Hi all, I founded a seed bank back in January, it now has 37 seed guardians growing seeds for the bank, 200 varieties of vegetable, herb and companion seeds in the bank. We have run a free seed saving course and in September held an heirloom veg day, so all is going well!
I was wondering if any of you were involved in similar projects who want to excess trade seeds, I live in Spain.
www.seeed.es
This message was edited Feb 24, 2015 4:33 AM
Seed Bank
I am not involved in any projects like yours ,However I am wondering if you have a website ?
I enjoy reading and seeing these kind of projects .
It seems most seed banks with advertising , are interested in heirloom grain and beans ,
It is Interesting !
Congratulations on founding such a valuable project!
I haven't saved any seeds this year, but I saved a link to your DG email and this thread for future years.
Here's a link to a "seed library finder".
http://seedlibrarian.com/
They have a few links outside the USA ... maybe you would wish to add your project to their list? Or one library might be interested in "inter-library loans" and trade their excess seeds with you.
I found these folks through that "seed library finder":
Semilla Besada
Southern Spain
sustainable living in dryland environments
http://www.holisticdecisions.com/semillabesada.html
I do have a fair collection of Asian greens and lettuce seeds, if trading small amounts of each variety would be useful to you. I can give links to seeds I had last year and the year before - if you see something that would be interesting to you, let me know. However, most of those seeds are commercial and some are F1 hybrids, like most of the Napa or Michihli Chinese cabbage:
http://cubits.org/ellasgarden/db/2013piggyseedswap/view/97150/
http://cubits.org/ellasgarden/db/hogwildseedswap/view/93248/
I agree that most supermarket fruits are hybrids - I think usually F1 hybrids.
I never expected ANY hybrids and especially no F1 hybrids to "come true" from saved seeds, but someone here in DG (with a lot of growing experience) said that some or many commercial hybrids DO happen to "mostly come true".
That really surprised me, and what you were saying seems more likely to me: seeds saved from hybrid commercial fruits mostly produce a wide variety of offspring.
But OP varieties of tomatoes (stable inbred lines) DO come true from saved seeds.
Also, tomatoes are less prone to cross-pollination than many plants. Usually, each tomato bloom mostly pollinates itself.
Biscombe, I am a collector of heirloom seed and collect seed from the Mediterranean. I am currently growing fabes de Asturianos for fabada and will be growing Judiones next year. I have to buy seed from gourmet food importers because the seed is not otherwise available. It would be great to trade! I have a large collection of heirloom American tomatoes and beans and a number of South American peppers as well as beans and seeds from the American South. Please DM me. I don't normally have a trade list.
We have spent many summers in Spain. Mostly Tarragona, Barcelona and Girona (my favorite) but I love Grenada too. I loved it so much that I had to spend extra time there!
As for the discussion of hybrid and other off topic seed...open pollinated seed (and therefore all heirloom seed) will grow true to type, except for minor variations that usually take place over multiple generations in the garden they are grown in. That's why seed banks exist.
Thanks for your replies, sorry for the late response, only just logged back in!
Rick thanks for the Semilla Besada link, they are in the next town but have changed ownership and I don't think they have any seed saving projects going on anymore. I would love to trade seeds with you, but just seeds that have not crossed or Hybrids.
Blomma seeds will come true if you are taking steps to either pollinate yourself or bagging self pollinate varieties to prevent crossing. These's lots of seed saving guide out there on the net. I have written a few guides and have run some seeds saving courses for our guardians. Here here Maypop!
Maypop get in touch let's trade, I love the sound of your fabes de Asturianos for fabada, or anyone who would like to trade get in touch! I only accept seeds that have been grown with no risk of cross pollinization, saying that I didn't isolate my tomatoe flowers this year, I will the beefsteaks next year. All our peppers, chillies and eggplant are bagged and squash are hand pollinated and flowers secured.
Hi a;;, I'm looking for African daisy seeds.
They are purple light and dark. I can trade or pay postage. Alday
Hi folks, we have written lots of seed saving guides and added them to the site to download. We also have a forum (pretty lonely there at the moment as it's new) Check out our seed saving project at www.seeed.es