Swapping Seeds with Canadians

[IronPete]

Hi All;

I was talking with another Tomatovillian from the US about an SASE swap but when he found out I am in Canada (Ontario actually) he said that our customs always stops/destroys his seeds sharings.

Has anyone had luck sending SASE seeds to Canada from the US? Is there a trick to it? I know the seed sellers from the other side of the border have never had trouble shipping seeds to me so I am not sure why private people can't do it.

Is this the same for wintersown.org seeds?

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks, Iron Pete

PS: I did a forum search and didn't find anything but its possible that I did it incorrectly. If so please direct me to the appropriate discussion. Thanks!

[Zana]

Pete,
In over 200 trades I've done in the past 15 years, I've had less than a dozen seed packages heading to the U.S. come back to me. With the exception of one, when I resent them they all went through on the second time. (The exception plain disappeared and didn't come back to me or get to the sender.)

In all those trades heading north, I've only heard of one or two going to Canada that have been returned to the U.S....or elsewhere. We don't have the same incoming restrictions as the U.S.

What might be the problem is if you don't have U.S. stamps for a SASE....but you can get an international money order to cover postage from the post office and send that to them. I've done that too. But usually I just remember to pick up stamps whenever I'm across the border.

Hope that helps....but others may have something else to say about it.

[ginger2778]

I had a seed offer this year, and several went to Canadians, who sent me a PM letting me know they arrived, no one didn't get them except someone in the US!
I even wrote " Please do not XRay, contains live garden seeds" on the outside of the envelope.
Marsha

[KarenO]

There is usually a big Canadian seed swap each fall generously organized and beautifully done by Nicky. Stay tuned for that.
Also Tormato's giant annual seed swap envelope gets back to me just fine and is the reason I have become a crazy tomato lady.
As to small personal swaps across the border, I have never had a problem. postage is the only issue and I have a supply of American dollar bills to tuck into my SASE for postage. Next time I go to the States I will try to remember to purchase some international stamps. I don't know why I never thought of that before... Thanks Zana!!

Fall is the best time for seed swapping as everyone has nice fresh ones to trade. If there are specific varieties you really want, I highly recommend buying from Tatiana's (in Canada) for swift and personal service, excellent seeds at very low prices and she always includes a little bonus
KarenO

[rxkeith]

i have swapped bean seeds with a resident of B.C. without a problem. post office here asks whats in the package, i say bean seeds. i fill out a short form that gets attached to the package, and off they go. beans coming to me, have always made it here. no problems here.


keith

[carolyn137]

I've sent seeds to Canada for probably 20 years, for requests from my SSE listings and also for my annual seed offers here and before here, elsewhere.

BUT, several times I have not been thrilled with the Canadian Postal system, much to slow, and a few times the seeds I sent never got there.

I have several Canadian friends and there's never been a problem with seeds sent to me.

Carolyn

[IronPete]

Thanks for the feed all the feedback gang! I will get back to the other person and let them know what feedback I got. Hopefully we can give it a try!

For the most part I have bought my seed packs. I didn't discover Tania's until this year after I had bought some from TGS and dianeseeds.com (hope I got that right... not sure how many 's's are in there). I fully intend to start getting them from Tania and also from Jeff Casey in Airdrie. I am totally impressed with both of them although when you think of all that Tania has accomplished in such a short time it really is jaw dropping so they deserve my support and will get it come this fall.

The two seed types I am trying to get I have wanted for a while now and have had little 'tomato dreams' about them, lol! The first is Indian Stripe. I have heard (read but heard the narrative voice in my head, lol) Carolyn and a few others talk about it and I was sold a long time ago. The other is KBX. I love the yellows (my fav is Dr. Wyche) and I love the look of potato leafed plants.

3 I want from Tania (actually my wish list from her is about 25 varieties long, lol). Dr. Carolyn was involved with and the nostalgic story sold me. They are Great Divide, Red Barn and Mule Team (I have Box Car Willie). These are the Joe Bratka tomatoes and I will be buying them in the fall. From Jeff I want Sion and Maya's Airdrie tomato which again, Dr. Carolyn was a leading lady in the development of (I believe she gave the F1s to Jeff).

Thanks for listening to me go on. Thinking about tomato seeds is kind of like the weeks leading up to a fishing trip with my Dad. We'd think about and talk about all the things we were going to do and get great enjoyment from the anticipation. That way, even if we didn't catch many fish the trip was still worth it. I feel that way about seeds. I look forward to all of the possibilities of how they may express themselves and I get excited. Some of them turn out to be duds (anything with 'Sub-Arctic' in the name falls into this category) and some wow you from the get-go (Indigo Apple and Sioux fit this category although thats based on growth as I haven't tasted the fruit yet). I guess thats what I mean when I say 'tomato dreams', lol!

Thanks; Pete

[carolyn137]

The two seed types I am trying to get I have wanted for a while now and have had little 'tomato dreams' about them, lol! The first is Indian Stripe. I have heard (read but heard the narrative voice in my head, lol) Carolyn and a few others talk about it and I was sold a long time ago. The other is KBX. I love the yellows (my fav is Dr. Wyche) and I love the look of potato leafed plants.

3 I want from Tania (actually my wish list from her is about 25 varieties long, lol). Dr. Carolyn was involved with and the nostalgic story sold me. They are Great Divide, Red Barn and Mule Team (I have Box Car Willie). These are the Joe Bratka tomatoes and I will be buying them in the fall. From Jeff I want Sion and Maya's Airdrie tomato which again, Dr. Carolyn was a leading lady in the development of (I believe she gave the F1s to Jeff).

&&&&&

Pete, first, I'm Carolyn, the Dr. part was when I was working but I've been retired since 1999 and even while working I have signed off on every post I did as Carolyn, since there was the professional life and the personal one.

You can usually pick up the Joe Bratka ones here in the WANTED subforum of the seed exchange or go to Tania's page for them and there are many seed sources. Same for Indian Stripe and KBX.

I didn't give the F1 seed to Jeff. Stanley Zubrowski in Canada had sent me F1 crosses of 5 earlys X brandywine. I planted them and saved the F2 seeds. Originally I offered F2 seeds of all of them at Garden Web since Tville didn't open until Jan of 2006.

Jeff requested the F2 seeds of Brandywine X Stupice and worked with that one to get what he called Sion and Maya's and I'm so glad he did b'c there were quite a few who requested those F2 seeds from the Stupice and there was Glacier and I can't remember the others, b'c he's the only one who carried through with stabilization.

So yes, Jeff and I have known each other for many years and I usually send him seeds to trial, but I think for 2014 he said he'd pass since he had such a long list of growouts to do already.

Carolyn

[IronPete]

Hi Carolyn;
Thanks for your response and clarification.

I love Brandywine and Stupice so the Maya and Sion one is on my 'wanted' list. I don't know why but whenever a tomato variety has an interesting story behind it I want to see how it grows and see what it tastes like. Everyone is searching for the 'perfect tomato' and I suppose, like mermaids, they only exist in our dreams. That said we never stop searching for it and almost every tomato grower, I suspect, holds a spot in the garden for at least one new variety on the off chance that the 'mermaid' exists.

I actually want to thank everyone on Tomatoville. I am pretty new at forums and whatnot but I have read with glee more tomato-lore than I could otherwise have taken in. Yesterday it occurred to me (after reading a related forum) that I should have a dehydrator so I went out and got one. I have changed my plan for next year's garden to include more pastes and sun-dry tomatoes after reading some posts. I have some recipes that I want to try and I am determined to learn how to jar things. This is a wonderful place for tomato-folk to congregate and I am certainly happy that I found it.

Thanks all, Iron Pete

[Mojave]

I just sent some pepper seeds to Australia. He told me Australian authorities routinely confiscate seeds and to send them in a card (like a birthday card). It worked!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Mojave

I just sent some pepper seeds to Australia. He told me Australian authorities routinely confiscate seeds and to send them in a card (like a birthday card). It worked!

The two countires that have the most strict regulations for sending seeds to are the Netherlands and Australia.

The netherlands especially for tomato seed since they have many commercial breeding companies there, and Australia also for tomato seed since they have a big problem there with the Potato Spindle viroid, which also infects tomatoes.

Large amounts of tomato seed going to Australia need to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate, which is very expensive to have done and done only by large commercial places.

And yes, I've known many whose seeds have been confiscated, more so than in Holland. I once looked up the seeds banned in Australia and it was a very long list. I used to send some seeds there, even in a greeting card, only tomato seeds, but no more. And I used to send lotsof tomato seed to Kees Sahin,now deceased, of Sahin Seeds in Holland but he told me to put the green coupon on the package and write on it for experimental research.

Kees once ordered lots of tomato seed from Linda at TGS and it was refused and returned to Linda. Well I remember she sent his seeds to me and I repackaged them, in several smaller packs, added the green label and off they went and got through to him.

But I do understand the concerns of both Holland and Australia in terms of possible importation of seedborne diseases.

Carolyn

[Tormato]

I've had no problems with mailings to, or from, Canada. From BC to me can take up to 4 weeks, though. On custom forms, I always declare the content as seeds (quantity as the number of packs), as a gift, with $0 value. Even the 110 packs of beans to Nicky's Canadian swap went through like a hot knife cutting butter.

Gary