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Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

I see a lot of seed trade happening internationally. Rememember if seed packages are opened By U.S. Customs coming in to the united states. The seeds are destroyed with out a phyto certificate. It sucks to have a world class seed thrown in to a garbage can. So please remember this when doing exchanges.

10/3/2005 11:41:38 AM

Cologne Brescia Italy

thank you for the information
Sergio

10/3/2005 3:25:40 PM

Long Island,New York

I don't know if this is true or not but someone told me the fastest growing carrer sector in giant pumpkins this year was customs officials.

10/3/2005 5:11:56 PM

Cologne / Germany

I´m sorry to say it is true. I tried to send a bunch of bubbles on US growers requests in April and apart from some missing envelopes they all returned a few weeks ago. Just check the time (months!) in between when they got stuck somewhere at the US customs I don´t even know where. I´m just happy to have them back. I´m really sorry for everyone asking me for seeds not getting anything. Looking for other ways now to send them.
My call for everyone trying to send seeds to the US eg. from Europe with a normal bubble is not do it.
I hope someone can chime in here knowing about a safe method. Doing the phyto certificate is so expensive it won´t make sense to send newer unproven seeds anymore. Sorry to see a situation like this.

10/3/2005 5:23:27 PM

Minnesota(dw447@fastmail.fm)

floh,
How expensive is a phyto certificate?
One suggestion, is to get a phyto for all the seeds you plan to give out during a season. Then send this to a trusted grower, or organization, to receive the bubbles, and fill them. The people receiving the seeds could send a small amt. of money to the one sending out the seeds, and this money would be sent to the grower( to cover the cost of the phyto). The U.S. person, dealing with the seeds, could maybe keep some of the money for his/her trouble.
I'm wondering if Seedoutlet, or something similar would work?

10/3/2005 6:44:40 PM

Cologne / Germany

Doug, it would be a good idea to have a "central adress" in the US like seedoutlet where to send the seeds for all requests. And then not to choice normal mail but UPS or something. Otherwise you have to do the phyto for every single envelope you want to send from here.

Unfortunately that can´t be done from over here. It must be assured that there is an organization in the US taking care for the customs. The distribution of seeds to single growers from inside US must be the easy part of the story, apart from the money - that is 3 or 4 Euro for a single bubble from here which costs 1 $ or less to send from you.

This is good stuff to check now in the "after season" and I really hope we can work something out. Just see how many requests Martin Reiss here from Germany got for his 1233 seeds now and that we really need to find a safe way to send seeds to the US.

10/3/2005 7:29:09 PM

ENGLAND

US Customs will also confiscate EMPTY Bubble Packs going into the US, that is my assumption anyway as the majority i sent just did not reach their intended Addresses. I am not so bothered about the empty Bubble pack in its self but the amount of $'s in cash i included for return postage and a gratitude donation added up to a heck of a lot of money.
Regards
Mike

10/4/2005 3:13:59 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

The Phyto-sanitary certificate requirement was supposed to end (for our purposes) this past June. Perhaps we need to check on it again. I had their emails & phone numbers on my old computer but...

10/4/2005 5:42:15 AM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Steve them old dogs are hard to train...If it went into effect in June maybe it will be implemented by 2010.

10/4/2005 9:10:17 AM

Long Island,New York

Mike, it could have been lost anywhere from your mail-drop in England to the mailbox it was going to.

10/4/2005 11:12:31 AM

ENGLAND

Glenn
I mailed Empty, to be returned, Bubble Packs out over the course of several months. For them to go missing over that stretch of time would mean some real bad luck, which is about right. I tried sending them in envelopes with and without CN22's on but it made no difference. I think the fact that a Bubble Pack was inside an ordinary envelope may have made Customs suspicious and they just got binned. I put my own address on the top left of every Envelope but only 1, out of all those that went missing, was actually returned to me. This perticular Envelope contained a Bubble Pack & a CD Mailer it had been opened by customs in the USA and returned to me with no explanation as to why they returned it. I have learned my lesson the hard and expencive way and i just hope that other people from the UK or anywhere outside of the USA have the same problems as i had.

Regards
Mike

10/4/2005 2:01:01 PM

ENGLAND

OOPS, I meant do NOT have the same problems as i had. Should have proof read 3 times instead of my usual twice.
Regards
Mike

10/4/2005 2:04:12 PM

ENGLAND

I also meant to add that some, empty, to be returned, Bubble Packs did thankfully reach their destination. Although i cannot remember if they were destined for the USA or Canada.
Regards
Mike

10/4/2005 2:08:36 PM

Mill Bay, British Columbia

Strange how it works. I just sent some seeds from British Columbia, Canada to Minnesota U.S.A. and they arrived safe and sound.

A good way to get seeds from anywhere safely into the US (without the certificate) is to wait until Christmas time and send them along with the Christmas rush. If it is a valualble or rare seed, simply tape it inside a Christmas card. That usually works.

Good luck/Glenn

10/4/2005 2:22:31 PM

ENGLAND

Glenn
Yep, strange but lesson learned on my part anyways. I have some fairly fine (very small) Seeds to get over to the USA very soon and the Christmas/Birthday card idea had been suggested. Only way of doing it with pumpkin/Squash or Marrow Seeds would be to get one of those horrid thick padded type of Birthday cards and dig out recesses for the Seeds. Oh heck, NO i am not going to risk that !! LOL.
Thanks for the suggestion though Glenn.
Regards
Mike

10/4/2005 2:39:27 PM

Cornwall UK.(50N 5W)300ft.

Thats bad luck Mike,mine have always got through but last year I only sent 2 bubbles to the USA (with certificates)
I didn't swap with the usual people because of the requirement for a certificate which was a pity.

10/4/2005 5:25:53 PM

Sydney, Australia

I sent around 40 bubblepacks to the US last year, around about half the seeds were destroyed due to lack of phyto certificate. I will organise one this year if possible before sending any seeds. Strange that some made it, some didn't..... Ben

10/4/2005 8:24:21 PM

Liverpool , England

I took the seeds with me to Niagara, they don't check ya coat except for metal objects....done this twice now. I then mail them from Buffalo before getting my flight home.
Alun

10/4/2005 8:36:23 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Tracking numbers allow global tracking of all parcels all the time. No surprises. You really have to appreciate American Corporate ingenuity.

http://www.ups.com/

10/4/2005 9:36:29 PM