Any EU members interested in joining a seed swap?

[Nicos]

Just wondering if there are enough of us interested in sharing?

[burnie]

Even wee if Jimmie Krankie got her way with devolution, I don't think there will be much of the EU left for us to join, so it looks like I'll be on the outside. Looks like quite a few countries are lining up for their own version of Brexit, maybe you'll be shopping over here soon unless Macron declares war over fishing round Jersey.

[Snoop Puss]

^Not sure how many other countries will be keen after seeing the UK's Brexit...

Nicos, I might be. Home produced seeds only or excess purchased ones? I need to look through my lot and sort out what's still viable. Are you volunteering to co-ordinate? It's a massive job...

[Nicos]

I’m more than happy to coordinate it.
Its good to be able to share.
I don’t think there will be many of us so we can decide between ourselves whether home saved or spare from bought packets.

[Snoop Puss]

The packets I tend to buy contain a lot of seeds and I've never tried my hand at saving seeds. And it makes no difference to me if seeds are F1 or not. Only got so many growing years in me... I don't mind if we do both home-grown and bought. And if there aren't that many of us, maybe co-ordinate who gets what, rather than it being a random selection that you then have to sort out.

[Nicos]

I’m happy with a mixture too.

[Zelenina]

Hi Nicos and Snoop! I'm back after a long break. Still living in Slovakia so I'm interested in any future EU seed swapping arrangements.

[Snoop Puss]

Hi Zelenina,
Last year, Nicos sent me a lot of seeds from France that I can't get here. But we've made no arrangements this year. Are you looking for anything in particular? I grow very few chillies, but I might have other things you're interested in.
Let me know here or in a pm and maybe we can coordinate something. And if not this year, then next.

[bramble]

Hi Nicos, I will say yes to sharing saved or bought surplus seeds.
My problem this year is the fact I am going to be away for the best part of June so I dont know if I will be even able to grow a crop with nobody to take care of the greenhouse while I am away.
More than willing otherwise.

[Snoop Puss]

Afternoon, just placed an order for some seeds at long last. Anyone interested in some of these? I've also bought beans and sweetcorn, but not many in the packet, so I've not included those. But doubtless there will plenty of the following to go around.

Brussels Sprouts - Doric, Topline and Hirema
Summer purple sprouting
Cauli - Amazing
Beetroot - Solist
Courgettes - Diamant (green) and Ola Gabriella (yellow)
Toms - Pantano (been looking for these for years - originally bought them from Premier Seeds Direct but not available to me post Brexit, vigorous, climbing Marmande type)
Lettuce - All Year Round

Still to buy, lettuce and leeks, but I'm waiting on the lettuce in the hope Bren will give me some lettuce recommendations. I've decided lettuce will be my challenge this year. I never do a good job of growing them and we eat lots.Leeks will be Chef's White (quick grower, good for late summer, early autumn, not frost hardy supposedly but they do OK in a light frost, a regular for me) and Blauwgroene winter race Winik (hardy, rust resistant supposedly, first time for me growing these).

[Snoop Puss]

Just to let you know, I couldn't find any of Bren's recommendations except for a batavia type, which I don't think Mr Snoop will like. So I'll hold off on them.

[Nicos]

I need to go through the seeds I already have. Many are out of date so I wouldn’t share those.
Happy to join in with fresh seed though!
We’ve not planned our beds yet, apart from where the spuds are going as OH and his friend have spent the last week building raised beds and hugelkulture beds

[Zelenina]

Hi Zelenina,
Last year, Nicos sent me a lot of seeds from France that I can't get here. But we've made no arrangements this year. Are you looking for anything in particular? I grow very few chillies, but I might have other things you're interested in.
Let me know here or in a pm and maybe we can coordinate something. And if not this year, then next.

No worries about the chillies, Snoop. I've got enough for now. I have the few varieties I grow most years - Lemon Drop, Long Green Buddha (originally from HSL) and Yellow Cayenne, plus self-saved Kilián which might become a regular. And the one Bulgarian Carrot that germinated, which I have grown once before. Then a couple of new ones to me are Buena Mulata and Ring of Fire. I'm not really looking for any exotic or super-hot varieties at this stage. I'll hopefully have some seeds of all of those to swap for next season. I also have seedlings of 7 varieties of sweet peppers so I'm not looking for any more of those either, except maybe an orange kapia type like Timia which I have my eye on from Bobby Seeds.

I have in the past ordered seeds from Germinance in France, but sadly they've decided not to send them outside France any more. They have some very nice varieties with lots of seeds in the packets. I can get some of the carrots elsewhere e.g. Oxheart and Rouge Sang, though I'm interested in other short fat types as well. I like their Rosé d'Armorique onions, but maybe for next year as I now have Rosanna sets which are similar. One I really want to get, if anyone has some seeds to spare, is the Rond Hatif parsnip which is a short one like Kraal Russian.

[Zelenina]

I've decided lettuce will be my challenge this year.

I'm also doing a lettuce challenge, though probably a bit different from yours. I've grown lettuce here before that looks fine but always tastes very bitter, presumably from the heat. So my challenge is to find a variety of cos lettuce (my favourite type) that doesn't go bitter. I have four varieties on the go now - three I bought in local shops and one that came from Premier in an order I managed to time for a UK visit last year. The most vigorous seedlings are of a big variety called Gelbus, which is usually available here but I don't think I've tried before. Then I have Bertolt which I haven't seen before and almost missed, because the packet photo is taken from the top and it's quite frilly and doesn't look like a cos. The other local variety is Galander, which took part in a previous lettuce challenge and was vastly preferred by the slugs. The ones they didn't eat to the ground all turned out to be bitter so I'm thinking maybe that one wasn't. I couldn't find it the last few years and I thought it had gone off the market, but it has reappeared this year. Those seedlings aren't looking great as a lot of them had stuck seed caps, so I need to experiment with some more to find out why that happened. They are too small to successfully remove them by hand. The variety from Premier are Jericho which are supposed to be especially heat resistant, so I have high hopes for them.

[Snoop Puss]

Zelenina, you might find these people of interest for chillies and tomatoes: https://www.pepperseeds.eu/?___store...=pepperseedseu

As for garden veg seeds, I have bought from the following in France

La Bonne Graine: https://www.labonnegraine.com/ Reasonable prices but not huge packet sizes
Baumaux: https://www.graines-baumaux.fr/16871...nces-potageres Large packets and a big selection but not cheap...

I've also bought from these people in Germany. Really nice folk, but not an enormous selection: https://www.bingenheimersaatgut.de/e...egetables.html

My order above for this year was from Holland: https://tuinzaden.eu/en/ Not bought from these people before and package hasn't arrived yet, so I can't comment on quality

As for the lettuce challenge, mine is because I'm terrible at doing the little and often. Little I can manage, but I'm not good at the often part. Also, it's really hot here in summer and, like you, I need to find a variety that will manage. Also, I wouldn't mind growing some kind of leafy green for salad use in winter.