Gerhard Bohl - a private German seedbank

[dustdevil]

Hallo Ami.

Have you had any dealings with Hr. Bohl? If so, were you happy with the seed quality, taking into consideration it is impossible for him to growout everything himself?

dustdevil

PS: another page about him: http://www.seedambassadors.org/wp/?p=255

[amideutch]

No I have not. I read the seedambassadors article as well but Clara has dealt with Herr Bohl as you read from her initial post. A lot of commercial vendors of OP seeds do not grow all the seeds they sell and you will find crosses or the wrong variety altogether. Two companies who I speak from experience are Tomatofest and Baker Creek. Ami

[clara]

Some remarks to the postings above:

Can any seedsaver really guarantee true varieties if he does not bag blossoms? Gerhard does not give that guarantee as he says in his "Sortenbuch". Sometimes he gets crossed seeds in an exchange, but I had always the true varieties. Maybe I only had good luck (which I didn't have with some other sellers.)

Here in Germany you can get nearly every foreign currency at a bank, normally at once. Only if it's a very rare currency, you may have to wait for one day or two. But Euros shouldn't be that uncommon in the US.

Gerhard accepts only Euros, because otherwise he would have to go to a bank to change the money and as I said before, he is a very busy man.

If you want to order from Gerhard, please use the address I've given in my initial posting! Gerhard has moved more than one year ago; the address mentioned in http://www.seedambassadors.org/wp/?p=255 is his old one and no longer valid!

I have Gerhard's "Sortenbuch" as a pdf, but as he has the copyright, I don't want to post it here, sorry! It could cost me thousands of Euros, if I would do so - unfortunately there are some lawyers in Germany specialized in looking for copyright offenders...

For those who think paying for the CD-R or the stick is too expensive: If I want a printed catalog from abroad , I have to pay for it + postage and that's more than 10 Euros. But I don't know a catalog with about 10000 different varieties.

And once more: I don't get a dime, if you order from Gerhard!!! For me he is a good man, worth to be supported in his efforts to protect bio-diversity!
clara

[Duh_Vinci]

Clara,

Thank you taking your time and sharing the information about Gerhard Bohl and his admirable venture of preserving and making so many varieties available.

CD or a catalog is a viable option indeed! I do have one question though, and I maybe completely off base here - since Matthias mentioned that he has a file (catalog of his seed varieties), would it be possible to post this file in a shared location, say something likeGoogle Docs or alike? I don't know what is the file size limit for such places, but at the end, it would work something like when Grunt or Karamazovv posts a link of their available seeds, and a file accessible to a general public for viewing upon click to the link?

Regards,
D

[orflo]

Clara,
very well done, Gerhard needs the attention. I have had many exchanges with Gerhard, and I can confirm some things: he's very honest, the seeds arrive fast (but I always exchange during the less busy wintertime, so that could make a difference), all of the seeds I received were true-to-type as well; even a species like skirret (sium sisarum) which isn't the easiest one to get some good seeds fom, had very good viable seeds. And why does he ask for money for his (amazing!) catalogue? First of all postage and buying the stick/dvd as 'raw material' and second making this catalogue that contains this thousands of varieties, species,... Can you imagine how many hours/days/ or more are spent on organising and writing all this, every variety has a brief description, everything is categorsed, and so on...And the seeds are, for European standards, very cheap!
And i would be careful sending checks from the US, I had some very bad experiences with these, normally banks over here in Belgium refuse to cash these in, because there's no bank guarantee...

[Karamazovv]

Google docs is a really good thing.. i don't know the limit, but if you have a very big doc, you can also share with rapishare in exemple.

[DeanRIowa]

It sounds like Mr Bohl is a very honorable person and a great seed saver. I like what he does for seed preservation.

I think the question by most is why he does not publish his catalog online for easy access. I would guess there are multiple reasons.

• To keep out the normal gardener from using him as a seed catalog, as I am guessing he wants people to continue growing his varieties and is looking at the more serious gardeners that will fork over a couple of bucks for his list.
• Prefers the interaction with his customers, which allows him to gauge interest as well as create a relationship with them easier than most website would allow by just downloading his list.
• Doesn't generate money. No disrespect meant! It does cost money to maintain all of the varieties that he does.

Just my opinion!

I am loaded with choices this year, but I plan to file his information for the possibility of requesting seeds for next year's garden.

Dean

[amideutch]

OK, Here's the deal. IF somebody would volunteer to be the point person in the States or Canada who has PayPal and would collect the money for the catalogs and distribute them once received from me, I will purchase and send them to that individual. This would be a one time deal and would be for CD-R version only. I will pay for the postage of the CD-R's to the point person in the States. An additional charge would be tacked on to cover postage and the cost of a CD mailer for the point person to be agreed upon if this project flies. If I find out boot leg copies are being made you can forget me ever making any such offer again, EVER. At the current exchange rate 5 euro is right about $7.00. So, whatever is agreed upon for mailer and postage we are talking around $10.00 a copy.

Ami

[clara]

Ami, that's a very good idea! I do hope that many folks will come back to your offer - Gerhard's list is worth being spread! clara

[cortona]

hi Ami
i'm Emanuele from itlay, i'm a new member and i'm interessed in heirloom tomatoes, specialy italian: probably mr Bohl catalogues contains some of this variety but mi problem is that i complitely dont know german(wel my english is not so rich..:-( )can you help me?
thanks in advance
Emanuele

[clara]

Hi Emanuele, welcome first!

I would be pleased to help you as I'm German. Don't hesitate to ask! clara

[SunnyK]

Actually I think that $10 is not that bad a deal for the catalog...it would be like paying for a $40 Seed Savers Exchange membership so you can see the Yearbook. I know it isn't exactly the same, but you get my drift.

SunnyK
Donna

[amideutch]

Welcome Emanuele, and welcome to Tomatoville. I'm sure there are Italian varieties in Bohls book as well as several other sources on the web. Clara who volunteered to help you would be the best person to go to plus she is a school teacher here in Germany and has corresponded with Herr Bohl as well. I am a listed member at the Seed Savers Exchange as well as a lot of fellow Tvillans and would be happy to help you find some varieties from there too. Maybe you could tell us about some tomato varieties grown in your region that are heirloom or open pollinated (can be grown from saved seed). Ami

[cortona]

hi all,
first i want to thank all the tomatovilian for the warm welcome!
Clara i send you a pm soon!
Ami if you can help me to find some variety from sse i'm realy happy!
about the variety i grown in my garden it are principaly : kilo della garfagnana, an unnamed variety from south italy that i use for winter consumption,a paste tipe that come from an old farmer that live near my home,costoluto fiorentino,but i've tryed lots of other variety like periforme d'abruzzo, belmonte,pantano romanesco, varius sherry tipe, other winter consumption tomatoes, and after this some american variety like currant,golmedal,brandywine, wapsipinicon peach, hillybylly,thaypink etc etc...
of course i dont grown only tomatoes so i have a long list of other stuff that i grown but i dont know if is the right place to chat about this.
best wishes to all!

[kd3]

Clara, Thanks so much for the information :-)) I am keen to see what varieties Gerhard has listed. And Ami thank you for the Canadian / US offer, that is very kind of you, but I think I will send him a request directly this week as I have enough Euros from a past trip. Thanks again, kd / thehills