I want to live next to to your grocery store!! We do not have a wonderful variety of produce. I apologize, I was grouping GMO seed along with seed that could be patented. Aren’t some varieties specifically produced for commercial markets?
On another note, here is the edible luffa I grew go to seed and still make good sponge like fibers…and se
I agree that they would be interesting and valuable to have available as starter stock and sub-projects, but would be inappropriate for the main GTS mixes, no matter how carefully they’re sourced and screened. There are plenty of other resources out there that provide such seed; but the whole point of the GTS project is to grow them out as individual farmers/gardeners according to our own habits, preferences, and local conditions, to then mindfully select and share the next generation of seeds resulting from that growout. On this principle, seeds directly from store-bought fruit are no different than commercial seed.
Hmmm. Do you want to set up something like that, and be in charge of it?
“A rising tide lifts all boats.” In-person swaps, local seed libraries, online community grexes, the Serendipity Seed Swap, other seed trains, and one-on-one swaps don’t compete with each other. In fact, they all enhance the effectiveness of each other at sharing nifty diversity broadly. If you have a new idea for a community activity to share seeds in an underserved niche, and you’d like to run it, I bet it would be neat for everybody. 
Well you might not have to, as I’m more than willing to share seeds. DM me.
Yes but you aren’t likely to find them in fresh fruit form. I don’t worry about having patented seeds in the fruits since the seeds won’t come true to type (Seeds not coming true to type aren’t a risk to them, they’re more scared of cloning via cutting like with delmonte’s GMO Pink Pineapples where they take out the top). I think they forgot that Pineapples contain seeds inside their fruit & could be easily savable (By eating the fruit & spitting the small seeds out) like how I did for the regular non gmo Yellow Pineapples.
If you want to gauge the attitude towards seed saving from a Grocery Store Tomato Brand, check out Sunset Growers Website (Scroll down to Q&A). Tomatoes - SUNSET Grown. All rights reserved.
Another brand is the GMO Purple Tomato by Norfolk which actually encourages gardeners to save seeds from them (As long as you don’t resell them). Funny story, the super NON GMO Heirloom seed company Baker Creek almost sold their seeds by “accident”). GMO Purple Tomato by Norfolk LANDRACE
@Kimzy Also that luffa lookin super nice! Would be awesome for those to go into a Luffa/Sponge Gourd Landrace on GTS. If not we could trade for em, DM me.
Sure but I have no idea how it would work out. I’m still not quite sure what are all the responsibilities of the GTS Seed Steward. I would happily do what I can to make it happen.
Basically GTS is the only seed swap I have access to, None exist where I live Locally.
Hmm… so how would I contribute seeds if I have no land to grow them on? Container Gardening?
I would happily Landrace the seeds like GTS intended if I had land, hence why I started Ninja Gardening in the Woods despite the deer pressure. They showed no Mercy to my squash plants. Before deer found my spot, the Grocery Store Squash Seeds grew like absolute Savages, hence why I’m confidant in sending Grocery Store seeds BECAUSE I’ve seen what they can do.
This is how Strongly Grocery Store Squash Grew from my Ninja Garden. Sadly the deer ate basically every seedling, including the Huge Grocery Store Acorn Squash in 2nd picture (NOT a SINGLE Leaf left thanks to deer). Keep in mind, these are growing on crap soil.
Here’s how Big Grocery Store Cornuts got in less than a month. On the left side I planted GTS SweetCorn so they could cross. Specifcally Chulpe Cornnut already has the sweetcorn trait & the Flour Corn Trait thus pops deliciously. I Hope I will get enough seeds to share into the GTS but the deer have already bitten the tops of these Corn Plants.
I think the consensus is that the GTS grexes don’t want grocery store seeds unless they’ve been grown out for a generation first. For a few reasons, one of them being to ensure the seeds donated will be viable. 
But I see no reason why you couldn’t start a new project specifically intended for sharing them! They’re allowed in the Serendipity Seed Swap, and of course in one-on-one swaps. I’m sure there are lots of people who’d be interested in participating. (I’m one!) And a rising tide lifts all boats. If you want to start your own thing specifically for that purpose, I think that may be an underserved niche that could be filled.
I didn’t necessarily mean getting the community to take on seed contracts, but I have done seed contracts before as well and I think it’s a good trade off for my time invested. I’m going into it knowing something is expected of me, and seed contracts are typically quite flexible. I believe breeding crops this way could be the answer to most agricultural issues, so I think getting serious seed producers involved would be a great idea. I think they incentives for regular people are already good enough, it’s just that most people aren’t going to return seeds regardless. I give away seeds every year, thousands of them, and I’ve only had about 10 people bring me back seeds. 
@VeggieSavage have you tried some type of scarecrow or scent to keep deer away?
Put two dvds 
together so the reflective sides catch the sun, hang around growing area. My Father also recieved hair from a barber shop and placed inside an old sock to hang by the garden too…a sweaty tee shirt 
too that is hung on a branch so the wind can keep it moving and deter the deer. I have also seen a garden with flash tape, for birds, also to keep the deer away. A stinky perfume also applied to an old sock and hung about three feet off the ground to deter the deer can work.
The forest soil should be good to grow in since the leaf litter composts and lends good microbes for plant life, unless the pH is way low. The seedlings and plants looked like they were thriving.
The luffa was also really tasty to eat. Its a ribbed variety, smallish fruits and delicious once the green skin is pealed away. I also direct seeded into soil that was just composted horse manure, old potting soil and earth worm castings placed in a good six inch layer ontop of the native sandy soil here.
I have to check my seed count to see if any can be shared. I only saved seed from two small luffa. They also grew during the summer, Im thinking I planted during monsoon season last July. Im trying to recall if all luffa are edible when smallish but this variety was known for being tasty to eat…
I looked up your youtube content and enjoyed the tree video.
Ideas to repel deer are a great topic that I bet a lot of people have ideas on, so rather than derail this thread, I’ve started a new one to share them. 
I’m not sure how I would start it, I’m also not sure how many people would be interested? How did GTS Start?
BOOM, BINGO, EXACTLY That’s the root of this problem. I think there’s a 80/20 rule going on here & the Bigger GTS Gets the stronger this rule becomes.
No but Neighbors might see it & maybe some Karen will be to nosy. Plus Deer here aren’t scared of anything, they are too comfortable here.
Never Tried this but from everyone else I’ve heard try this, it works temporarily but then the deer outsmart it, thus becomes a runaway Cat & Mouse game of constantly trying to outsmart the deer knowing well they will outsmart it. They can’t outsmart no food being present, bad tasting plants, Bone sauce or a SUPER THICK living fence (Without a backdoor entrance).
Depends on how stinky & potent it is. Plus Rain washing away the smell is another concern & If Deer are desperate enough they will ignore it.
Agreed, so maybe it wasn’t quite crap soil (However it was thick clay where Blackberries grew). Indeed the seedlings were thriving, probably because they were alreadt rotting/germianting inside grocery store squash, which disinterested the squirrels cuz germinating/half-rotten seeds taste bad to them.
Theoretically all Imature Luffa is edible so long as they’re not bitter (The Bitter taste is the Toxicity part, And it’s LOUD in Cucurbitace/Gourd Family).
Oh wow, I didn’t expect this. I was thinking of Uploading every seed you save at the grocery store to that channel, might be a useful resource as I’m still working on the script.
Going to Seed started as a paid course called, I believe, Modern Landraces. Joseph Lofthouse started it, along with several other people who are probably now moderators. (@julia.dakin? @anna? Were you here from the beginning? I know you were here long before I was.)
Joseph decided it would be a good idea to start the mixes in 2022, and he mentioned it in a post on the Open Source Plant Breeding forum, which I frequented. I saw the post, I decided to donate a whole bunch of seeds, and I got free access to the forum and courses because I’d donated seeds.
I LOVED the community, and it soon got even better, when it became a nonprofit with the new name Going to Seed. The courses became free, so did the forum, and when the grexes were offered, they were free except for postage. I’ve seen an explosion of community develop ever since I joined back in 2022, and I think a lot of it is due to all those great decisions.
Hooray for community! 
I don’t know exactly how the grex project started, since I joined the community after that project started. (Because of that project. ) I became a seed steward during its second year (last year). I’d be interested in knowing the story of how the grex idea was formed from the very beginning!
I can tell you for sure how the Serendipity Seed Swap started. I heard about seed trains, I thought, “I want one!” and I asked the moderators if it would be okay if I started one. They said sure! So I came up with some sensible rules, started a thread, and people who were interested hopped onto the thread right away. About two weeks later, I was popping a box in the mail to the first person that contained about fourteen bags of seeds (ten from me, four from Joseph Lofthouse, who generously offered to send them to me to include).
We probably don’t need a second seed train, but I don’t see any problem there being a second one, if you want to create one. (I’m sure I’d join. 
) If you have an idea for an entirely different system, that would be even better. The more different ways we have to share seeds, the more exciting diversity I think is likely to be shared, and it is likely to be shared ever more broadly.
Julia Dakin started the course, with help from Joseph and soon many others. Thanks, Julia and all of you who are putting so many hours into this project!
This is pretty close! I haven’t commented on this because the first ever Impact Report is about to come out, and it has Going to Seed’s origin story. I will share it ASAP. I’m so glad and thankful for how everything has evolved so far.
Yes, a HUGE thank you to everyone who started things rolling!
Thank you for explaining the history a bit.
WAIT IT’S BEEN AROUND FOR THAT LONG!?
I feel for now I will just trade peer to peer. I don’t have the technical know how to make it work effectively. Since Grocery Store Seeds aren’t accepted, I can just contribute to the Fukuoka Grab Bag mix with Wild Foraged Seeds.
I understand and agree with the rationale of not adding grocery store seed to the GTS mixes.
That said, I’d like to say that as someone who lives in a remote, rural area, I am far from any ethnic grocery stores at all. When visiting larger cities I try to plan for visiting international and ethnic groceries, but it can be rare. I would love to have a little bit more access to that kind of seed.
On the other hand, I do live in a biodiverse rural region where I can forage seeds from all kinds of wild and feral species. @VeggieSavage have you considered signing up for the Serendipity Seed Swap? I am signed up and I have been planning to add some of my foraged seed to the box when it reaches me.
@nodinesplants I look forward to your crap ton of seeds!
Totally recognize that we will never reach 100% seed return – and probably not even 50%. But if we can increase from 12% to 20%, that would be amazing. And I’m hopeful that simplifying the process, communicating more clearly, and educating growers will help.
We are exploring other ways of increasing seed contributions & diversity. Last year we purchased some seed from small growers/breeders. Our budget for this is pretty small though, since we offer our seed mixes for free. This year, I’ve organized a volunteer grow out of some rare melon seeds from the USDA seedbank. One of the jobs of our seed stewards is seeking out diversity within their crop, within our community and beyond.
I gotchu, DM me. I’m interested in all kinds of seed.
YES! That’s awesome! I like this, you probably got some very interesting seeds I’d trade for, DM me.
Nice… How does it work exactly? Specially the sending to an address part? I’ve never done anything like this, it’d be my first time.
I’m in agreement with the general sense of making it easier to submit seeds and reminding, but not so often as to feel spammy. Also, that an increase to 20 percent seed return would be significant but I expect reasonable. Has it been considered to add a comment box to the order form “What are your plans for these seeds? Do you plan to return some if you succeed?” along with an invitation to this group to continue the conversation?
For instance, my plans for this year’s sweet corn: mix the GTS seed with roughly equal parts Desert White Sweet and a mix of random leftover sweet corn from the seed box (none of which was a total bust) and save the bottom third of each ear that tastes good and sets 1 large or multiple medium ears per plant. I plan to keep about 50 seeds for next year and return the rest.
Err, I meant to say 2022. My finger must have slipped typing in the date. Totally my fault! I corrected the post. (Sheepish grin.)
