2014 Mostly Mystery 'Mater Mailing

[TheLoud]

Thanks LindyAdele, that clarifies things somewhat. I'm still a bit confused about this category thing. I just moved from zone 5 to zone 7. I want varieties in the category of good southern, heat-tolerant, disease-resistant plants, and I have early, short-season-adapted varieties to trade for them. My northern varieties actually did fine here this year, but all my neighbors are saying it's been an unusually cool summer.

I think that unless anyone tells me otherwise, I'll just send in what I have and wish for what I want, whatever the category. Now to research what grows well here.

How many packets may we send in? I think Heather's trade had a maximum of 40.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by linzelu100

I'm in for the pepper swap too! I'm gonna send in my absolute favorite pepper, called Red Belgian. It is a sweet pepper with thick, juicy, red walls...it grows pointing straight up. We just love them. I only know one other person who grows them so it will be good to get them out there to others!

I wonder if in the pepper trade we can have a category for "spices". I have been really into drying my own paprika's and such.

Sounds yummy! I'm going to try paprika next year, now that I have a smoker to smoke them.
Your Red Belgian sounds nice.

[LindyAdele]

The Loud - I didn't see a 'limit'. You must send in 10 packs for every category you are participating in. What you send in and what you recieve will be the SAME catgeory. So one idea would be to participate in the 'red', 'pink' 'heat loving' categories, if you have any that fit that bill and hope for something that grows well for you in return. It is a "mystery" mailing, and Tormato has already said we can't send in packs for one category and request seed from a different category in return.

[linzelu100]

Originally Posted by LindyAdele

The Loud - I didn't see a 'limit'. You must send in 10 packs for every category you are participating in. What you send in and what you recieve will be the SAME catgeory. So one idea would be to participate in the 'red', 'pink' 'heat loving' categories, if you have any that fit that bill and hope for something that grows well for you in return. It is a "mystery" mailing, and Tormato has already said we can't send in packs for one category and request seed from a different category in return.

I don't think you HAVE to send 10- last year that was the max you could send in from a single variety. For instance I sent in 10 Italian heirloom (for the saucer category) but then sent in 1 Lemon drop (cherry category) and 1 Cuore del drago (paste category), because that is all I could spare. (Not much seeds from them.) If I wanted to send in more than 10 packs of Italian Heirloom- it would have to have been as BONUS seed. But that was last year.

[LindyAdele]

Okay Linzelu100 - that makes sense! I have been really confused about this, and have tried to make sense of it myself. I thought the round-robin required 10 packs, and that you would recieve 10 back. Good to know!

[tnpeppers]

It might lessen confusion if posters would just wait for Tormato to post the guidelines for the swap...it's only early September.

[TheWizard]

Originally Posted by tnpeppers

It might lessen confusion if posters would just wait for Tormato to post the guidelines for the swap...it's only early September.

Yeah, but what Tormato's done is like putting out all the candy before you make a gingerbread house with a five year old saying, "Hey, I'll be back in two days, more instructions when I get back."

Who among us would behave themselves? I am not one of them.

[Labradors2]

Originally Posted by TheWizard

Yeah, but what Tormato's done is like putting out all the candy before you make a gingerbread house with a five year old saying, "Hey, I'll be back in two days, more instructions when I get back."

Who among us would behave themselves? I am not one of them.

Ain't that the truth!

At least he has told us that it's happening so that we can all save seeds like crazy and dream about the zillions of varieties out there that we would like to try.

Patience is a virtue - so they say!

Linda

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by Geezer

Tormato,
Being a newbie at this, and wanting to join in, could you post a list of what the most likely categories will be for this year? This looks like a whole lotta fun!

Evil Ed

Geezer,

The most likely begins with beefsteaks. But, many varieties are cross-over ones that can, and will be put into different categories. The same black, Eastern European beefsteak will be put into three different categories by three different participants.

After beefsteaks, it's...

Blacks
Hearts
Cherry/Grape (almost all cherry)
Eastern European
Pink
Y/G/O/BC
Dwarf/Determinate (mostly "Dwarf Project")
Striped

somewhat lesser...

Very Early
Green
Italian
Blues

the fewer, but still plenty of people want them...

Paste/Canner
Hot weather
Cool weather
Red
Experimental

the least...

Sweet
Non-sweet
Giant
Novelty

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by TheLoud

Thanks LindyAdele, that clarifies things somewhat. I'm still a bit confused about this category thing. I just moved from zone 5 to zone 7. I want varieties in the category of good southern, heat-tolerant, disease-resistant plants, and I have early, short-season-adapted varieties to trade for them. My northern varieties actually did fine here this year, but all my neighbors are saying it's been an unusually cool summer.

I think that unless anyone tells me otherwise, I'll just send in what I have and wish for what I want, whatever the category. Now to research what grows well here.

How many packets may we send in? I think Heather's trade had a maximum of 40.

You are wise to first find out what grows well in your area. After that, you may want to look at the categories from last year (a link is provided in post #15 in this thread).

As for a maximum for sending in, I've yet to establish one, so I guess there will not be one. 310 sent in, and 310 sent back was last years record. It was a bit of a strain to group that many without duplicating any varities, so the participant agreed that extra bonuses were not needed in return. There were also about seven people that topped 200.

Gary

[Father'sDaughter]

I was also confused last year when I first started following the thread for the 2013 swap. But once my questions were patiently answered by Garry and others, it all became clear.

Last year the requirement was ten packs for the categories and at least one pack for wish list and bonus varieties.

For myself, I believe I entered five categories, so I had to send ten packs of one variety that fit in each category, so fifty packs total. I was sent back ten (and then some) packs of ten different varieties that fit in each category. For example, I sent in 10 packs of Heidi seeds in the paste category, and I received back 10 packs of different pastes.

I also had seeds for a few people's with list varieties, so I sent in a pack of each of those varieties, and in exchange, I received one pack of each variety on my wish list if someone else sent them in. I believe bonuses worked the same -- for each pack you sent you got (at least) one pack back.

I know I was on tomato seed overload by the time I sorted through all the seeds I received -- I can only imagine what Gary goes through every year!

[charline]

Gary, you forgot category "knocks your socks off "
do we have it?

[Tormato]

That was the 2013 categories list.

For this year, proposals are...

Beefsteak
Black
Blue
Cherry/Grape/(Currant)
Cool Weather
Dwarf/Determinate
Eastern European
Experimental (non-stable F2's, F3's, etc...)
Green
Heart
Hot Weather
Italian
Knock Your Socks Off
Meatiest (sandwich slicer)
Paste/Canner/Roaster?/Stuffer?
Pink
Red
Striped
Very Early (55 DTM or less)
Yellow/Gold/Orange/Bi-Color/White

These...

Giant
Nonsweet
Novelty
Sweet

...had less than 10 participants in each category last year. Although, it was easy to come up with 10 sweet and 10 nonsweet varieries from bonuses or other categories. I'm thinking of simply dropping the Sweet and Nonsweet categories, and keeping the Giant and Novelty categories with the expectation you may only get back about 5 varieties of each, if that.

If there are types of tomatoes you do not wish to receive, like currants, or greens, or very early types, or anything else, it's best to let me know on your paper wish list/sending in list.

Gary

[clkeiper]

I am still confused as to how this works, after reading this entire post it is as clear as mud. I'll just have to purchase what I want, I think.

[MrBig46]

Originally Posted by lakelady

I will make a point to send whatever is on Vladimir's list that I have special for him. He shares a name with my former favorite brother in law lol.

This year I decided I'm not as much a fan of pinks as I am of reds ( a few exceptions), and of course blacks, and I want more paste tomatoes as I give away too many fresh tomatoes since I'm pretty much the only one in the house who eats them but everyone here eats sauce.

Gary I have a special seed I'm going to send up to you with my submission because you have been very generous with me. Hope you like it!

Lakelady, I am pleased that think to me. I also want to sent you some seeds, but I do not know what. Paste tomates: Costoluto Genovese (comercial seeds) and Napoli (determinant, my packed seeds)? Or something from Czech tomatoes?
Vladimír