Christian1971
Cool Member
Posts: 79
Joined: Thu Dec 25, 2014 5:25 pm
Location: West Central Minnesota

Seed exchange question

I mentioned previously that a duluth, mn library got into trouble with exchanging seeds. Seeds that came from ones own vegetables. Only allowed to exchange seeds that came from companies directly. It was ok to trade seeds if you have left over from company A. What are your thoughts on that?

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13947
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Trading seeds from companies would probably be the least hassle. The problems with saved seeds is that unless they were isolated, they may have crossed, you won't know for certain until they are planted. You need to collect, dry and store them properly for the best results. You don't want to collect seeds from diseased plants because some diseases may transmit through seeds.

That being said, I still occasionally pick up an empty seed packet from the store and I have bought seeds from the UH extension service that were labeled Hawaiian peppers but they actually had bitter melon seeds in the package. I remember buying yellow brandywine tomato seeds from Burpee, then getting a letter and more seeds when some customers complained that the seeds turned out not to be yellow brandywine. Mistakes happen and things don't always turn out as they should, but 95% of the time you will get what you ask for. As for diseases, the 2007 outbreak of Basil downy mildew was transmitted through seed distributed by Florida that came from France. Basil downy mildew is probably here to stay now.

When you buy seeds from a company, or even the store, if there is something wrong with them, they will return your money or replace the product. In a seed exchange, there may be issues with germination unless the seeds were tested first before they were sent. Seeds will lose viability at different rates and faster depending on how they were stored. What you see is what you get, sometimes they work, sometimes not.

The hardest thing for me is the Department of Agriculture. To send seeds through the mail, they need to be taken down to the Ag department and inspected, packaged in a mailer in front of an inspector before they are passed. Some seeds that are fine for growing in Hawaii are actually not allowed in other states, when the seeds are taken down, the inspector will look and it and just say no. To send seeds to Canada, I had to declare it to customs as well. Someone said they keep getting their seeds crushed in the mail, I have not had that happen yet and someone else said the postal service may irradiate the mail rendering the seeds sterile. I don't know if that is true. Trying to grow seeds that were acclimated to a different climate is another matter. Again sometimes they work, sometimes not.

I have traded saved seeds locally and I haven't had any issues other than labeling and dating. Some of the traded seeds just said lettuce, but not the variety so they were mystery lettuce and there was no dates on the seed to say how old they were. Since were are geographically isolated, the Dept of Ag is not an issue. It could be if seeds were crossing borders. I save seeds from my own plants and I have traded them, given them away and used them to start new plants. For the most part they have bred true, except only two colors of nasturtiums seemed to have survived from the mix. I grow a lot of peppers and I don't isolate them, but I haven't had many issues with unintentional crossing. The hybrid tomatoes do not breed true, but that is because they are hybrids and not because of any unintentional crossing. I have split packaged seeds before, it is still best to try to have all the information on the package supplied like name, cultivar, year to be planted, and any cultural information that might be useful.



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