Seed prices are silly

[SplorKeLZ]

Whenever i look online for seeds it’s always funny/infuriating when i see something like 5 banana passion fruit seeds for 7$ when there is a lowish germination rate and literally HUNDREDS of seeds in every fruit, i can get charging that much for something like mamey sapote or mango. I once saw a white sapote seed for 14 USD for a SINGLE seed. And get this, i have seed 5 DRAGONFRUIT seeds for about 5$ and they were the white variety no less. I get charging more for shipping and for “rareness”  but sometimes the quantity to price ratio is annoying

[Daintree]

Yeah, I like to collect the actual fruit as much as possible, then I have all the seeds I want.
But when I buy seeds, I usually go for the $1 each ones, so I can order a handful.  Sometimes they all come up and I have extras, but I prefer that over buying ONE seed and it never germinates.

Carolyn

[BloomAndSprout]

On the other hand many of the rare seeds from South America and such are wild-collected from a limited number of known trees, sometimes with seeds only located from fruits scattered on the ground from the remains of animals.

[Mike T]

I haven't bought or sold seeds before but spread and received and awful lot. Probably 100s of species. It surprises me what prices are like and what people tell me they pay for a handful of seeds of stuff that isn't very glamorous. I recall sending seeds like Durio macrantha, alva starapples, improved z4 abiu, Russell Sweet Garcinia, broad leafed papaya and that kinda thing overseas in large amounts before they were really known much. I wonder what they would have fetched. Even today yellow pulasans, golden soursops, e4 abiu, juicy pearls and green diamond sugar apples are other ones I could get and I know they would raise eyebrows. Some of these expensive Eugenias I have had fruit and they haven't made the grade.

[Epiphyte]

there are quite a few seeds inside a passionfruit ruby glow, and i've recently given quite a few away.  why haven't i sold them?  i guess that it wouldn't be worth it?  a quick google search shows that raindance seeds is selling 5 seeds of the same or similar for $7.  when i think of all the transaction costs, and the opportunity cost, it's just not worth it.  my friend who sells plants on etsy always tells me to remind her to not sell "boogers" (cheap plants).  the other day she spent like an hour dealing with a karen over a $15 plant. 

it would be a different story if 5 seeds of ruby glow were selling for $40.  and if they were selling for $100??  i'd be moving fast, and i wouldn't be the only one. 

a couple months ago i watched a video of all the fruit foraging garcinia latissima in the wild.  check out the comments...



"Now they know where the seeds are" lmao!  imagine if instead of the fruit/seeds, there were gold nuggets all over the ground and in the tree, would he have behaved the same way?  of course not. 

coincidentally, 10 days ago florida natural farming posted a video where he plants 2 garcinia latissima seeds that he paid $50 each for.  i think that guy is so cool, but i sure would have tried to talk him out of planting the seeds where they could be eaten by the rabbits. 

x - your behavior that only benefits you (ie all the fruit)
y - your behavior that only benefits others (ie Mike T)
z - your behavior that benefits you and others (ie anderson's tropicals). 

obviously in this case the behavior of all the fruit also benefited others since he documented and shared the experience.  i enjoyed the video and so did many others.  so it isn't a perfect example of purely selfish behavior.  but you get the point.  also, i'm sure that Mike T's behavior wasn't purely selfless.  perhaps he felt a "warm glow" and maybe each rare seed he shared functioned as a backup just in case he lost his plant. 

the other day i received an email with the subject "[permies] Thank you for your quality post"... it said "Hello carlos cruz, Congratulations, your post in the topic titled "City Council levels homeowner's garden" has been awarded an apple. You can visit that post at https://permies.com/t/242443/permaculture/City-Council-levels-homeowner-garden#2260935 "  my post has 2 apples, a few posts have 3 apples, most posts have no apples.  i think you can buy apples and spend them on your favorite posts?  now i have the ability to spend 2 apples, i think.  they should replace the apples with actual dollar amounts. 

i recently posted a relevant thread in agaveville... who should we send to bolivia?  what to document, what to collect, what to save, what to discard, what to post, we can't make truly informed decisions without knowing other people's true valuations. 

 

[tongmuan]

x - your behavior that only benefits you (ie all the fruit)

Using all the fruit as an example of someone whose behavior only benefits himself and not others sounds very odd.

He probably uses several hours each day during his holidays (which he has paid with his own money, no donations requested!) to film and edit the most interesting fruit videos on youtube, and keeps on going even though the videos get only a few hundred views each. Still there's no watering down or faking stuff or creating controversy for the videos to get more viewers in order to monetize, and there's no agenda being pushed or anything for sale. The only benefit that I can see for him is that he enjoys making the videos and sharing information about rare fruits and foraging.

Also, even if he wanted to give free seeds to every random guy who asks for them in the video comments, successfully getting seeds abroad might not be that simple, especially as a foreigner. There's been times where even locals haven't been able to export seeds by mail and, at least last year in Indonesian side, a phyto certificate was required for sending seeds abroad (1-2 weeks wait, with the seeds quarantined at an AG office I guess - not sure in how many locations this can even be done in or is it possible for foreigners at all).

[Mike T]

I shared many rare seeds for a number of reasons and didnt want to get into the commercial side of things. I didnt mind if people sold anything from me. Where there was only a few known trees of something I was keen for there to be more when it was something worthwhile. Having an example or two in a new place for say Durio macrantha, Russell sweet Garcinia or even a yellow pulasan or one of the last known examples of an abiu type is a good thing. Almost lost old varieties, new varieties and rare stuff should be shared. I also paid back people who sent me seeds and swapped so I could grow what I liked and what was hard to get in my area. I wanted to benefit the plants, the wider fruitloving community, myself and the person receiving seeds.

[ben mango]

Worse if someone like fruitlovers has a site designed so that you can order and pay in “advance” for seeds that he doesn’t have and likely won’t have for years. Also, passionfruit seeds aren’t necessarily easy to clean, I can see why someone would charge that. Btw, if you haven’t tried banana passionfruit , it seems kind of bland when I tried it, I wouldn’t buy it.

[SplorKeLZ]

Worse if someone like fruitlovers has a site designed so that you can order and pay in “advance” for seeds that he doesn’t have and likely won’t have for years. Also, passionfruit seeds aren’t necessarily easy to clean, I can see why someone would charge that. Btw, if you haven’t tried banana passionfruit , it seems kind of bland when I tried it, I wouldn’t buy it.

i can 100% relate to the cleaning of Passiflora seeds, I scraped my thumb open with sandpaper trying to thin the coat of granadilla. Thanks for the advice on banana passion fruit

[Mike T]

Just rub them around in a metal kitchen colander with dry paper first then rinse a rub a few tiles and dry on paper. They will be good enough.

[Soren]

I shared many rare seeds for a number of reasons and didnt want to get into the commercial side of things. I didnt mind if people sold anything from me. Where there was only a few known trees of something I was keen for there to be more when it was something worthwhile. Having an example or two in a new place for say Durio macrantha, Russell sweet Garcinia or even a yellow pulasan or one of the last known examples of an abiu type is a good thing. Almost lost old varieties, new varieties and rare stuff should be shared. I also paid back people who sent me seeds and swapped so I could grow what I liked and what was hard to get in my area. I wanted to benefit the plants, the wider fruitloving community, myself and the person receiving seeds.

Mike, your generous sharing of seeds has trickled down to several African destinations where those species were not present before; I have sent seedlings from my trees to S.A., Kenya, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and not to forget almost everywhere in Uganda.

[FruitingHands]

I had never purchased seeds from raindanceseeds until recently, I purchased some banana passionfruit seeds from him actually around 4 weeks ago for $5, It came with about 20 and so far have had 10 germinate (2 more germinated today)! It's always a gamble.. I don't think it's horrible pricing for personal use, I think I've seen worse, I tried sourcing some from other sellers but these seemed to be alright, I do agree seed pricing in general is SILLY!

[Mike T]

Soren that sounds positive. The older generation of fruit enthusiasts in Australia routinely held on to their prized varieties and species that were worthy of sharing around. It wasn't just the Incas that had lost crops. I would certainly encourage people to be generous and at the same time recognise some people have to sell if its their business or need recompense for their efforts.This being said the price of seeds I have seen at times have been way too high for what they are.