NW Permies! ISO all kinds of seeds, plant starts, root stock, etc. Location: NW MT

I would rather support someone directly than buy from wholesalers.  I'm looking for a variety of culinary herb seeds or starts that can hopefully be grown in zones 3 & 4, or kept comfortably as an indoor plant.  Also interested in any/all pepper varieties.  We've tried many kinds to see what works up here, we have to start early indoors and grow in a greenhouse.  Hot and sweet peppers are both fine.   Also open to grafts from good fruiting trees or young trees.

Things I 'need':
terragon splits
organo
dill
fennel
thyme
rosemary
artichokes
strawberry crowns or starts
raspberries
blackberries (thorny or thornless, both okay)
grapes
any other berry plants (mulberry, boisonberries, domesticated elder cultivars cause our wild ones are not very palatable, etc etc)


Things I have but wouldn't complain about new varieties:
basil
parsley
cilantro
mint
hot & sweet peppers
asparagus crowns
sunchokes
seed potatoes

We have lots of trade mediums available from cultivated garden stuffs, wild plants and forage, meatstuffs, live animals, wood, the list goes on.  Also happy to pay.  Depending on what you've got and how much you've got, we're willing to travel a bit to meet up.  Open to other ideas for cultivated food stuffs as well!

Also in MT and we've met Jen. Let me kow if you come through Ronan. I don't seem to go anywhere anymore.

I have Sunchokes and it's warm enough to dig. Mine are from Oikos about four kinds if I recall correctly and all are still extant. Joseph sent me some once but they dissapeared from the fridge.

Otherwise I really just have a lot of excess tomato seed, squash seed, and corn seed if anyone from the area wants those things.

Hey Jen,
I’m in NW Montana and I have a load of dill, onion and some other seeds. I’ve been wanting to see William in Roman. Maybe we could carpool since I’m not far from you in Kalispell.

William Schlegel wrote:
I have Sunchokes and it's warm enough to dig. Mine are from Oikos about four kinds if I recall correctly and all are still extant. Joseph sent me some once but they dissapeared from the fridge.

Otherwise I really just have a lot of excess tomato seed, squash seed, and corn seed if anyone from the area wants those things.

Hello William, is that offer only open to Jen Fan? I'm over at Wheaton Labs and could use some local seed of squash, sunchoke, and corn!

Orin Raichart wrote:

William Schlegel wrote:
I have Sunchokes and it's warm enough to dig. Mine are from Oikos about four kinds if I recall correctly and all are still extant. Joseph sent me some once but they dissapeared from the fridge.

Otherwise I really just have a lot of excess tomato seed, squash seed, and corn seed if anyone from the area wants those things.

Hello William, is that offer only open to Jen Fan? I'm over at Wheaton Labs and could use some local seed of squash, sunchoke, and corn!

Nope it is not exclusive, it quite includes you and Mike Castleman as well as Jen.

I have Sundays free...  does a Sunday work for you?  Looks like I'm about 93 miles from Ranon and could take I-90 to 93.

I could also snail mail you some seed if you purple moosage me your address 93 miles is a bit of a drive.

Sunday would work fine as well.

Though I think someone from Five Valleys Seed Library may come by on Friday after which there may be less selection. Though happy to save out whatever people want.

Sweet!!  I'll send you a purple moosage right after this post!

hi, i am interested in a potential trade....or possible will SASE you some things, i have quite a few from your list of wants to spare.

well have to bust out the seed stash to be sure but off the top of my head i have oregano, thyme, even some rosemary seeds (although fair warning rosemary from seed is tricky and these are not  totally fresh), lots and tons of mint, several types of mint, basils of many types, peppers, and asparagus SEEDS though...and even various strawberry SEEDS.

anywho PM me to work out a trade of SASE (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope)

Woof!  Lots of replies here!

Wish I would've checked Permies sooner, William, we were just out towards Polson the other day!
Just to let everyone know, William gave me a bunch of seeds last year and everything was AWESOME.  There were a few things I didn't get a chance to grow, but I grew every tomato variety and they all did great, and the early sweet corn did fantastic too.  I planted a few types of squash, all were robust, except I planted them in the greenhouse hoping we could handle pollination and that was a dumb idea.  So I had to rip them out.  The favas also did fantastic and kept producing all year.  I grew my corn in pots and had eating ears at about 60 days.  I saved seed from everything I could but if I could, I would plant all the seed I have right now, this year, for food.  I always save enough for future plantings though, so I won't plant it all unless I got more :)

The photos are of plants grown from William's seeds!

Leila, I will PM you.

Mike- Onion and dill would be awesome!  Would you want to swap, trade, or sell?

I have the seeds together and in envelopes. Still need to dig some sunchokes. Think Joseph said that he cuts them if need be. Might do that to fit more varieties in. Will probably dig the multi-clump from last year in the back yard. It was several Oikos bred true seed varieties jumbled together by rodents that I dug up because they planted them in a spot I didn't like. So I started a backyard clump. Which shall be handy for digging tomorrow and facilitate my trip to the post office.

I'm very excited for the seed librarian's visit. Got a bunch of squash and corn seed together. Couple bins worth anyway.

Jen. Those were great looking tomato plants. I recognize Amurski Tigr amongst them. Such fancy pruning, their ancestors in my garden never got a snip. Also much bigger plants than mine.

I'd love to meet up, William!  We have more business in Polson getting animal feed, but we're waiting for the road up here to melt off and retire the snowmobile.  We're real close, that warm rain last night helped, but now we've gotten another 4+ inches e_e  Might be another week til the roads are clear, or at least melted enough to plow the rest.

Is there anything you'd like, seed or plant or farm-wise?

Yes our tomatoes were very happy last year, we have lots of pig poop for them, they like that!  Haha.  Had a small bout of spider mites at the end of the season when ti got too dry in the greenhouses, but they didn't do any damage before the frost.  Upping the humidity helps wipe them out, too.  

Jen Fan wrote:I'd love to meet up, William!  We have more business in Polson getting animal feed, but we're waiting for the road up here to melt off and retire the snowmobile.  We're real close, that warm rain last night helped, but now we've gotten another 4+ inches e_e  Might be another week til the roads are clear, or at least melted enough to plow the rest.

Is there anything you'd like, seed or plant or farm-wise?

Yes our tomatoes were very happy last year, we have lots of pig poop for them, they like that!  Haha.  Had a small bout of spider mites at the end of the season when ti got too dry in the greenhouses, but they didn't do any damage before the frost.  Upping the humidity helps wipe them out, too.  

Hmm, the seed librarian couldn't make it up Evaro hill so is coming next Friday. If you would like any squash, tomato, sweet corn,  or flour corn seed I could set some aside for you still.

I dug the backyard clump of sunchokes. Sent a few to Mike and Orin. Only two varieties in it  Then replanted the rest. Just got back from planting the last pocket full out on an unused end of a hayfield my parents own.

I have to confess I don't know exactly where to dig for them out on my garden land. The rodents move them there. So until they start to come up I can't know for sure. Tried to dig a few for a professor last year and only found him a couple- of course later they emerged very well just not precisely where I thought they should be. I also rototilled over the top of one patch knowing they will probably come back from that stronger. I did have a patch wink out of existence about ten years ago out there. The folks got them in a CSA box and didn't want them so I planted them and they did great. Then I left for a couple years and I guess the rodents and no watering killed them. So not 100% sure if I can provide any more sunchokes. That was the only thing I could think of I hadnt included before. So not sure if I warrant a visit right now? If you wanted to come out to my garden and bring a sharp shovel we might be able to find something to divide that you could use.

Also rototilled over this little patch of garlic from Missoula seed exchange event in 2017 I think and it's come back stronger. I was a little bit of a menace with that rototiller over spring break.

Jen- I can send the onion and dill seeds to you if you PM your address. I also have poppy seeds!
Would you be interested in a wildflower mix? I'm looking for Aronia berry roots, josta berry,
good king henry, or any native NW Montana edible plants.

William- Thank you for the seeds, cuttings and chokes. I planted the chokes and some of the
cuttings outside. The cuttings that showed little signs of budding went into the propagation
box. It was a nice early Birthday present (13th of April) so thanks!

I wanted to let you know that my fertile silty soil produces great potatoes, garlic, corn and onions
but my squash seems to end up a little mealy. Any ideas on how to change the soil?  The squash
grows well with very little signs of mildew but again.....dry or mealy flesh. I noticed it especially
with delicata and also the buttercup. My pumpkins seemed fine but harder to tell because i used
those specifically for pie with sugar added! Ha..

Oh, and yes! I thought I was sending you onion seeds and now that you corrected me I realized
(after double checking) I indeed sent you poppy seeds by mistake!

Interested in wildflower seeds? I have a ton!  

Wildflowers for me would depend on the species. I like to get mine a single species at a time. Suppose it's an picky old botanist/wild land seed collector thing.

Wonder if your squash texture problem is a variety thing.

Joseph Lofthouse rather seems to breed for drier very dense very orange squash flesh. His strain of buttercup brings this to its best form in a Maxima squash. Its now my favorite maxima. My old Rio Lucio squash from Native Seed Search though was also good, but a paler color and sometimes a bit watery and stringy.

I never had any success with Moschata squash here in Montana till I got some from Joseph. His are dark orange and fine textured. Carol Deppe described it in one of her books as not as sweet as some. I got some last year from a seed friend in CA who had crossed in a Thai squash with pretty patterns to a grex including Lofthouse but the flesh is sometimes stringy. I think the seed I sent you was from a lofthouse Moschata that might have been pollinated by the other.

Mospermia and Agrosperma squash are like Moschata but with paler flesh and not a lot of flavor. They do well cut into chunks and baked with more flavorful vegetables like beets, parsnips, carrots, tomatoes, and or meat.

Pepo squash tend to be lighter flavored. I sent some Mandan Pepo squash seeds which are kind of like acorn squash as a winter squash. About the size of mini jack o lanterns except the stems pop off. Supposed to be multI purpose as summer squash but in truth that is true of all squash of all species.

In truth with squash, if you don't like the flavor or texture. The seeds from that one might be good for baking and eating or just composting.

Almost all winter squash will make pumpkin pie. I prefer to use maxima and Moschata for pie. Pumpkins are just one of several shapes of squash, botanically they don't really exist as a separate category usually they are pepo or maxima squash.

Blending into puree sure solves the stringiness problem I don't prefer.

I tend to save all squash seed then preferentially plant more of the ones I like best.

I love the pumpkin shaped moschatas but the butternut necked shaped ones are way more practical especially the big ones. So I will plant more butternut shaped and buttercup into my future landraces. Though I've been saying that for a couple years now about the buttercups, just coming around to it with the butternut types.

Just sent a lot of my excess with the Missoula Five Valleys Seed Library.

Mike I will PM you.  William, we're still interested in chokes if you have em.  We're waiting for the roads to open up.  We had another 10 days of winter and a bunch of snow.  Hopefully spring is here to stay this time  I'll be heading through Ronan soon as the roads are cleared.

Jen Fan wrote:Mike I will PM you.  William, we're still interested in chokes if you have em.  We're waiting for the roads to open up.  We had another 10 days of winter and a bunch of snow.  Hopefully spring is here to stay this time  I'll be heading through Ronan soon as the roads are cleared.

A little snow delay might send their sprouts up and make it easy to find em.