seed-train Seed Train opinions and feedback

With the conclusion of the final train imminently approaching, I am curious about participants opinions. After all, I certainly dont conduct these for my health and I contribute far more seed than I ever remove. So it must be my obsession of spreading the variety of taste and heat where ever possible.
At times I have found it questionable whether it was really worth it and whether or not to continue, especially after the great train robbery 2 years back.
 
So this is basically a chance to offer opinions as well as criticism of the train and or trains you may have participated in. Since the 1st one I have basically taken a model that was already running and built from that. Rules and procedures were modified as an in progress process to what is running today.
 
 
 
My only criticism (?) would be too many generous participants. Although more variety is great, there are so many seeds to choose from, it took me about 4 hours to sort through the train packages, identify seeds to select, bag those up, return the packages to the train, add my seeds, then pack it up and ship it back out. I suggest limiting the trains to 8-10 participants.
 
PS: Thanks for all your efforts in running the trains. I know it is a lot of work, and I appreciate it.
 
I just took part in the European seed train. It's a bit smaller I guess but I have some ideas nonetheless. 
 
Seeds should be categorised to make it easier to find them. They should be listed in a (semi-)public document that gets updated when something is added/removed. 
 
Example 1: Put individual seed bags in a bigger bag per participant with all varieties they've added to it. Then in the list, you can find the seeds you'd want, check who added it, look for the specific member's bag and take it out.
 
Example 2: Make big bags for Annuums, Baccatums, Chinenses, crosses etc. etc. 
 
Categorising makes it a lot easier. It takes an afternoon or two to organise everything, but after that, it's pretty smooth sailing. As long as everyone helps to keep it that way.
 
It works great as is. I agree it is a lot of work going through all the seed, but we'll worth it if you consider the access to seeds that might not be available anywhere else. And it only costs 7 bucks. Thank you very much for conducting this train, I for one really do enjoy it
 
midwestchilehead said:
My only criticism (?) would be too many generous participants. Although more variety is great, there are so many seeds to choose from, it took me about 4 hours to sort through the train packages, identify seeds to select, bag those up, return the packages to the train, add my seeds, then pack it up and ship it back out. I suggest limiting the trains to 8-10 participants.
 
PS: Thanks for all your efforts in running the trains. I know it is a lot of work, and I appreciate it.
I know what you mean. When I got my 1st train it took me equally as long. In regards to the time to process the package, Thats why I allow for 3+ days to do so. I went with 15 participants this time to give as many a chance that wanted to because with past trains it seemed to take longer to make its rounds. this group of 2 trains ran in record time.
 
b3rnd said:
I just took part in the European seed train. It's a bit smaller I guess but I have some ideas nonetheless. 
 
Seeds should be categorised to make it easier to find them. They should be listed in a (semi-)public document that gets updated when something is added/removed. 
 
Example 1: Put individual seed bags in a bigger bag per participant with all varieties they've added to it. Then in the list, you can find the seeds you'd want, check who added it, look for the specific member's bag and take it out.
 
Example 2: Make big bags for Annuums, Baccatums, Chinenses, crosses etc. etc. 
 
Categorising makes it a lot easier. It takes an afternoon or two to organise everything, but after that, it's pretty smooth sailing. As long as everyone helps to keep it that way.
Categorizing is a novel idea. But if you knew what I had to go through just to get some riders to stop using crayons, markers, pens etc on the plastic bags you would understand my reluctance to jump to the next step too fast.
 
I did add lists with my seeds for a while but life doesn't always allow for the luxury of additional time to compile things like that.
 
hot stuff said:
Everything went smooth this time. The rules seem fair enough. 
Agreed. I only bring out the ruler when I have to.
 
Walchit said:
It works great as is. I agree it is a lot of work going through all the seed, but we'll worth it if you consider the access to seeds that might not be available anywhere else. And it only costs 7 bucks. Thank you very much for conducting this train, I for one really do enjoy it
Good to hear. Hopefully all that seed get grown out and finds its way back on the trains for future riders to grow and in turn share.
 
First time rider, I thought it was awesome. I hope my contributions were up to expectations. I was blown away by the amount of seeds to sort through. I'll be saving a lot more seeds in the future. i also liked having some non pepper varieties in there.
 
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