FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

What do you Administrators and forum users think about starting a free seedbank for FlyTrapCare Forum users?

My suggested setup is as follows:

Donors mail in their seed to the bank. Seed should be dated and ID'd for species with donor's name on seed envelope.

Species are graded
1, easy growing, common, no dormancy or stratification needed.
2, dormancy or stratification needed, maybe special growing needs.
3, difficult to grow or very rare.

Seedbank Manager will keep an updated (more or less) inventory posted on the form on a regular (more or less) basis.

A forum member who wants seed will send an SASE to the Seedbank Manager. First they would PM the Seedbank Manager for his/her mailing address. (This should never be publicly posted.) They should specify what seed they're requesting. I was thinking of maybe a 2 species limit per month to allow everyone a fair shot at the seeds. Members might want to limit access to rare/difficult seed to experienced growers or less experienced growers who donate seed.

Members who receive seed should agree to Pay It Forward by donating seed from their plants in the future.

Seed donors should get priority when they request seed. People donating will make or break this Seedbank.

Someone stupid enough to volunteer to be Seedbank Manager is also a neccessity. This will be a thankless job with no benefits or privileges.

What do you think of this half baked idea? It's just an idea I've been thinking about for a while.

Good growing,
Mike

that is a cool idea.. but all bet
if they did start one they would always be out of seeds ,lol
except for classics,
the flytrap store always seems like there half sold out of plants .

Even having the basic beginner species available would be a good thing for beginning growers.

I never said it was a good idea. It is just something I've been thinking about. Maybe some forum member has a suggestion to help improve it.

Good growing,
Mike

This is a great idea. I think the rules you have suggested will certainly help keep it stocked. I would suggest having the donors ask the seedbank manager if what they have is needed. For example, capensis seeds would probably be bursting at the seams in not long.
Curtis

Excess capensis seed can be made available to teachers or educators who may wish to use it as educational props, a neat classroom project. (And a sneaky underhanded way to get kids hooked on CP)

Good growing,
Mike

Just make sure the seed bank operator lives somewhere safe. As in no flooding, no hurricanes, no wildfires, no tornadoes, no earthquakes, etc etc. And make sure they have a backup generator in case the power goes out if seeds will be stored in a fridge/freezer. Haha just kidding but not really. I'd hate to seed the seed bank get wiped out in one fell swoop. Seriously though I think it's a great idea as long as someone steps up to manage it properly. I would definitely contribute.

Here's a possible rule to stop people from joining, cleaning out the seedbank, and disappearing, without ever contributing to our community.

Level 3 seeds can only be given to members with 1 year active membership, maybe specify a number of posts.

Level 2 seeds can only be given to a member with 3 month active membership, maybe specify a lesser number of posts.

Level 1 seeds will be given to new members with 1 month active membership, unless they want D. capensis. They can have that on day 1 of joining.

One other thought; what should we do with something very rare? Think N. rajah, D. magnifica, or something equivalent. Do we want first come, first served? Or should we do a random drawing giveaway if there's only one package, with very few seeds in it?

What do you think?

Good growing,
Mike

Sounds like a great idea to me Mike. I would like to help get something like this started. Im not volunteering to manage. I think some of you more veteran guys should do that maybe even you. lol. So who wants to be in charge?

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I think the manager should be someone equally expert in all, or at least most, Cp genera. I'm adequate in Drosera, OK with flytraps, but beyond the sticky plants, My knowledge is mostly book learning. Look at my growlist.

If this idea does get off the ground, if they can't find a qualified volunteer, I'd give the manager role my best effort until I could be replaced by a well rounded competent volunteer.

The group could offer the manager first pick, or at least a few seeds off the top. This would be an incentive possibly for someone.

A number of details should be worked out. I just wanted the forum members and Admins to start thinking about it.

Good growing,
Mike

Mike, I think you would be a great SB manager, you've pretty much volunteered for the job anyways.

So there will be no fighting, all rare seeds should be sent to me.

I know it would complicate things but maybe some sort of point system for the rare stuff. I personally send my rare seeds to people that I know will have a good chance at growing them, like Mike. That also gives us all a better chance at seeing a return in the future.

Smooter80 wrote:
I know it would complicate things but maybe some sort of point system for the rare stuff.

Think about it. See what you can come up that would be fair. If this idea is going to work, everyone should toss in their ideas and suggestions. Then we do what Matt says. Golden rule is, the guy who supplies the gold, supplies the rules. I've always respected that rule.

Also, we'd have to make sure that we don't compete with Matt's FlyTrap Store . If there is a species of seed he's selling, we don't want to be giving that species away for free. That's where the money comes from to pay for this forum.

Good growing,
Mike

This is a great suggestion! There are lots of details that would be need to be sorted out but this is definitely worth flagging up to Matt and Leah and getting their thoughts on the matter.

Some of my thoughts:
* The seed bank manager (if in the States) could potentially use a PO Box for the SASE envelopes to protect their own privacy, although this would incur a fee which could possibly be covered by an optional donation system.
* Offering Venus fly trap seeds could potentially draw some business away from Matt and Leah. On the flip side, it may inspire members of the community to purchase seeds from them at a greater rate because their interest in growing fly traps from seed has been peaked.
* The seed bank manager would need to have thorough knowledge about import, exports, customs, restrictions, etc. as some countries require declarations about specific species whereas others have strong restrictions on the importing of non-native species.
* With regards to the above, would the seed bank be an international endeavour or one only for US soil? Would multiple seed banks be set up to accommodate different countries/jurisdictions?

Grey wrote:This is a great suggestion! There are lots of details that would be need to be sorted out but this is definitely worth flagging up to Matt and Leah and getting their thoughts on the matter.

Some of my thoughts:
* The seed bank manager (if in the States) could potentially use a PO Box for the SASE envelopes to protect their own privacy, although this would incur a fee which could possibly be covered by an optional donation system.
* Offering Venus fly trap seeds could potentially draw some business away from Matt and Leah. On the flip side, it may inspire members of the community to purchase seeds from them at a greater rate because their interest in growing fly traps from seed has been peaked.
* The seed bank manager would need to have thorough knowledge about import, exports, customs, restrictions, etc. as some countries require declarations about specific species whereas others have strong restrictions on the importing of non-native species.
* With regards to the above, would the seed bank be an international endeavour or one only for US soil? Would multiple seed banks be set up to accommodate different countries/jurisdictions?

I never even considered the international aspect. Guess I'm pretty provincial at heart.

That would make an SASE difficult for non-USA forum members. Is an IRC, international reply coupon or a global Forever Stamp universally obtainable?

Maybe a USA and a EU seedbank could be organized separately by forum members in the respective regions.

I just offered the idea in the hope that it could me made workable somehow. The ICPS seedbank is international but they must have some backers to pony up for the neccessary permits. I was thinking too small, I guess.

Good growing,
Mike

I'm not sure if the UK or EU are able to get an IRC or GFS, but I can do some digging and see what comes up. I'm keeping a close eye on what will happen to the UK import/export laws as well as we go through the EU "divorce" proceedings anyway so can make a note of this as time goes by. For now, I think things will remain as they currently are (free trade within the EU and a simple declaration on packages being received from other countries).

I do think it is a brilliant suggestion and we can probably get it to work if the go-ahead is given. Thank you, Mike!

I can try to help my fellow Asian growers to get seeds.Lets see.

One other thought; what should we do with something very rare? Think N. rajah, D. magnifica, or something equivalent. Do we want first come, first served? Or should we do a random drawing giveaway if there's only one package, with very few seeds in it?

What do you think?

I think rare seeds should be given only to experienced growers as the seeds are already slow growers and new comers are not that patient. (Even I wasnt).