Plant Swapping

[Waterloo Kid]

Just a suggestion to the mods of this forum.

After reading Jimbooo's Emergency thread I had a bit of an idea. As plant growers those of us who are successful often end up binning loads of cuttings on a near weekly basis. Why not set up a forum specifically for the swapping of plants? It should be purely on a postage cost only basis (with a set or maximum cost) to stop unscrupulous trading going on and should be a 'buyer' beware system. That way the'buyers' will have more access to the rarer plants and the sucessful growers will not have to bin their cuttings so much.

I haven't really thought it through but it's just an idea. Plants should be offered only. I don't think it would be a good idea to allow wanted threads otherwise it'll just clog up the forum.

WK

 

[karlp]

I think its' a good idea. My excess growth is going into a newly setup species tank for a couple of killi fish, but once that's full, there'll be no where for it to go.

 

[jimbooo]

yep i agree. in the past i've just put up a "who wants this" thread and sent it to the first reply but a dedicated section would be great.

the mods will probably point you towards the Buy/Sell Swap section. the problem with that is (sorry i know it's a little mean) but if i'm sending my plants for free i want them to go to someone who is really trying to get a planted tank going. spending cash hand over fist on equipment and generally skinting themselves for the hobby. these people live in the planted section.

what i dont want to do is send a parcel of decent plants to a 10 yr old with a goldfish bowl who happens to have seen my thread. (no offence to 10 yr olds intended)

mean i know, but we may as well pass the plants around the "Planted people" rather than just generally off loading them onto anyone.

 

[George Farmer]

Good idea.

Give me some time and I'll think about a pinned thread format. Suggestions welcome.

 

[Jen]

Fab idea. I have often thought about something like this. Should it be set up in 'areas'? IE - UK, Canada, US, Australia... that sorta thing? I would only send within Canada to save on postage, and apparently you need special paperwork to go over the border.

 

[jimbooo]

good thinking jen this could be a great sub section.

personally i wouldn't charge postage. most things can be sent with a couple of stamps on an A4 envelope with the plants in a taped ziplock baggie and a splash of water. if the favour is returned your not out of pocket.

never charged anyone before. too much hassle for a few pennies.

 

[lljdma06]

Great idea! I can't stand throwing away my cuttings, especially some of my divided crypts. Some of those slow growers take a while to get large and I just hate throwing away the excess after you've invested so much time growing them.

 

[Jen]

personally i wouldn't charge postage. most things can be sent with a couple of stamps on an A4 envelope with the plants in a taped ziplock baggie and a splash of water. if the favour is returned your not out of pocket.
never charged anyone before. too much hassle for a few pennies.

Yeah... If we're looking at 1 or 2 stamp, then no point charging. But if its a special delivery, then or heavy, that's a different story.

 

[Waterloo Kid]

I didn't think the buy/swap section was a good idea for exactly the reasons you stated Jimbooo. Some plants, even cuttings, can have significant value with respect to time and attention paid to produce them. Although I don't really have many plants worth passing on (mainly due to anything over about 6 weeks old having a thick algae covering) I wouldn't want to pass on anything I produced to some bowl owning muppet (no dis-respect Kermit).
My biggest concern would be that the plant swap forum/thread becomes a bit too well known and all and sundry suddenly turn up for the freebies. Also, the problem of policing the forum could be an issue. Old offers would need to be removed/closed to avoid the area becoming stagnant with out of date offers.
Taking time to think about it, I agree with Jimboo; asking for a fee is only going to cause problems. it should be a free service between friends and co-plant keepers. Money just complicates things.
The number of times I've thrown away bunches of vallis and hygo that are perfectly good enough to pass on! I hate throwing living things away.

WK

 

[karlp]

Probably putting the thread in the planted tank will keep most plant killers away anyway wont it ? I can't remember the last time I visited the Live bearers 'OMG I've got babies' section

On a more practical note, how do we send plants with them having a reasonable chance of surviving the trip ? Some of the taller plants particularly are quite vulnerable ?

 

[jimbooo]

piece of cake

- A4 envelope
- A4 size ziplock bag
- Tape

you are only limited by the length of the envelope (with a bit of bending for stem plants but not too much)

put the plants in the ziplock bag with about 10ml of tank water. zip it closed and press out all the air pockets.

then firmly tape the zip lock bit so it wont open by accident.

insert into envelope and post.

i've send and recieved loads of plants this way with no problems. for extra careful people you can add some toilet paper/newspaper to the envelope for padding.

all plants will survive 48 hours or so of darkness whilst posting.

if something goes wrong and you get a soggy envelope with dead plants you haven't paid for them anyway so just bin it and let the sender know for future reference.

simple

 

[srolfe]

I think that you should charge postage and packing materials as appropriate. This minor cost will help in deterring those people that would take advantage of the opportunity.

There should be a way to delete offers that are no longer valid, otherwise the list will become cumbersome.

Sorting by regions would be nice. At least we should require that the offerer disclose his location (so many members do not disclose this in their profile).

Remember that certain plants should not be shipped to restricted areas.

 

[jimbooo]

one easy way to do it is once your offer has been used up and you have nothing left just edit the title to "closed"

the mods can then easily just delete the topics headed "closed" without worrying if anything is still ongoing.

i'm not sure i agree on the payment front. i see where your coming from but i do feel that sending freebies to fellow tffers keeps the forum spirit alive.

when i have recieved freebies in the past it really did make my day. the fact that someone else has gone to the trouble of sending you something for no other reason than to help you out is the reason i love this place.
once you have exchanged things with fellow members your online relationship gets stronger.

for example i've had stuff from and/or sent stuff to

bloozoo2
gf225
zig
RYO
madduff
BigC
Squid
Sime
smithrc

and a fair few i've probably forgotton (sorry people)

the point is when i see comments from any of these on the forum i instantly click on it and join in the conversation, it just adds to the feeling of belonging i suppose. like one big happy family

okay sorry rambling on now but do you know what i mean, anyone else feel this way about it or am i just an oddball.

 

[lljdma06]

I agree, I think that a free exchange only increases the comradery (sp) amongst members. If someone, wanted something and I had it, I would send it to them free of charge. Your helping out, and it only strengthens the community. I would love to exchange plants with fellow TFFers here in the US. I would exchange with people across the sea, but I'm not sure how postage would work over there.

Perhaps, I am rather naive, but I guess I may also be an oddball, so you're not alone Jimbooo.

 

[zig]

Yep im in, I think its a good idea.

Not sure how you would stop the requests for freebies though, i think some sort of Stickied rolling thread would work, not sure about having different regions and stuff it might just make it very complicated, cuttings only have a certain lifespan anyway so if you have cuttings just post in the thread stating what you have and how long the offer stands, 3days, a week, whatever, and then people will know when the offer is over, or you could post requests stating what you are looking for and what you have to trade in return, and that way a deal could be struck between 2 parties and everybody is happy.

Dont know about money changeing hands that is really up to the mods gf and LL, but it wouldnt really interest me, i wouldnt see it as a money making venture, i dont think this forum is big enough anyway to really make that work effectively, but i wouldnt rule it out either especially if you found yourself on the end of repeated requests for plants from different people with nothing in return.