Would you all like to start one - we talked about this in 2005 - 3 years ago! But we never got everything together. Would there be interest to start one?
Something like - you send your seeds in several times a year into the "bank" and when ready you can make withdraws equal to the number of bankings you have done. You only need to pay for the postage to get the seeds sent out to you and a little for the env. and supplies needed to keep it up.
We could focus on natives, and flowers that do well here.
And yes I would be willing to help set up and run the seed bank, anyone interested in getting this started?
Mitch
Any interest in a Texas/Central US Seedbank?
I'm interested, but have two concerns. First, the seed would have to be properly identified to include genus and species names, name of collector, date, at least year, collected and whether it was seed from hybrid or open pollinated.
Secondly, the seeds would have to be stored in a cool dry place to insure viability. Do you have the facilities to do that?
http://www.farmradio.org/english/search/search.cgi?zoom_query=storing+seeds
Wouldn't putting F2 (seeds saved from hybrid fruit) seeds or possibly crossed varieties into a seed bank dilute the quality and reliability of the collection?
This message was edited Apr 22, 2008 12:36 PM
Bettydee - I am with you, we would need a lot of information from everyone adding seeds to the seed bank - we would have to require everyone to give a lot more information, even to the point of where collected.
Cool dry place - this I am working on and have some ideas thanks to the school set up here - it would be a major undertaking and would cost a little to set everything up to start with.
Feldon - F2 seeds would have to have a label that listed them F2 and would only be asked from from people that are interested in getting an F2 - might be of interest to some people but the bulk of the seeds would not be from F2.
I can think of several Texas natives that have been used in hybridization programs. Those plants have been "improved" but are still natives and could conceivably cross with open pollinated one of the same genus and species. That could get hairy. I would have no problems with including the collected seed as long as it were labeled with the information. Let the "buyer" make the choice.
The reliability of the collection depends on the accuracy in labeling rather than the collection itself. The quality of the collection is dependent upon the quality of the storage facilities.
I would think the details about what kind of seed to accept would be ironed out later. I would be interested in a seed bank that would serve as many Texas gardeners as possible.
Betty - can you look into the details of what would be the Best way to keep the seeds, and what would the the bare ok? You really are a wealth of information!
Sure Mitch. Please explain what you mean by "what would the the bare ok" means? :-)
Ok - what is the best thing we could use to get by with and them still be ok... working with the school I am not sure if our metal containers in cool darks areas are how high on the list.. they got rid of several to make room for new ones and just looking to see how high these rank or what would be the ummm cheapest way to really set things up.