GRIN?

[StripedCorn]

How does one go about using and ordering from GRIN? Are there only certain things you can order?

[billw]

These days, it is pretty much like ordering from any online shop. Go here and search for accessions:
npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/search.aspx

Select the ones you want, add them to your cart, and check out.

You will be asked to justify your request, specifically how it fits one or more of the missions of breeding, research, or education.

Some divisions push back fairly hard on amateur requests, while others are very easy to work with. The better you explain your project up front, the less likely that you will have to play 20 questions.

Of course, I have skipped the hard part, which usually is figuring out which accessions you want. For many crops, details are scarce. In those cases, it is often best to go search the scientific literature for the traits that you are interested in and look for papers that mention any relevant PI numbers. If you can't make progress that way, sometimes the curators can help to guide you, but you might have to just guess and trial a number of different accessions to find what you need. I have rarely received any response to emails sent, but on occasion I have received very helpful information and offers of accessions that are not available in the database. Most of these divisions are run by just a handful of people and I figure that they don't have a lot of time for chit chat.

[walt]

Go here.

npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/descriptors.aspx?

There is a box, and by it is "choose crop".  Hit the triangle to scroll to the crop you want.
Click in the crop you want.  It will give you dscriptors for that crop.  C hoose what discriptors matter to you, and click on it.
For example, I clicked on citrus as a crop.  And aroma as a discriiptor.  Scroll down the page, and I find the values for that descritpor, aroma.  They are weak, moderate, strong, prefumed, resinous, and onion/stale.  I choose the value I want (not onion, I didn't know onion citrus was an option), say strong.  They have 65 citrus with strong aroma.  I click on the 65 and a page comes up with a list of the 65 strong-flavored citrus.  I click on the first and get a description of that one.  First check teh upper right corner.  It says "not available"  Go back a page and try the second.  not available.  Bummer.
So now I have clicked on 10 of them and ALL say not availablel  Maybe it is the time of year.  Maybe they don't send budwood in the winter.  I don't know.  I'll try a different crop.
 So I use the back arrow until I'm to where I started.  I'll try Barley.
Then I choose teh descriptor "winter".  Over 4,000 to choose from.  The first one is available. 5 grams of seeds.  Not much, but it is a start.  That is all they give of any crop, enough to start.  So I scroll down to detailed description page and click it.  I get a more detailed description.  Resistance of susceptablility to some insects and diseases, color of grain or awns, seed size, and other stuff.
If it sounds good, I write down its PI number and go on tho the next variety.  After comparing some, I would order a few of teh more promising ones.
You'll need to sign in, that takes a while, but is pretty painless.
There is a page that lets you choose two or more descriptors and bring up only those that better fit what you want.  But I can't find that page today.  
In general, if they have something you  want, they'll give it to you.
Good luck.

[walt]

Some crops, tomatoes for example, have seed banks seperate and in addition to GRIN.  They may be more useful.  Tomato Genetics Cooperative for example.  Barley too, or at least they used to.  I don't know what else.

[StripedCorn]

Thank you for your fast replies. I have been looking at a few things but didnt know if i would be able to justify them sending me anything.

[paquebot]

Back around 2005, someone posted on almost all garden forums about how easy it was to get free seeds of anything you wanted. "Plant your entire garden at no cost." A few of us said to not do it. GRIN put the brakes on real quick and even many legitimate requests were refused. I've only requested tomato seeds and stated purpose is to grow out and offer in SSE, which I do.

Martin

[imgrimmer]

The german genebank is charging every order now. I think for the same reason.

[12540dumont]

And as a reminder. You have to keep track of everything they send you. They WILL ask for a report in some future year and if you don't have it....well they're not likely to help you in the future.

Joseph and I as a team had good luck with Garlic. It wasn't just luck. First I sat down and read everything I could on getting true garlic seed. Then I contacted GRIN. Barbara contacted me and suggested ascensions for the trial. I had no luck at all, my weather is just no cold enough in the winter. So, I sent the rest of the bulbils to Joseph. Joseph did a great job. He took photos. I wrote to Barbara and sent photos of the successes.

When Molly was in charge of beans, she regularly helped me choose beans for my trials. Molly's retired now. But from her help, I was able to chose and grow an incredible array of beans that I now use. I sent her monthly pictures of my grow outs, kept track of weights of beans and beans with diseases,etc.

They are not just sending you seed. They are looking for you to use them to change what you are growing, to get more seeds out into the world, to diversify what exists in the seed pool. So KEEP records or don't play.

[reed]

Wow, I never really looked at GRIN much, I could easily get lost in there.


I have a pretty good guess but what do you get if you order something in a Cryo tube  - In-Vitro. Would that be a little bit of plant material that might be hard for me to deal with, given my lack of green house or other well controlled environment? 

[billw]

I don't think that they want excessive levels of detail in most cases, but they definitely want to know the outcome. Did you use the accessions to breed a new variety or did you publish something that includes data collected from the accessions? Or, did the accessions fail to provide what you were looking for and, if so, why? That sort of thing. They summarize these reports and the information is undoubtedly used to justify their budget.

This is a report that I did on some potato accessions this year, for example:
www.cultivariable.com/potato-morphological-observations-of-usda-accessions-2017/

[StripedCorn]

Thank you, everyone. I Think I'll try to order some south American corns. I will blend them into my own landraces and also keep a pure line of each variety. I know how scary recording things is to landrace growers but, I'll make sure to keep good records.

It Is Truly astounding the variety in GRIN

[steev]

"Truly astounding"? Yes; thankfully so. We must promote this variety, if we hope to prosper. There are far too many of us to survive by hunting and gathering. Big-Ag is far too production-oriented commodity-wise for our own good. People on the ground growing stuff is our best shot at survival. GRIN is a key part of this.