I WANT MY SEEDS ! ! [shameless vanity]

7-10-04 | EA

[EggsAckley]

A week or so ago I ordered some farm supplies off of the internet. My county is so business-loathing that I usually have to go out of the county or out on the net to make certain purchases.

I ordered a small portable greenhouse; it arrived a week later. I ordered a gallon of dog/cat repellent; it arrived yesterday. But the fifty pounds of orchard seeds, a grazing mix, has NOT arrived. My UPS driver tells me that it's being "held" at UPS because the county needs to inspect it. He said he saw the box and it was open, but the "inspection lady" hadn't seen it yet.

Now, this is NOT the first time they've done this to me. A couple of years ago I ordered fifty root starts for a tree called Paulownia. THOSE plants, the county CONFISCATED! Yes, confiscated! The Florida company who sold them to me was outraged, and agreed to send me my plants to another, out-of-county address, at no charge. In other words, my county ripped off the Florida company for several hundred dollars.

I WANT MY SEEDS! I want to get my land seeded before the rainy season, and these mental midgets here in Santa Cruz County are preventing me from doing that.

Since I found out about this on late Friday afternoon, of course I'll have to wait till Monday to start making phone calls. Other counties don't do this. Next time I'll have the shipment sent to my friend in Sunnyvale and avoid these Nazis.

/rant off.

[EggsAckley]

Thank you!!

[steplock]

Paulownia trees are a COMMUNIST PLOT! I have proof!

They are the scion of jimmy - da commie pig - carter!

Former President Jimmy Carter and Scot Corbett pictured with one of President Carter's 7 month old Paulownia elongata Super Trees planted around his pond for shade and beautification.

http://www.paulownia.com/press1.html

He probably got these from his lover, fidel, to eventually drown out the native trees.

[Carry_Okie]

It's just grass seeds; fescue, blue grass, etc. Nothing exotic.

Bizarro.

I want to find out where there is a LIST in this county of things we cannot grow. I realize the danger of exotics, and this is NOT the case.

Here are the native grasses and sedges on our property:

Bent Grass	Agrostis exarata
California Brome	Bromus carinatus, v. carinatus
Narrow Flowered Brome Grass	Bromus vulgaris
Pine Grass	Calamagrostis rubescens
Slender Hair Grass	Deschampsia elongata
Compressed Rye	Elymus glaucus
Red Fescue	Festuca rubra
Western Fescue	Festuca occidentalis
Meadow Barley	Hordeum brachyantherum
Western Melic Grass	Melica californica
Small Flowered Melica	Melica imperfecta
Torrey Melic	Melica torreyana
Nodding Needlegrass	Nasella cernua
Purple Needlegrass	Nasella pulcra
Small Flowered Needlegrass	Nassella lepida
Rush	Juncus patens
Red Rooted Flatsedge	Cyperus erythrorhizos
Splitlawn Sedge	Carex luzulina
Harford's Sedge	Carex harfordii
Foothill Sedge	Carex tumulicola
Santa Barbara Sedge	Carex barbarae

If you want any advice on any of these species, let me know.

[EggsAckley]

Thank you. I will.

[OSHA]

Our only border problem is with Arkansas

You're just mad because we make you go back home again.:)

[Mark in the Old South]

Re: "but if someone had been paying more attention to imported plant material we wouldn't have blackened, dying madrones or sudden oak death. America would still have chestnuts and elms"

But no wheat, oats, barley, hops, apples, oranges, pears, almonds, English walnuts, etc etc etc.

The problem is you just never know one way or the other.

[Carry_Okie]

The problem is you just never know one way or the other.

That used to be a problem, but sterile micropropagation has vastly reduced the risk of transferring pathogens. There is no excuse. It's now all about who makes money and who pays for the consequences.

[PAR35]

The feds and some states are spending money (read that as tax revenues) to control and eliminate wild paulownia.

Just plant some Kudzu - that should choke out the trees in a couple of years.

[Ms. AntiFeminazi]

LOL! I kid you not - I'm sitting here eating peanuts as I read this. lol

WOW, that's a 7 month old tree? My 2-year olds are only about half that size. Then again, I'm in hot Texas.

[Panzerfaust]

SandyInSeattle wrote:

We make seizures all the time, it just doesn't make the news. Had a huge one in Blaine of crystal meth coming from Canada just a few days ago... did anyone outside of Blaine hear about that?

Oh, I certainly heard about it. You guys are really screwing up my supply chain management efforts!

Just kidding, of course............

[Not A Snowbird]

LOL! Good one.

[Carry_Okie]

I'll look into these varieties for you. What is the purpose of your seeding. Are you covering a grading project or is this for forage?

[Jasper]

Heck, used to be you could slide stuff like this through Fed-Ex or UPS and have em' drop it at your door.

In todays climate of paranoia, I don't know if this is possible anymore.

(Damn, I 'm a poet and didn't even know it!)

[Carry_Okie]

Amba

Source - Danish Plant Breeding Ltd., Boelshoj, Denmark.

Method of Breeding - The first crosses were made in 1962, involving, as parental varieties: Aries, Russian No. 27863, 2 Icelandic Numbers, Szehass - File, soft leafed CB and Roskilde lines. Forty-five families were selected from the crosses on the basis of yield and persistence.

Intended Use - Hay and pasture production.

Description - Growth habit is medium to semi-erect; spring growth is early to medium. Leaves are medium green; mature plant height is tall; heading date is earlier than Prairial or Sumas; maturity is medium early. European data indicate Amba is resistant to purple eye-spot and susceptible to leaf rust and yellow stripe rust. Amba performed well for forage as compared to the check varieties in western Canada. In Europe, Amba exhibits good winter-hardiness, seed yield and good digestibility.

Adapted to - Recommended in Canada for use in British Columbia.

Released - Danish Plant Breeding Ltd., Boilshoj, Denmark. Registered in Canada in 1986 as registration no. 2623.

Breeder Seed/Stock - Danish Plant Breeding Ltd., Boilshoj, Denmark.

Certified Seed/Stock - Available.

Preparer/Additional Information - Agriculture Canada, Food Production and Protection Branch, Plant Products Division, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C6. Seed is distributed by Topnotch Nutri Ltd., P.O. Box 1030, Abbotsford, British Columbia V2S 5B5.

ProGress appears to be a proprietary form of orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata) the raw form of which would be native. Obviously, I cannot confirm if that has been crossed with anything exotic.

ATHOS

ATHOS is one of the latest maturing varieties available on the market, with a heading date that is usually at least one week later than Pennlate. Most of the late maturing orchardgrasses originate in Europe and ATHOS is no exception. Although this variety is new to the United States, it has performed well in Europe. ATHOS ranked number one in yield in the official NIAB forage grazing trials in the UK. In addition to high yield, ATHOS is noted for having good fall growth, which translates to an even yield distribution over the entire growing season.

So, at least two out of three of those varieties appear to be exotic, and I would hazard that the last of the three could be a problem for you if it gets out of hand by virtue of its high productivity and late season drought tolerance. Unless you have a lot of land and a way to control it, I would be careful.

Which brings me to your purpose in selecting the seed. For example, if it is simply to be a cover crop for an orchard, there might be better choices that don't compete so successfully with the trees for water. If your purpose is to provide forage for grazing animals such as horses, you probably have made a good choice as long as it doesn't get out of hand and cause your neigh-bores (sorry) a weed problem.

If your purpose is to cover for grading, some of the native grasses are probably better in the long run, but they are pricey. Elkhorn Native Plant Nursery has the best price and selection on those in this area. Good people.

[Carry_Okie]

Me: ProGress appears to be a proprietary form of orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata) the raw form of which would be native. Obviously, I cannot confirm if that has been crossed with anything exotic.

I take it back (I misread my flora). Orchardgrass is also a European exotic. Interestingly, it is listed in my 1961 Flora of the Santa Cruz Mountains (which you might want to purchase while it's still in print, ISBN 0-8047-0017-6) as having been recorded in Glenwood, near where we live.

So, all three of those grasses are exotic species.

[ladyinred]

ROTFL!

[SirLurkedalot]

The fuuny thing is that had those seeds been weed from Amsterdam ,Scott Kennedy(with several volunteers from the Resource Center for the Descruction of Israel,er I mean for Non-violence,Mardi W. etc) and the rest of the City Council would have staged a March for Justice and called for the impeachment of Bush.I've lived in Santa Cruz since 1983(5th grade)so interference from local officials is no shock to me.Good luck.

[Ditter]

Maybe they just want to make sure that they are not kuduz seeds. What is an orchard seed?

[sweetliberty]

"Lots of focus on imported pests which impact crops, grape vines, etc."

Too bad they're not that conscientious about the imported pests which carry diseases that infect human populations.

[sweetliberty]

"Our only border problem is with Arkansas"

Give it a rest! We tried to contain him, we really did. < /sarcasm >