February 10, 2024; 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM in the Community Room at the Round Valley Library Commons
What to bring to the event:
Your wish list
A handled totebag to carry your goodies home in
Gallon zip-top plastic bag/s to put your scions in so they stay fresh (write your name on it in case you lay it down somewhere)
Painters or masking tape to label your scions
Sharpie/permanent marker to write on your tape
Notebook & pen to take notes
Seed, scions, cuttings, divisions & tubers (remove excess soil), and seedlings from healthy plants to share from your home. (See instructions below.)
Gardening books and tools in good condition that you don’t need any more but someone else would enjoy.
What NOT to Bring:
Don’t bring citrus or relatives (plants or scions/cuttings) because of Citrus Greening and other disease.
Don’t bring diseased or pest-infected plants
Don’t bring old-wood (two years or older wood), bring only the most recent tip growth that grew last year
Don’t bring currently patented plants or seeds
Seeds: We welcome commercial seed packaged for the last three years or saved seed from plants you have grown, both open-pollinated and landrace varieties. Please clearly label landrace seed. Do not bring seed you have saved from purchased produce.
Bringing Seed to Share at the Event – To improve the chances of success for your seed’s next grower, donated seed should be:
Open-pollinated: Make sure the seed you donate was harvested from an open-pollinated variety, not a hybrid (unless it is part of a landrace project). Seed from fruits and vegetables purchased at the store, or even a farmers market, may not be open-pollinated.
Dry: Make sure seeds are dry.
Clean: Have seeds reasonably cleaned by removing as much of the chaff as possible.
Labeled: Make sure your seed is packaged with information as to type, variety, place, and year of harvest. If you isolated the crop and met the recommended population size, add that to the label, too! Download our Seed Donation Information slips here.
Saved from healthy plants. Even if a disease does not get passed on through the seed, we do like to have some selection for disease resistance by only saving seed from healthy, strong plants.
Saved from properly isolated plants (if they’re cross-pollinators). If plants can cross-pollinate you want to make sure to keep them isolated. Isolation means preventing pollen from plants within the same species from co-mingling. This keeps the seeds “true-to-type” so that they will grow the exact same plant again. “Easy” seeds can be fairly reliably saved without cross-pollination (and unintentional hybridization). “Easy” seeds include beans, peas, lettuce, and most tomatoes.
Do not bring seeds from the brassica family (ex. broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, mustard) or cucurbit family (ex. cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squash) unless you have taken appropriate steps to prevent cross-pollination OR have clearly stated on your label that they may have crossed.
Collecting Seed at the Swap Much of the seed at this swap was grown by community members with love and care like our ancestors have done for thousands of years. Nonetheless, seeds are alive, and people have varying degrees of skill in saving seeds. You should know that you might experience low germination rates or receive seeds that were not properly labeled. We have not knowingly accepted any seeds that are chemically treated, patented, or genetically modified. We will have free envelopes on the table. Please shake the seed you want, and intend to plant this year, into these envelopes and label them immediately. Seed was donated for the entire community to access, please don’t take a full commercial packet of seed. (The exception to this is our “Go Crazy” table, with older seed that should be sown more thickly due to likely lower germination.)
Scion:Scions for grafting are usually harvested in the dormant season. They’re cut from clean, one-year-old wood, about 1/4 inch in diameter (no thicker than a pencil). (Instructions below are adapted from Heritage and Rare Fruit Network and Golden Gate Chapter, California Rare Fruit Growers. (Thanks to John Valenzuela, et al.)
Cutting Scion Wood to Share at the Exchange
Scion should be collected from plants that are true-to-type and disease-free.
Cut from trees when they are dormant in winter.
Sterilize your pruners with rubbing alcohol between cutting each tree. It is important to sterilize the pruners to avoid transmitting infections from tree to tree.
Select last year’s growth, which has more pronounced buds and younger looking bark. Your scion wood should be about pencil thickness (1/4”), and approximately 10” long so they will fit in a gallon-size Ziploc bag. For figs, grapes, and mulberries take cuttings that contain at least 4 buds.
A range of widths (girths) is ideal.
Bagging and Labeling Scion Wood to Share at the Exchange
Cut up your scion to the lengths that will fit across the bottom of the bag. Put in as many pieces of scion wood as you think can be used.
Put a diagonal cut on the top and a flat cut on the bottom of scion wood/cuttings you take from grapes and kiwifruit. This helps you identify which way up to graft them.
Lightly mist the scion with a trigger mister bottle before placing in the bag. Note that it is best not to dip the scion in a bucket of water before storing it.
Label your scion with our Scion/Cutting Information slip, here; OR:
Using a Sharpie, write clearly on the Ziplock Bag:
Fruit type, Variety name, Description, Where it grew, Source if known, and any notes
Plums are Japanese or European so label: Satsuma Plum (Japn) or King Billy Plum (Euro)
Peach & Nectarine: Variety name and white (W) or yellow (Y), and freestone (F) or clingstone (C)
Let the ink dry. Remove as much air as you can and zip the Ziplock most of the way closed. Roll up bundles of bags then put a rubber band around them.
Store the bag/s horizontally in the fridge until needed but don’t put them in the freezer. The wood should keep for several months like that. If fruit is stored in the same fridge, then keep the bags of scion in an additional airtight plastic bag such as a garbage bag to protect the scion from ethylene gas given off from the fruit.
Collecting Scions at the Exchange Bring gallon Ziplock bags, tape and a Sharpie marker to label your scions. Help yourself to no more than 3 scions of each variety you will graft this year. These materials must be grafted onto established trees or onto rootstock; they will not grow if just stuck in the ground. Extra scions will get delivered to the next chapter’s exchange, not discarded, so please only take what you will use and leave the rest for others. Each scion can typically yield 1-3 grafts (approximately 1 graft per 2-3 buds). Be advised that some donated scions may be mis-labeled as to variety, or can carry viruses that –when grafted– can infect the entire host tree.
Look for the scions you want at the Exchange. The tables of scions are organized by fruit type (ex. apples, European plums, etc.). When you find something you would like, take these steps:
Write a label with permanent marker on some tape before you open the bag
Take only what you can use, 1-3 sticks per variety are plenty
Label them with the tape immediately! It is easy to get things mixed up.
Keep scions in a closed plastic bag with a sprinkle of water, away from heat, until you get home
If you take only what you can use, and use what you take, you can avoid bags of neglected scions rotting in your refrigerator next summer. All scions that are leftover at the end of our Exchange are passed on to the next scion exchange.
Keep your scion cool- Once you return home, you must take care of your scions and cuttings until you graft them. Keep them in a plastic bag with a sprinkle of water in the fridge (just above freezing, 35-37°F is ideal), until the appropriate time to graft.
Timing- For bare root rootstocks of apple, pear or plums, you can graft immediately. For other types of fruit, it is best to graft about the same time as the flowering/leafing-out of the tree in spring.
Cuttings that can grow roots such as grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, some mulberries, some kiwis, some cherry plums, and others, can be grown from a cutting that is planted in the soil and can root themselves; they don’t need to be grafted onto a tree. Cuttings can be stored in the fridge, then planted when the weather warms in the spring, or they can be started mid-winter in a greenhouse. You get higher success rates if you scratch the cutting with a fork and rub Root-tone or another hormone on it. Bottom heat can also improve rooting. Pot up the cuttings in a well-drained mix and keep cuttings humid in a greenhouse.
We will not have rootstock for sale this year.
Thank you to our many local seed savers and to the following seed companies who have provided seed to our seed library in 2024, for this and other events:
2024 Seed Swap and Scion Exchange
February 10, 2024; 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM in the Community Room at the Round Valley Library Commons
What to bring to the event:
What NOT to Bring:
Seeds: We welcome commercial seed packaged for the last three years or saved seed from plants you have grown, both open-pollinated and landrace varieties. Please clearly label landrace seed. Do not bring seed you have saved from purchased produce.
Bringing Seed to Share at the Event – To improve the chances of success for your seed’s next grower, donated seed should be:
Do not bring seeds from the brassica family (ex. broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, mustard) or cucurbit family (ex. cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squash) unless you have taken appropriate steps to prevent cross-pollination OR have clearly stated on your label that they may have crossed.
Collecting Seed at the Swap Much of the seed at this swap was grown by community members with love and care like our ancestors have done for thousands of years. Nonetheless, seeds are alive, and people have varying degrees of skill in saving seeds. You should know that you might experience low germination rates or receive seeds that were not properly labeled. We have not knowingly accepted any seeds that are chemically treated, patented, or genetically modified. We will have free envelopes on the table. Please shake the seed you want, and intend to plant this year, into these envelopes and label them immediately. Seed was donated for the entire community to access, please don’t take a full commercial packet of seed. (The exception to this is our “Go Crazy” table, with older seed that should be sown more thickly due to likely lower germination.)
Scion: Scions for grafting are usually harvested in the dormant season. They’re cut from clean, one-year-old wood, about 1/4 inch in diameter (no thicker than a pencil). (Instructions below are adapted from Heritage and Rare Fruit Network and Golden Gate Chapter, California Rare Fruit Growers. (Thanks to John Valenzuela, et al.)
Cutting Scion Wood to Share at the Exchange
Bagging and Labeling Scion Wood to Share at the Exchange
Collecting Scions at the Exchange
Bring gallon Ziplock bags, tape and a Sharpie marker to label your scions. Help yourself to no more than 3 scions of each variety you will graft this year. These materials must be grafted onto established trees or onto rootstock; they will not grow if just stuck in the ground. Extra scions will get delivered to the next chapter’s exchange, not discarded, so please only take what you will use and leave the rest for others. Each scion can typically yield 1-3 grafts (approximately 1 graft per 2-3 buds). Be advised that some donated scions may be mis-labeled as to variety, or can carry viruses that –when grafted– can infect the entire host tree.
Look for the scions you want at the Exchange. The tables of scions are organized by fruit type (ex. apples, European plums, etc.). When you find something you would like, take these steps:
If you take only what you can use, and use what you take, you can avoid bags of neglected scions rotting in your refrigerator next summer. All scions that are leftover at the end of our Exchange are passed on to the next scion exchange.
Keep your scion cool- Once you return home, you must take care of your scions and cuttings until you graft them. Keep them in a plastic bag with a sprinkle of water in the fridge (just above freezing, 35-37°F is ideal), until the appropriate time to graft.
Timing- For bare root rootstocks of apple, pear or plums, you can graft immediately. For other types of fruit, it is best to graft about the same time as the flowering/leafing-out of the tree in spring.
Cuttings that can grow roots such as grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, some mulberries, some kiwis, some cherry plums, and others, can be grown from a cutting that is planted in the soil and can root themselves; they don’t need to be grafted onto a tree. Cuttings can be stored in the fridge, then planted when the weather warms in the spring, or they can be started mid-winter in a greenhouse. You get higher success rates if you scratch the cutting with a fork and rub Root-tone or another hormone on it. Bottom heat can also improve rooting. Pot up the cuttings in a well-drained mix and keep cuttings humid in a greenhouse.
We will not have rootstock for sale this year.
Thank you to our many local seed savers and to the following seed companies who have provided seed to our seed library in 2024, for this and other events: