Comments/Questions SRGC Seed Ex. List No, 65

[razvan chisu]

Yuppee, I'll get the missing donors quota plus some extra Daphnes.
If these and the Daphne seeds I bought at the Conference will germinate I'll be veeery happy.
Maggy, thanks once again.

[KenC]

My seed allocation arrived (USA) last week and I was thrilled with the selection. Many thanks to all those who work so hard to make this happen!

[gordon julian]

I have selected Astragalus coccineus from seed exchanges several times over the past couple of years and unfortunately all have proven to be Anthyllis vulneraria coccinea,the two genera/species have quite different seeds and it is possible the donor/s may not have any method of checking the true identity.SRGC no.583/2012 as well as AGS no.1700/2012 are also Anthyllis seed unfortunately.I have now been told of U.S.A. source (Alplains Nursery ) who have seed of many Astragalus species and I have ordered some from them today.Gordon Julian,Tasmania

[Susan Band]

Hi Gordon,
I have grown this astragalus from Alpains seed and you will not be disappointed. Rub the seed in a little piece of sandpaper and they will germinated within a few days. Keeping them going is the tricky part they usually die here after flowering but they might do better in your neck of the woods. Well worth the effort.

Susan

[Lesley Cox]

Last year Anthyllis montana from SRGC also was Anthyllis vulneraria but was true from the AGS list.

[Sue Beatty]

Thank you so much everyone.  I was excited to see that white envelope in our mailbox today :-)  I really hope to contribute this year and want to thank all the donors and everyone else who puts so much effort into it.  I got 14 first choices and honestly I would have been happy with any of my seconds too.  Bless you all and hope the seed pickers are not reciting all the numbers in their heads any longer :-)

[Maggi Young]

Packet arrived for me today of NARGS seed... all neatly labelled. 
Why there is resistence to a labelling sytem here I cannot understand.
Saves the stress of deciphering handwriting and would be so much simpler for the import regs.  "Sigh!"

[Lillii]

Today my surplus seed dumped into my mailbox, and i am shocked  50 packets of seeds! What was i thinking??! I must have been like a child in a candy store  and i got so much interesting that i don't know where to begin! Thank you very much again, both donors and seed exchange people  It must have been quite a task to sort all the seeds out!

[Hoy]

Got a great treasure today! Seeds arrived from SRGC. Thank you to all involved

[Rick R.]

Packet arrived for me today of NARGS seed... all neatly labelled.  
Why there is resistence to a labelling system here I cannot understand.
Saves the stress of deciphering handwriting and would be so much simpler for the import regs.  "Sigh!"

As a NARGS Seed Exchange seed packer for many years,  I have worked with both the old stamp method and the newer printed label system; and I must say unequivocally, that labels make the process faster, more accurate and more efficient.

A predetermined number of labels for each offering is printed in advance, before the actual seed packing is done.  I can't tell you what the actual methodology is, but that number is (mostly?) based on the number of requests for each particular offering in the past.  This is absolutely wonderful!  No more guessing how many packets to make: if there are only 10 labels, there is no need to make 25 packets!

And this way, excess seed is not automatically wasted.  If there are lots of seeds for a 10 label item, I might still make 12 packets.  (We can always hand write more, at our discretion.)  The twelve packets then get the seed divided up, lets say 30 seeds per packet.  This, as opposed to the old method, where we would have made many more packets with less number of seeds per packet, because we would have no idea how many packets would be needed. So with the old method, many of those packets would have gone unused!  Multiply all that extra, unnecessary time and work by....100?....1000?  You get the picture.  Members are happier when they get more seed in their orders, too.  Wouldn't you?

On the other hand, when there is relatively little seed of an offering, the labeling system still works in our best interest.  It will tell us (by how many labels are printed for the offering) how best to divide up the available seed.  The minimum number of seeds per NARGS packet is five.  So, by knowing the number of packets that need to be made, we can adjust the number of seeds per packet to meet the demand.  That can mean that a packet only gets five seeds, but more people get their first choices!  (I will say that when I package seeds such as this, and some individual seed's viability is questionable, I don't count them as part of the "five", but I do include them in the packet.)

Parenthetically, this is the first year that we are not keeping an "overage" packet, where excess seed is kept separately, in case there is a miscalculation that underestimated the number of prospective requests.  With that overage packet, we could then make more packets to fill orders when the labeled packages run out.  I am guessing that by now we have enough past data that makes the need for an overage packet unnecessary.   NARGS has used the printed labeling system since at least 2004.

It's win-win system, all the way!

[maggiepie]

A predetermined number of labels for each offering is printed in advance, before the actual seed packing is done.  I can't tell you what the actual methodology is, but that number is (mostly?) based on the number of requests for each particular offering in the past.  This is absolutely wonderful!  No more guessing how many packets to make: if there are only 10 labels, there is no need to make 25 packets!

Hi Rick, does this mean that the only surplus seeds that will be available will be seeds that nobody had  listed as first choices?
That if there were say, 300 seeds of Campanula barbata for example were in the kitty and two people asked for them that they would get half each?

[Susan]

Great excitement today.  My seeds arrived in the mail. Opened for inspection by MAF but all in order.

A very big thanks to all who make it possible.

Susan

[BryanEmery]

Printed labels would also reduce mistakes like I had in my order, I received 666 when I ordered 686

[Rick R.]

Hi Rick, does this mean that the only surplus seeds that will be available will be seeds that nobody had  listed as first choices?
That if there were say, 300 seeds of Campanula barbata for example were in the kitty and two people asked for them that they would get half each?

Hi Helen,

I think the minimum number of labels for any item is five.  The number of preprinted labels for item "X" is likely more than the largest number ever previously ordered for item "X".  We still have plenty of leftovers after the first round, and the second round.  Yes we have extra, but not as much as would have been automatically generated by making so many more packets than needed from the very start.  The idea is to try to better balance the enormous amount of work needed to operate the exchange with a more accurate estimation of actual need.

I don't know how first choice items versus second choice items fit into the calculation of future number of labels printed.

To your hypothetical question: if there were 15 preprinted labels for Campanula barbata, the seed would be divide into a minimum of 15 parts for 15 packets.  If only two people ordered the species, they would each get one packet.  The rest would go into the second round of the exchange.  

I don't know what the default number of packets would be for a species that has never been listed before.  It (and many other parameters) would certainly be something that could/would be tweaked by each individual plant society's seed exchange.  The SYSTEM can be modified to meet SRGC's needs and wants, which may or may not be the same as that of NARGS.

[Ian Y]

I know the SRGC seed packeting team have a system for estimating the demand based on many previous years requests. This number is known as 'Henry's' as it was originally Henry and Margaret Taylor that did that job for many years and the name sticks both out of affection and honour this famous SRGC couple.
I have been in favour and pushing the SRGC to adopt packet labeling for around ten years now but I am not the one carrying out this much appreciated work.