one!

@Danita Thanks, I am glad you brought this up.

I too am in both swaps and have seeds listed for both in the quantities I have available divided in half, half for each swap. Any undibbed seeds from DND's swap will up the quantities I have available here.

I do have one request FOR THOSE IN BOTH SWAPS
If you have wishlisted my Hardy Begonia alba or my Hardy Begonia pink, please
dib them on DND's Swap as I am sending bulbils/bulblets and these are best planted when fresh. I find bulbils to be much easier to deal with than the dust like seed.

Once anyone in this swap wins a Hardy Begonia offer from me please tree mail me and I can send bubils directly to you if you prefer.

And, If people in both swaps would un wishlist items here that they have won on DND's earlier swap, before this swap begins, it would IMHO be helpful.

Also, here is a reminder about starting times since the time zones issue always seems to cause confusion.

The NGA server is on Coordinated Universal Time, aka UTC time, which means that it keeps time as if it were a person living in Greenwich in London, England (when on the regular GMT time and not on their daylight-savings time known as British Summer Time).

The new swap day starts at the beginning of a new server day, which is at 12:00 am UTC.
Swaps start at 12:00 am UTC and the (unearned) daily allowance tickets for each day are distributed at 12:00 am UTC.

Since Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend and we return to our local Standard Times, we don't have to worry about the local times changing part way through the swap (like the DnD swappers do).

( @Dave - If you find any errors in my notes, please let me know so that I can correct it. Thanks! )

Starting time on NGA server time is November 12, 2017 at 12:00:00 am UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)

Starting time conversions for the contiguous U.S.A. are:

Nov 11, 2017 - 7:00:00 pm EST - Eastern Standard Time Zone (UTC -5)
Nov 11, 2017 - 6:00:00 pm CST - Central Standard Time Zone (UTC -6)
Nov 11, 2017 - 5:00:00 pm MST - Mountain Standard Time Zone (UTC -7)
Nov 11, 2017 - 4:00:00 pm PST - Pacific Standard Time Zone (UTC -8)

Thank you Danita!

@poisondartfrog Hey, Alana. I'm sure you've probably already addressed this and I somehow missed it, but what will the multiplier be for this swap? Will we be starting with 5 dibs the first day, or less?

Also, can we get a list of everyone who has dropped out and hasn't removed themselves from the swap? I noticed gardenquilts above and remember that someone else dropped out, but didn't remove themselves, a couple months ago. I just want to make sure I'm not dibbing on things I shouldn't be. I'm sure others would be equally grateful. :)

Start time is getting closer. I'm getting excited!