This is a continuation of the confessions of Seed Snatchers. Our last thread was here: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/542423/#new TGIF asked to see some of our 'kits', the tools of the trade, the stuff we take along with us everywhere in order to snatch seeds anywhere, anytime. Here's mine.
This is my sports model, a bit smaller than the one that is 11x22". In either kit, I have those little paper bathroom cups that fit into a plug tray. I take along a few bigger cups for the bigger seeds, as well. I also take along a small pair of scissors and a pen to label the cups. Once home, I leave the cups open to dry out before cleaning and packaging.
Repost from Last thread
Well, I'm home from another day of seed snatching :) I went prepared today, scissors, baggies, (my kit I put together LOL) well, I had a small grocery bag in the car today, and filled it with the pink MG seeds (Pic below) Had the bag over half full, and a car drives up...... stops, guy says "WHAT are you doing??" I said, "is this your property?" he says yea..... I said, taking the seeds of this morning glory. He said, "OH ok... there are alot of plants there, take what ever you want!!" I spent over 2 hours there and he told me to come back anytime!!!!
I got the entire bag full of MG seeds, Dantura seeds, and 2 kinds of seeds that I have no idea what they are LOL I'm going back EVERY day... its only a mile from here, maybe.
Then I went to mom's and her neighbors and got more from them LOL I'm gona be cleaning seeds for a month, at least, and there are 2x as many unripe pods left all 3 places!!
the pic above is from my mom's neighbors house ... not the house down the road from me. This is the ones down the road LOL
These are from mom's
another from mom's
another one
last one
Oh, wow! Now, I wouldn't mind having those pop up all over the place, but I can't even grow them in my greenhouse! Glad you made it on the bus in the nick of time!
I have so many in my yard..... all different colors, but alot of pinks. They grow like mad here..... must be the difference in the weather :)
Here is my kit.... it is never this neat tho LOL
2 Sharpies, surgical scissors, shears, dixie cups, 3x4 ziplocks and sandwich baggies
Usually camera, and cigarettes in there too LOL
Janis
edited to add the sandwich baggies lol
This message was edited Oct 10, 2005 5:37 PM
If you'd make it just a little fancier....you could probably sell the kits on Ebay!
well, I guess I was close to the real thing! I like to store lots of ziplock bags in different sizes to be sure I have enough storage room. I switch all the seeds over to open containers when I get home for drying. All the things I need seem to fit in the carrier, and the carrier fits into any transportation going anywhere. If it fails to hold up to standard, its history, and I have plenty of ideas for a new one! The big yellow and white container on the left is my storage unit. I just drop all collected and tagged bags or bottles into it, and when I get home, that's the one I bring in to sort out. The main snatching kit stays in the Jeep.
LOL, I usually stash them in a pocket, or 5 (FIVE pocket jeans, what else would all those pockets be for???), or wrap them up in little twists of paper. My parents are retired jewelers and I took some seeds over to mom one day wrapped in paper and she said that she thought I'd heisted some diamonds until she opened it - I apparently wrapped them the same way they do diamonds. Well, aren't the seeds as precious?
I always wear the clothes with the most pockets. I hate not having places to put things!
PLEASE come get my morning glories!! I hate em!! They strangle everything - EE's, my garden, my trees. They are as bad as Kudzu!
Be glad to give all of em away!! Invasive to the hilt!!
Nicole
Of course, my camera is out of batteries or else I'd have a picture to share (the batteries should be charged by tomorrow so there should be pictures forthcoming) but my kit consists of a tiny pair of very sharp and surprisingly good scissors that I found at a storage store, a pen, and sheets of blank paper. Out of sheer accident, I discovered a way to fold paper that makes it into a self-sealing package to hold seeds.
So, I just dump the seeds and chaff in and seal it up and write the name of the plant or what it looked like right on the outside.
Well "j" welcome to DG. and get right on our bus.
I like the way you think, wrap, prep for dry, store, and label all at once.
I can always come up with a sheet of newspaper if nothing else.
I'll just have to remember to use it that way.
I always have 2 - 3 pairs of scissors, shovel, fold up saw and usually my clippers with me. I also beg old plastic jerky jars or any number of things to bring cuttings home in.
Of course I have a kitchen, bedroom, entertainment center, and toolshed in the back of my van too.
Sidney
I guess I better starting collecting things for my kit. All I have usually is my hands and pockets. I definitely want to see the back of your van next year, Sidney!
:) Donna
I am new here to this site and I just had to say you have made my day. My husband and kids all think I am insane for having a tool box full of stuff to gather seeds and cuttings from plants I like. Now I know there are others just like me. Thank you.
I also keep a handful of the silica packets from shoes and medications in my box. This way it help keep the moisture down in the box, and I will throw one in the cup/baggy just for added insurance if there is still dew on the cutting or pod.
Another item I have that I haven't seen any of you mention is a small spray bottle of water for cuttings. And rooting compound.
Casey
Welcome Casey, we try to get home before rooting them. I've put cuttings in half-gone cups of soda and coffee cups filled with bottled water.
Wonder what I can find in western Maryland while I'm up there working next 4 weeks.
Got to find closest place to stay.
;)
Thank you for the welcome,
Well here in Vegas its so hot and dry in the summer that when I get a cutting and I know I wont be home for a bit I will place it in a baggy after dipping the end in the rooting compound and give it a good spritz of water. I am a newbie gardener and I read about doing it that way and it has worked so far. Don't fix what ain't broke.
I am sure once we relocate to South Carolina it will be different. So anyone out there that has any good gardening tips for the York, Clover and Lake Wylie area they all will be warmly welcomed.
Casey
Great area to move to. Close to Charlotte, but not. Your method will work well there too.
Sidney
Hey Casey!! I work in Fort Mill, SC! Welcome!
Once you get settled you are welcome to come and 'snatch' from my yard!! House is in Kannapolis, NC. I am actually going to completely re-do 2 of my beds this fall. Changing the front of my house! I can also tell you which plants NOT to plant around here...
Hi Sydney!!
Weez, I have to giggle whenever this thread pops up - "Show me your kits" - I keep thinking of the 'other' word that's usually at the end of that sentence! LOL!!
Nicole
Would a "closet snatcher" sit in the sun and casually examine all the foliage around the lovely, peaceful, seating area where she might sit? If her eyes fell upon a vine, at first thinking "How odd! Someone's made a rustic trellis for what? It's surely that ol' invasive Japanese honeysuckle. Would she think, "Now why would anybody do such a thing for honeysuckle?" And then might she happen to notice a matching trellis on the opposite side of the stone where she sat? Mmight she also have noticed that the vine over there went all the way up into a tree?
(gasp!)
A bloom!
Why that's no honeysuckle--it's some sort of wild clematis! Careful examination of distant sidewalks indicated that no one was near, so examined the vine much more carefully and there, amid some spent blooms, she comes upon--SEEDS!
Unfortunately, all I had was an envelope. But it worked.
What an exciting break!
COOL!!! Sounds like a snatcher to me!
Darleen you had me at "where she might sit".
Scene: "Trumpets" A very exclusive upscale restaurant in Las Vegas. 1500.00 a plate fund raiser with Kenny G and Charlotte Church providing the entertainment. Black Tie formal wear.
On the way in I spotted a purple bloom by one of the corner tables. And what I mean by spotted is I basically landed on my sweet deriere in a full length beaded gown. When informing the hostess of our arrival I whispered to her I really wanted to sit at the corner table just outside over looking the gardens. DH just turned and stared his best "please, not here" look. I smiled, kissed him on the cheek and kindly ignored him. After waiting 20 minutes to allow them to rearrange the seating charts they seated us. Thank goodness just in time before hubby passed out from lack of nutrition and the abuse he is subjected to from me. Now if any of you have ever been to Las Vegas, seeing a lilac bush is a rare sight and I was in awe of the purple blooms on the majestic lilac sitting next to me, and it smelled just as heavenly. So I casually pulled my beaded bag into my lap under the table and carefully removed my clippers from it. As I leaned over closer to kiss my loving husband on the cheek to thank him for such a beautiful and romantic evening I clipped the two closest new growth shoots off. Quickly, I snatched the monogrammed cloth napkin, moistened it and gently placed my new babies in my purse. The rest of the evening was pretty good too.
I now have 4 beautiful lilacs in my yard from those orginal cuttings. I winter them over every year manually by placing bags of ice over the root system from the middle of December till late February.
Aren't plants the most amazing miracles.
Casey
Nicole,
You aren't going to tell me that you don't like Kudzu are you???
I have never seen anything take over like that.
Casey
Ha ha!! That's one of MANY I don't like!! Trial and error - in my ex boyfriends yard I planted.. Boston Ivy, VInca, Evening Primrose, etc etc - that was back in my beginner days... I was getting him back and didn't even realize it! Don't get me started on the master gardener handbook (I am not one) - it lists all sorts of invasives here as good plants to grow!! Ick!
Nicole
Hey, NC, you can't deny those plants 'grow well'! LOL! I spent a good part of yesterday runnin' my trapline of seed plants. I went over to the Well Fargo Bank Community Garden, then over to a friend's house. She wasn't home, but her plants were! I got lots of good seeds there, including several sedums and houseleeks. I finally went home when I ran out of cups!
So, today, instead of raking the lawn, I was indoors sifting seeds and blowing chaff all over the place. It took most of the day, but my kit is cleaned out and ready to go again. Yes, it's a ruthless compulsion, this cursed seed snatchin'.
little plastic film canisters! I was off on a tour of the back roads, taking some woods in mid color pics and picking up a couple of pieces at a gallery. On the way out the door of the gallery, noticed a lovely little verbascum. Holding works of art in one hand and under my chin like a fine violin (or a really good fiddle) quickly clipped off 4 ripe seed pods. Got the back of the Trailblazer open, put artwork in bubble wrap and car blanket. Whipped empty film canister out of pocket and dropped in seeds.
Casey, I'm thiniking $3000 dollar lilacs deserve the ice treatment! lol
(hmm, thought she, perhaps the meconopsis I got from Weez would benefit from the same treatment in July).
I've been known to "liberate" slips from plants growing in greenhouses, boulevards, pots, forgiving friend's homes, but never thought to make a kit. How did I miss that? I do have a trowel and bags and things like that in the trunk for larger misdeeds....
Anybody color their hair? Some kits come with gloves in a little container that looks like a film cannister but they are clear. Putting some in my car as we speak....you can write on them with markers, too.
Do you wear the gloves so you won't leave any fingerprints? Oh, I see...you meant you use the containers! Just kidding.
I'm having trouble finding the seeds. I can't find them on my MG and I never did find them on a special lobelia I bought in Seattle. I guess I just don't know what to look for. I'll just stay with the cuttings.
Hey, shirley, once someone shows you where to find the seeds, you'll always remember. I began harvesting seeds in earnest when a friend showed me the seed pod on petunias. I'd just never actually seen them before, and now they seem quite obvious to me. If you like starting plants from seed, seed snatchin' is just a natural step in that direction.
I love the little film canisters. If you need any go to the local one hour photo, give your best pathetic please look and they will give you a bag full. I would go there every year for my girl scouts and get them for crafts. Don't leave the seeds in there for to long though. The seal on the lids is really good and the seeds mold really quick.
Have I told you all Thank you for helping me feel normal about my clepto habits. If not, THANK YOU
Thankfully, 'normal' is just a matter of perception. Suffice to say, you are in good company! LOL!
That's right!
;)
Speaking of the fingerprints of seed snatchers...
As I passed beside my passiflora in front of the house yesterday evening I noticed one seed pod with a distinct "dental print" on, or rather "into" it. I do believe a deer was passing by, checked out the fruit, but decided "yuck!" leaving the seed pod hanging where it was but with a new denture mark!
HA ha!!!
Darleen, now you know exactly what to plant around your favorite veggies. Hopefully they wont keep going further in if they don't like what the find on the outside. LOL Wishfull thinking I know.
Hope everyone had a great day. It raining here. Yes, Las Vegas gets rain. It had been 147 days since the last rain here. Now to stay inside so we don't float away
Casey
Hmmm. Now there's a GREAT thought! They're so easy to get started, too! (though not from seed)
