A couple precautions to take when sending seeds..

A few things that everyone can do to try and keep the damage down from the lovely mail system:

1. Upgrade to a bubble mailer and pay the extra postage.
2. Write "Do not Bend"
3. Write "Please Hand Cancel"
4. Tape the seed packets to the inside of the envelope so they don't move around.

Below are some pictures of my most recent seed aquisition. A few seeds (okay most) were damaged. But I still have a a few I can use.

From Gardening

From Gardening

The smaller the seed the more hopeful it is that they wont get ruined. The bulkier it's a bit riskier.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to cheaply & safely package the individual seeds to send? Baggies & envelopes can add up and be bulky if you're sending lots of seeds to someone at once.

You could always ask the person requesting them to send you a larger envelope, I would not mind doing this personally, especially since I am all over the place requesting seeds. I can get a larger envelope, bubble lined at my local Super Store for about 60 cents, and again, I would not mind putting 2 stamps on it and send it to someone willing to share with me.

As for smaller packs, I get small (tiny) baggies from local craft stores, in the bead section. A box of 175 was under $3, just enough for a seeds, and those could be put in a regular envelope if needed. Or pick up (or save) bubble wrap wrap the small packet, and send it that way.

Kimber & Andrea, please check your PM's and get back to me.

That small bubble wrap (the one with pencil eraser sized bubbles) is not heavy so it will not add much if at all to your postage.

You want to make the envelope as flat as possible, with no ridges caused by the edges of additional packing material. Because even if you write "Hand Cancel" or "Do Not put thru machine" and have paid the extra postage for hand canceling, sometimes the end result is crushed seeds. Ask me how I know.

It is seed sharing time!  Please read the tips here above!

 If you send any mail in a regular envelope, they are rolled numerous times through sorting machines that pulverize unprotected seeds.  I advise either a padded mailer, or wrapping the seeds in some bubble wrap in the envelope.  Then prominently write HAND SORT on the envelope.  

Good luck!  And basically free seeds from our buds!  

SFG Rocks!

Good advice. Someone sent me some seeds that got pulverized. They were broccoli seeds and looked like wheat germ with black specks. Not knowing any better, I planted a pinch of material in each cell. She sent me some more and most survived. Those postal rollers are brutal.

sanderson wrote:Good advice.  Someone sent me some seeds that got pulverized.  They were broccoli seeds and looked like wheat germ with black specks.  Not knowing any better, I planted a pinch of material in each cell.  She sent me some more and most survived.  Those postal rollers are brutal.

Most?  Grrrr! I have never had any trouble sending or receiving seeds before, but I will definitely change my methods from now on.

I haven't had any issues either that I know of.   I asked the recipients for a long time if any seeds were crushed once they were received and none were.  

What I do is use a regular envelope and, on envelope sized paper, I make sure the seeds are anchored with tape in the center of the envelope so they don't get touched by the rollers above or below.  Then use regular postage.  I guess it's working.

CC

I also received seeds that were in a regular size envelope with no extra padding.  Zucchini seeds.  They were all crushed.

Yeah, it's a thing.  

Even using a piece of rag cloth helps pad the seeds.  The larger, rounder seeds fare the worst, but they really do take a beating.  

If I cut some tiny bubble wrap and tape it around the seeds it still costs $0.48!

CapeCoddess wrote:I haven't had any issues either that I know of.   I asked the recipients for a long time if any seeds were crushed once they were received and none were.  

CC

I just heard from someone that they thought it was a bit of debris in the collected seeds from me but may have been some crushed ones. I'll cover with a napkin from now on.

I've received crushed squash seeds also, even in bubble wrap. But there were always some good ones left to plant so it's not a problem. I guess squash seeds are just fussy travelers.

CC

I've been using old AMAZON book/goods mailers re cut to the size envelope  needed .

 First the seeds are wrapped in dry kitchen towel , taped up , then this is put inside a double thickness of small bubble wrap .
Once made up like this , use wide tape to set it in the middle of the biggest face of the envelope , then tape up the packet securely

 Sometimes I just use the small soft plastic mailer envelopes and wrap the seeds in a single sheet of clean dry kitchen paper towel ,  tape it up securely .  Then re-wrap it in six or more sheets of kitchen towel  ,then slipping it in the mailer .  This is good for seeds smaller than  Lupin seeds  about 1/8 " ( 3.2 mm dia ) 

 When I sent forty or more packs of all manner of seeds to a guy trying to be self sufficient ( not a hope ) .
I cut up a very strong triple walled box with my jigsaw machine after first copying the out lines of a smaller box I'd carefully opened up on to the thicker  cardboard  , scoring the folds with a screwdriver and using a hot melt glue gun to glue the box to shape , as soon as the fold was made I glued I was using tape to hold it in position till it set.
 Once the box was complete , filled with seeds ,taped up like an Egyptian Mummy & labeled I used a 16 x 10 inch sheet of book covering clear sticky plastic to cover the label area  but leaving enough space for the postage stamps etc .so it went right round the box & back on itself for an couple of inches .for added security .

It made the 500 miles passing through goodness only knows how many sulky sassy hands  in numerous sorting hubs before it reached the lad up in Scotland undamaged and intact .

Plantoid!  Funny!  Good advice..

I just swapped seeds with another member, here. She sent hers a day before I sent mine, but mine got to her fast and it took hers several extra days to get to me. I think it's because she marked hers "Hand sort" and that's what took the extra time, but that's just a theory. It's certainly worth it, to avoid distaster, but also good to know.

Scorpio Rising wrote:Plantoid!  Funny!  Good advice..