Seeds from Afghanistan

Hello all,

I'll be back in the Philippines next month on R&R and will be bringing some local seeds with me.

Bell Pepper...nothing special about the seeds, a green bell pepper is a bell pepper.

Chili Pepper...they end up about 3"-4" long, reminds me of the Korean peppers, good flavor with quite a kick; I cook with these peppers almost everyday, but I like spicy food.

Egg plant...again nothing special, just harvest when young for the best flavor.

Tomato...it is a medium sized tomato, but probably the best tasting tomato I have eaten. They grow in the Philippines as I started some in pots last year and they did well. Pretty compact without having to stake them too much or use cages.

Okra...a more compact plant that is a heavy producer and without the skin irritation I found with okra in the Philippines when picking. These are seeds I actually saved from last year, if I ate okra 3 times a day there is no way I could keep up so I let a bunch "mature" on the vine and got the seeds. I started some of those seeds here and almost all sprouted already.

Watermelon...I do not eat watermelon often and have not tried growing them in the Philippines, but when I told the wife about a 25 pound watermelon that was white skinned she wanted me to bring some seeds. I don't know what the variety is called, but it is large and very sweet.

I've grown all these here (other than the white watermelon) and they are hardy plants; it is very windy and dusty and they do very well under some tough conditions.

The company I work for wanted to know my hobbies when they hired me and one I mentioned was gardening as well as liking to see some color in what is mostly a brown country, so they put in flower and vegetable gardens in front of my LSA. Roses this year as well...orange, pink and a red and yellow mix have so far blossomed.

I will start some seeds for a garden plot in the village for the in-laws and honestly cannot use all the seeds I have. If anyone would like some of these seeds, let me know and I will give the remaining seeds away once I get the ones started to transplant to the garden plot.

I recommend the tomato, okra and chili peppers, the others may just be a novelty to say the seeds came from Afghanistan.

Shawn

 

I would love some okra and any flower seeds that do well!!

 

I don't know much about flowers, but most of the ones they planted in front of my office are ones I've never seen before. I asked my logistics guy to get me some flower and vegetable seeds. The vegetable seeds came from the local market and were packaged in little plastic bags. The flower seeds came from India and were in normal seed packages.

I have thousands of vegetable seeds, so I can hook you up with okra seeds; the flower seeds are for the wife to sort out. She loves flowers and want tons of them around the house, she will have to look at the seeds I'm bringing and decide what she wants to try. I assume the flower seeds should grow, but we will see.

Shawn

 

Just don't bring any of the local poppy seeds from there.

 

They actually grow wild occasionally and you have to report a plant if you see one...not sure what they do with a plant once it is reported.

The most potent thing I'll be carrying is some chili pepper seeds...you wouldn't want to get one of those in your eyes.

Shawn

 

Wise advice from Knowdafish Shawn,
There is plenty of plants etc available, dont risk breaking any import rules,
Watching Aussie customs programme on TV, a heavy fine or worse can happen, not sure about the rules in Philippines.

 

Agreed John, but seeds are completely legal (for veggies and flowers) and have brought many in before; previously it was from the US when I was in Korea and it was easier to order; even got a balikbayan box due in soon coming from the US that has some vegetable seeds (plus other things I wanted from the US for the house build). Even took some Philippine okra seeds that I grew in Korea (that made me popular in the Philippine community).

The "advice" from Knowdafish was tongue in cheek, I'm pretty sure the dogs (Belgians) would pick up on anything wrong either at the airport here, in Dubai or going into Manila. For obvious reasons I would never put myself at risk as well as have never been asked to carry something illegal.

Just trying to offer some vegie seeds to anyone that may be interested because I will have more than I can use for the family garden plot in the village. I can always get more seeds if I decide to go back after my R&R.

As we say in the US, "this is not my first rodeo"; bottom line, I would never do anything illegal, I have too many people counting on me.

Back on point...will hook folks up with some vegetable seeds if wanted, I'll only take care of family once, they are responsible for collecting seeds and replanting next time.

Shawn

 

thanks for the offer shawn, we'd like to try some flower seeds, the okra and the tomato if it's an indeterminate.

norm : ))~

 

Hi Shawn,
You have done your homework, that's good. Just that when I saw poppy seeds mentioned, alarm bells started ringing.
I should of realised it was a joke !

 

I would like to exchange some seeds.

Shawn I would love to trade some seeds I set up the Seed and Plant exchange on here about about a month ago and got over 1000 hits on the thread just for the purpose of trading seeds. However most wanted plants which led me to growing seedlings I would be happy to trade some of the many seeds I have here, and/or look over what you have there.

Just PM me.

Dave