All Aboard the Seed Train

Hi everyone.  I had talked about this before and figure now is the time to start one if anyone is interested.  I have quite a few heirloom seeds that I can get us started with.  The way it works is that those that are interested in joining the seed train let me know in this thread, then PM me with your mailing address.  I will send out a box of seeds to the first person on the list.  When you get the box you take out what seeds you are interested in and add some you have extras of, then send it to the next person on the list.  The last person on the list should send the box back to me.  Hopefully this is give us all a chance to get a variety of seeds to try out.

hmm, could be fun. I would like to do this, but not this year. My newest seeds are two years old. I just could not pass along seed that I am not sure about.

I am very interested but like 12acrehome I don't have any seeds that I have saved yet except a few sunflower. Next year I hope to have more seeds. I think it is a cool idea and I wish I had more seed so that I could participate. Perhaps next year?

What kind of sunflower seeds do you have?

Sonshine wrote:What kind of sunflower seeds do you have?

Mongolian Giant. I ordered them from the Seed Savers Exchange catalog last year, and saved the seeds from the largest one in my garden.

I have what is labeled "Giant striped" and Hybrid #6111 that I bought from R.H.Shumway's a couple years ago. I planted a test bed last year but the deer and rabbits cleaned out the bed before the seedlings grew over 3" tall.

I'm gonna try again this year, but now these seeds are getting to the three year mark and I expect the germination rate to begin to quickly degrade.

I need some black oil sunflower seeds for my critter garden. If anyone has any and would like to do a swap on some seeds I have, please let me know.

Is "Black Oil" part of the name or is it just a big sunflower seed? The seeds I have are huge. I would be glad to send you some if you want to try them.

Mine are not labeled as black oil, and say nothing about being used for oil, but will gladly share if you want to try them. Like I said earlier though they are at least three years old.

For commercial purposes, sunflower seeds are usually classified by the pattern on their husks. If the husk is solid black, the seeds are called black oil sunflower seeds. The crops may be referred to as oilseed sunflower crops. These seeds are usually pressed to extract their oil. Striped sunflower seeds are primarily used for food; as a result, they may be called confectionery sunflower seeds. The black oil sunflower seeds are what is usually recommended for feeding to our critters because of the amount of oil in them. I appreciate the offers though for the seeds. This will be my first year of trying to grow most of our own feed for the goats and chickens.

Ok first attempt failed, I am trying to show a picture of the seeds I have

Ok, I have what you may be looking for, these are Hybrid and saving the seed to re-grow the same plant may not be successful.

Garst adds three new hybrids

Garst introduces three new sunflower products for 2006, as well as 10 additional sunflower hybrids to accompany these new products.

6111 (93 DPM) is a new early traditional oil-type hybrid. It is a short statured, high performing product with great agronomics.

I found this at:
http://www.sunflowernsa.com/magazine/details.asp?ID=397&Cat=16

The national sunflower Associacion, who knew? I guess everything has some kind of association these days.

Anyway I have a pound, and am willing to share all but 1/4 pound. (I use them for wildlife management projects, when they are not eaten off to the ground prior to maturing)

Sonshine wrote:For commercial purposes, sunflower seeds are usually classified by the pattern on their husks. If the husk is solid black, the seeds are called black oil sunflower seeds. The crops may be referred to as oilseed sunflower crops. These seeds are usually pressed to extract their oil. Striped sunflower seeds are primarily used for food; as a result, they may be called confectionery sunflower seeds. The black oil sunflower seeds are what is usually recommended for feeding to our critters because of the amount of oil in them. I appreciate the offers though for the seeds. This will be my first year of trying to grow most of our own feed for the goats and chickens.

Thanks Sonshine. Now I have learned something today. I don't think my seeds are what you are looking for. Mine are black and white stripped. I still am willing to share if anyone is interested, but my supply is limited.

Keith, thanks for the offer, but we're trying to stick with strickly heirloom seeds so we can save seeds from year to year.

Rohn, Are yours heirlooms? I may be interested in some for trade just for the family's use. I like eating them too.

Sonshine wrote:Keith, thanks for the offer, but we're trying to stick with strickly heirloom seeds so we can save seeds from year to year.

We are transitioning as well, just need to clean out the old stores as we go.

We moved here 5 years ago and started out with heirlooms and trying to be totally organic. I gathered quite a collection of heirloom seeds since moving here. I'm always on the lookout for them. Here lately I've been working on heirloom herb seeds.

Oh wow!! getting a little envious here. I must admit I have an addiction to the 10 packets for 10 cents seed rack that shows up every October. Most are put out at the edges of the property for the wildlife, but that is a way to have way too many old seeds in the seed bin.

I got several of mine through a seed train on Homesteading Today, but also try to always keep my eyes out for heirlooms. It's getting easier to find them. Most places that sell regular seeds now have an heirloom collection too.

one of my resolutions for the new year is to be more aware of the seeds I am buying, with an eye toward heirlooms

Sonshine wrote:Keith, thanks for the offer, but we're trying to stick with strickly heirloom seeds so we can save seeds from year to year.

Rohn, Are yours heirlooms? I may be interested in some for trade just for the family's use. I like eating them too.

Sonshine, I believe they are heirloom. I think everything Seed Savers Exchange sells is heirloom, and that is where I got the seed that I grew them from.

Rohn, graet! In that case, would you like to barter? Are there any particular seeds you would like that we could do a swap? I have several vegetable seeds, culinary herb seeds, medicinal herb seeds and just recently got some luffa seeds. Let me know.

I'm ready to barter. Let me know how many you want and just what you have and we will be on our way to a trade.

Rohn, I'll take as many as you would like. As for what I'm willing to trade, what do you need? I have too many seeds to list them all, but if you give me an idea of what you want or need we can go from there. I have a variety of vegetable seeds, some herb seeds and just got some luffa seeds. Not sure about the germination of the luffa seeds because I just got them from someone on HT.

Sonshine wrote:Rohn, I'll take as many as you would like. As for what I'm willing to trade, what do you need? I have too many seeds to list them all, but if you give me an idea of what you want or need we can go from there. I have a variety of vegetable seeds, some herb seeds and just got some luffa seeds. Not sure about the germination of the luffa seeds because I just got them from someone on HT.

I will mention that this is the first seeds that I have ever saved and hope I did everything right so they will germinate. After having said that, would 50 seeds be enough? If you want more just say so. Do you have any good heirloom tomato seeds? I usually plant around 100 tomatoes since we do a lot of sauce and juices etc. I also plant several dozen pepper plants, so I could use some pepper seeds. Anything else you might have an abundance of. I don't really care what I get in return, I am open to plant just about anything. I think you have my email address and my home address. You can email me yours or send me a PM.

It was unseasonably warm here, around 60% f. Makes me start to look for Spring But I know we still have a few more weeks of cold weather coming.

I'll look through the seeds this week-end. I know I have some tomatoe seeds and pepper seeds. Any particular type of pepper you're looking for? I may not be able to give you 50 of any particular type of seed, but could give you a variety. Are you just wanting vegetables or would you be interested in some culinary or medicinal herbs too?