30 with tomatoes or peppers. It varies with size of seed and amount of seed produced. It is a golden rule thing. There might be something rare where you would receive less, but it would be discussed ahead of time.

My trade list says I give about 25 seeds per item. That way everyone knows ahead of time and no one can get disappointed. And while there are some things I'm fairly strict about in terms of seed counts, for most I usually give way more than 25.

Rodney

I think the standard is 25 - more for tiny seeds, less for large or rare seeds.

i typically send 25 min.. if they are tiny like cleome, basil etc I send anywhere from 50 to 75.. If they are rare its about 10 and I surely do make sure the receiver is aware.. I like to give enough to them to share with others...

i like to trade larger amounts, and usually aim for 50- 200 + seeds, excepting certain things and highly dependent on what i have of a particular thing. also depending on how difficult a seed is, for things that are difficult to start.

i work on a very large scale, larger than most here, i would guess. usually when i save seeds of something i end up with large bags, jars, of seed. a real lot anyway.

i also do a lot of direct sowing, which doesnt make the most of the seed, but does produce strong plants based on the survival of the fittest rule. 50 - 200 + is the amount i usually sow at one time, well of course it depends. with tomatoes, its fairly certain that out of 30 seeds you will get 70-80 percent germination, and with culling at least 10 plants or so, way more than enough, even to survive the survival of the fittest rule and transplant shock. but with fussy seeds i will like to sow at least 100 a time, just to make sure i get a few strong plants. and with direct sowing sometimes it takes just that much to get a few plants.

i suppose i try to put in at least two sowings. enough seed to sow once and feel like you can sow as much as you want, feeling you have some backup. and another sowing to either plant again if a fail, or give away/trade/store. of course thats an individual thing, how much that is...but this is what i like to be able to send, if i can.

i am grateful for what people send and understand that most people think 25 is enough for some, i will not complain because i know thats others agreed upon standard. but personally, it is usually not enough seed for me, of course again, i am grateful for what i get and that people took the time to send to me. so i dont expect more, but i sure do like it when i get a fat packet. =)

Leila, you're one of my tradees. I can only assume you were disappointed when you sure that many seeds. If so, I'd love to make it up. I'm still organizing from the trading I did, but if you look at my list in a week or so (must update, traded away a lot of things), and lmk what you want, and I'm happy to send you more.

well - i dont blame you, but i think maybe the post office has delayed/who knows what - the envelope i have been waiting for =(

so i havent even yet gotten the package from you. my mail is crazy slow though, so not all hope is lost.

but like i said above, i realize that 25 is most peoples idea of a good trade, and i realize i am on a larger scale than most.

so no i dont think i will be disappointed, i know thats the amount most people are trading, and so generally expect to get those amounts. really that is what is most "normal" here, so thats the usual range, as the other posters here show as well. i still send more, because i have more, well at least if and when i do have more, like the things that i save myself.

also theres times where people are trying to build up a small seed collection, and then theres some others who actually need to pass along a lot of our too large collection! seeds need to go out fast, you know, i get lots of seed coming and going, you have to keep it flowing =) so i can usually tell when someone is in the first group, trying to build up , and then i am happy to trade them fatter amounts. even if i get 25, because anything i specifically request i am looking for for myself...so i can usually pull it off to grow it out and then get the hundreds/thousands of seeds of that thing to trade and replant.

i guess i am saying i am in the latter group =) of course with what i want i want as much as possible, just to make sure i get some plants. but for the stuff i already have hundreds of plants to collect from, and bags of it from last year, and this year...well i am not looking to plant those cause i already have them, and i want to get the seed out in the world doing its thing =)

and also i am a sag =) ruled by big fattie jupiter --- its our nature =)

talk too much, eat too much, go on too long in rambling posts too much =) and send big fat packs of seeds =)

Leila, I just checked.they went out the 26th. Paul -got his, Jordan hasn't responded, and yours-haven't arrived.is that normal? I did have to repack yours, but they went out the day after I mentioned that. Just in case they got mixed up I made labels out of turquoise stickers. Everything was hand written.

hey - my mail really is slow...so we will see. i live way out in the woods...so i am happy to get mail at all!

I would be sending thirty. I start tomatoes and peppers in those numbers. Eggplant, no. Zucchini eeek. I give some seedlings away. It is in the Gardenweb rules. I want the recipient happy.

Cotton wood, can you post a link to this set of rules?

No, I don't know how to do that. GW predates Houzz. It had been around many years and there are members here that have been active surprising numbers of years. I was brand new to GW in May 2013 and that's when I was first reading the rules and hearing them from longer time members.

here's some threads that cover the 25 seed "rule" or guideline

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1418416/fewer-than-25-seeds

seed-exchange-faq

http://faq.gardenweb.com/forums/seed-exchange-faq

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1418337/10-most-frequently-asked-faq-questions

Oh, I know well that GW predates houzz- houzz is my misery, and I was so sad when I came back to GW and found that it had been 'occupied' ;) exaggerating, but I really do miss the old format, and I don't like houzz at all. I was on GW since.. 03-ish, but I never did a trade. I did once do a 'group buy' where everyone chipped in like $5 and I bought seeds in bulk, split them up and sent them out to the group members- that was cool, but more work than I anticipated.

Leila- I enjoyed the 'Sue' thread. I think like some of those folks- I'd rather have more variety with less seeds b/c how many of the same tomato plant do I really want to grow? hmm?? but I also see the winter-sowing side of it. I have to be careful myself to hold some back in case I mess up..And I do plan to mess up. I'm going to do some direct-winter-sowing with jugs on top (no bottoms). Either way, I think it's only fair to reach out to folks and make sure they got what they wanted- or fix it.

What we like about Houzz: GW almost disappeared into vapor, Houzz rescued.

What do you mean, disappeared?

It's exactly what it sounds like. The owners of GardenWeb were just going to let it disappear. It would have been gone forever. Instead, Houzz took over GW and kept it going.

Rodney

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2837117/the-story-none-of-us-were-told

wow- I had NO idea..

Leila - Guess what I got in the mail today. It says unable to forward, and there's a label over the address, and a stamp 'postage due.' I'm not sure if I have the wrong address, or one stamp wasn't enough (even thought they said it was when I went to the PO), or both. I'm an optimist, soooo this gives me a chance to add some more stuff to your envelope. I'll put an extra stamp on it and confirm the address w you.

well at least it showed up somewhere!

yeah , its hard to do an envelope that goes with only one stamp, it is possible but only for very particular, extremely tough, and small seeds, andwhen you are only sending one or two packets .

i am not sure if i should get into this, some traders really dislike this method of sending, because they have gotten crushed seeds. seeds of a certain type do make it ok this way, though, there are SOME kinds of seeds this is possible without having them be crushed by the post office abuse! and if any of them were to break it would be because they werent the most solid seeds to begin with....for those certain types. the basic gist is you have to tape them down so they dont shift inside the envelope, and then put them inside a card. the cardstock does provide some very limited protection, but again this is only really good for certain types of very tiny seeds.

for a "flat" bubbly envelope, its 2 stamps for under one ounce, 3 stamps for 2-4 ounces ...or approx. its something like .21 cents per every additional ounce, and since few people have 5 and 10 cent stamps- it works out to 3 stamps for 2-3 ounces.

you can see the current prices for regular letter, flats, and parcels here---> current first class mail price list

the 2 stamp price ( .98 ) is for a classification the post office calls a "flat",or also called a "large envelope" and as such has to be somewhat flat shaped and not have protruding bumps, or be thicker than 3/4 inch. this is achieved by taping down the seeds to a card stock, recycled cereal box, or index card/paper, and arranging them in the envelope so that they are as flat as possible and uniformly thick. this kind of envelope is 2 stamps (add .21 cents per ounce).

if you go above 3/4 inch thick, it becomes a parcel. at that point it is going to be at least 2.50 to mail- anything under 3 ounces = $2.54 or so.....

also if you use the same envelope, be sure to put a sticky or black out the "postage due" stamp with a sharpie...so that doesnt show! well my post office are sticklers. i have had to have a long long involved heated debate with them about what exactly a flat is, and to deliver my mail without always stamping it with that. for quite a while it was a major peeve of mine, that they refused to acknowledge flats, and made me pay for "parcels" even though i kept telling them whats what. i argued, and printed out all the paper work from the mail manual, and only after months of this did they finally acknowledge i was right all along and started delivering my mail without this postage due nonsense. it may have come all the way here and got sent back by them, or maybe someone closer did it, but even though i have finally gotten them to acknowledge proper "flats" now they follow that wording and standard to the letter.

OK, I got a closer look at it, and it says return to sender, refused, unable to forward, return to sender. That's marked 11/9. When I brought it home to repack, I put everything inside ANOTHER envelope. I think that's why my weight change- wasn't thinking. OK. Adding seed, and resending to same (correct) address.

yeah, i didnt refuse it, it was never delivered, but thats probably my passive agressive post people here. its really weird, though these days i have it mostly worked out. before, even properly packed flats got returned, and like a few times a week it got to be they were putting all these notices to pay charges and postage due, when there really was no postage due, they didnt know what the rules were. now they do, and they deliver and mail out my properly packed flats (under 3/4 inch with two stamps) but anything even slightly lumpy and the lady sticks it through her measuring slot. they are complete sticklers for the rules and sizes.

anything with one stamp thats over 1/4 inch thick (the official maximum for regular first class letters) and they return it for more postage. it was really quite annoying before, but for now its ok, unless theres a borderline very close case. it mustve been just over 1/4 inch...but yeah its super weird. i am sorry, not that its my fault, but my postal people suck. !

i had to debate with them forever to get them to at least deliver properly packed flats, and to mail mine out, and for a long time they did this whole my way or the highway and forced me through not delivering, charges that i should not have paid. i mustve over paid them over a hundred dollars or more, before i finally got them to acknowledge the flats and stop refusing to deliver my mail. now i did that and they will find any reason to return my mail just to be weird. i try to be uber polite to them, and make sure my flats are exactly right...and that works most of the time.

Leila knows all about the PO rates! One more thing for determining "flats" is that there can't be fore than 1/4 inch variation in thickness. This basically means if you send bean, corn, squash seeds, etc, it is automatically going to be a parcel, regardless if there's one pack in there or 10.

My first year of seed trading, the PO ripped me off, right and left. Here is an invaluable resource for calculating postage costs: Postage Rates Simplified

Leila- repacked and sent out today. I'd have gone to the PO, but I don't know when I'd make it- I'm a slow poke.

Erica- I know! that's why I ended up repackaging Leila's the first time- they said it was too lumpy;)

I just packed up seeds for the seed purge. Is it ok to participate in only part 1? I don't have my list together, and it seems reaalllly time consuming to go through everyone else lists- so while I WOULD like to trade for certain things, I don't know if I'll make it in time. (Again, slow poke) If it's ok to do only the one, please sign me up. (fwiw I will try to get my list in order to do a trade)

Chrissy -- Sure thing. We have another participant that is only doing Phase 1, so you wont be alone.

hey chrissy -- got the seeds today!! very nice, thanks for all the extras! if anything, now maybe you went above and beyond what i traded you, if you want something from my current trade list let me know and i can pop it into the seed purge bag, with your name on it =)

anywho sorry if this is way off topic, but we have been veering away anyway, and i think the original question was answered. and on topic, the amounts you put in were fine. even for the original packets, if those are from when you packed up before, they were adequate amounts. i knew you only had small amounts of the tomatoes to begin with, but theres was a nice heap of celery seeds, which was my most wanted. so thanks =)

Oh, GOOD Leila. It's hard to know what's 'normal' and what's generous. people have - for hte most part- been very generous with me. My first trade receipt had- literally 25 extra tiny packs of random seeds in it. I was quite geeked.

I just signed up last night on Houzz and did my list this morning. I have just started seed saving so I only have 25 of most of my seeds. I have put on my trade list that I have 5-10 to trade (so I can share with 2-3 people and have some for me to plant). I am working on 2 trades and I am letting them know how much I can give. I do plan on planting a lot next year and saving seed so that I can increase the number I am able to offer. I didn't discover seed saving until it was much later this year so I only had time to do marigolds, cilantro, rosemary, and some lavender. Not sure if it's cross pollinated but I did make note of that too! As I get my shopping list ready for the seed catalogs then I will have more varieties to share too!!

I think since I am being up front with how little I have I think it's okay. But if someone doesn't say how much they have and they just get a little I can see how that can be disappointing. Also I think it depends on what seed it is. If it's rare, a hot pepper ( 25 ghost peppers yikes!!), or is a huge producer than others may not want many.