I would participate. I think it needs to be earlier in the year though, especially for winter sowers.

I agree Ronnie. By March I have 90% of what I am going to grow sown, one way or another.

If we're just doing seeds, I'm open to doing the seed exchange whenever works best for the majority of people. How does January or February sound to everyone? Those are fairly blah months...a little seed exchanging could add some pep to the dreary winter days.

I'm working on getting the background stuff going and I hope to have a solid solution with form ideas, overall logistics, etc. within the next few weeks. Once I think I have it together, I'll post what I have for final review to everyone to make sure it makes sense, works for as many people as possible, and that we are all on the same page.

My recommendation to everyone for the time being is to start figuring out what seeds you have available and get some lists going. I'm thinking it might be best for everyone to eventually put it in spreadsheet format because I have a feeling that might assist Dave with the programming end of things, but I can't be certain yet. I'll post updates once I have a chance to figure out a solid solution for how we should coordinate all of this and run it by Dave for ideas on how to implement it programming-wise on ATP. Once I do that, I'll know what format we need the lists in. So, for now, if word documents are easier, I'd recommend doing that, instead, just so you have a feel for what you have to work with.

Please keep the comments and suggestions coming, your input is appreciated and your support has been very inspirational and appreciated too. Thank you, everyone!

I suggest ending the seed exchange in December (cut off date of Dec. 31st).

beckygardener said:I suggest ending the seed exchange in December (cut off date of Dec. 31st).

I would be interested in seeing responses to this. For me, that's not a very good time because of the holidays. Holidays are already so insane for me that to add something like this to that time of year would probably ebb away at my interest enough that I wouldn't participate some (or most) years.

If it's the decided-upon time that everyone agrees on, I won't stand in the way of a democratic vote, but I have a feeling that it will be challenging for a lot of other people, too.

I don't do much trading during the holidays...would much rather do it in Jan.

What I meant was that everyone has to post what they have and also what they want by the end of December. The swap could run up until that time. But the cut-off date should be the end of the year. And yes! Seeds to be sent out in January. Many southern folks sow in January/February. So the early part of the new year is best for probably most everyone, I would think?

Just want to mention that I don't have internet at home & just use my iPhone to access ATP. I'm not sure how well a spreadsheet will work for people using mobile devices.

When I did the piggy swap last year everyone had their own page with a basic form where they listed what they had to offer. Besides the name of the plant and the variety you could also include seed source (garden or commercial), seed age, number of seeds per packet & number of packets offered.

Another thing people might want to do ahead of time is to go to the plant database and add pictures and/or local reports for any of the seeds they want to offer. That way people will know exactly what they are getting and what it looks/tastes like before they trade.

Becky, that might work. And seed lists could always be sent well in advance of the holidays for people who don't want to have to deal with it during that time. (They could submit it in October or November, even.) If all lists were submitted by the end of the year, then Jan 1-Jan 14 could be 'trading season'...then all orders could be sent out and received by the organizer by the third week of January, allowing a week for the organizer to put everything together, and all seeds could be shipped by January 31st. (Things could happen a lot quicker in the future, but I'm allowing a nice buffer time until this whole thing becomes routine.)

Thoughts?

I'm not in the South but I also sow flower seed in January. Spring flowers pretty much require it if you want them to bloom well.

That said, if the swap is only for a short time (say a week) I wouldn't mind starting early January and having the seeds shipped out late January. But that would require everyone to have their seeds packaged and ready BEFORE the swap starts. Trust me, once the swap starts you won't have time to clean, count & package seeds. It is way more time consuming than you would think!

bxncbx said:JBesides the name of the plant and the variety you could also include seed source (garden or commercial), seed age, number of seeds per packet & number of packets offered.

I'm glad you brought this up because I was thinking about that today, too. Some of my seeds are purchased and some are seeds I've harvested from plants I grew this year. I was debating if I simply wanted to notate harvested seeds with an asterisk, or put them in a separate part of my list altogether. I'll give this some thought. I'd had to make someone interested in, say, lettuce, have to search through two different parts of my list (and everyone else's)...

I'm also glad you mentioned that what we come up with needs to be visible on a smartphone because I am sure a lot of people, while they may have access to a computer, prefer using their phone to check ATP updates. It will provide a bit of a challenge. If nothing else, simply for the fact that viewing lots of lists on a tiny device can take awhile. This is making me think that there may need to be a local search feature within the seed swap area.That way someone can type in "Lettuce" or "flower" and see things that match.

...the trouble with that, however, is that it may create an onerous and burdensome task for people listing their seeds to have to do too much work to 'tag' their seeds under different categories.

This definitely needs some thought. I'm grateful for the suggestions and concerns posted, they are all kinks that can be thought about and worked out over the upcoming days.

How will you handle it when a participant fails to send their seeds in on time?

jvdubb said:How will you handle it when a participant fails to send their seeds in on time?

This relates to one of the biggest parts of the logistics aspect that I will be working on in the upcoming weeks. It may have to be that the seeds that were going to be traded to that person will be returned to the original owners. That's just one idea, though. I have to weigh it with other ideas and try to determine what might be the best solution and present it to everyone here.

Or you could add 1 extra name on the lists as a "backup", in case that happens.

Becky, can you elaborate on how that would work?

Well, this would have to do with how I ran my swaps years ago.

I made a list of how many seed packets I had. Then I listed who would get them. I could have added an extra name below the last name as a backup person to receive a seed packet in case someone dropped out after the swap closed.

I would say just divide those seed equally among all the other participants.

Horntoad said:I would say just divide those seed equally among all the other participants.

That's a good thought, although I don't know how that would be fair to the people providing those seeds. They wouldn't get anything in return because of the one person who dropped out and didn't provide their end of the bargain. Not to mention, if the seeds were doled out to everyone else, they might be wasted on people who don't want them.

I don't know if one person dropping out will have that big of an effect on the swap. I would have a back-up list to ensure that others who would really like those seeds get them if any become available (due to someone dropping out of the swap).

At least that is what I always did. It worked out perfectly and people were often surprised to get some extras that they wanted but didn't expect to receive.

If the sender asked that their unclaimed seeds be returned, then that's what you would do. But if they don't request them to be returned, then spread them out. If some one gets seed they don't want then they can, throw them out, offer them for trade in the "Plant and Seed Trade" Forum or save them for next years swap.