Site Overview/Purpose of Website:
The purpose of this website is to match fruit growers/collectors with other growers/collectors. We do not store scion wood, nor is any scion wood available for purchase. The general process, after creating your account, is the following steps:
- Add to your Haves list all of the varieties you have to trade
- Add to your Wants list all of the varieties you are looking to collect, but do not yet have. Set a priority to them, numbered 1-5, with 1 being the highest.
- Click on "Find Trade Partners". This will match you with people who have what you are looking for.
- When you have found a trade partner, message them through the system and wait for an email response.
Getting Started
The primary place to begin your navigation is the site's dashboard. Generally visible on the left side of most pages but shown here below. From the dashboard you'll have access to the following pages:
Browse Varieties
Here you can browse all varieties of fruit available on scion exchange including but not limited to:
- Apples
- Pears(European)
- Pears(Asian)
- Cherry
- Plums
- Peaches
- Etc.
Browse Varieties
Clicking on any one type of fruit will lead to to an alphabetized listing of all the varieties of that fruit that are are available on the site. Once you've found the particular varietal you're looking for you can click its name and it will bring you to a page where you can add it to your want or have lists. For example, here is the page for the delicious Aerlie Red Flesh Apple.
Have List
This page lists varieties of fruit you have available for trading. They can be added by browsing as mentioned above or directly on the Have List page. Here we can see the Aerlie Red Flesh that we added in the last step. Other users can see this list for proposing trades.
Want List
The opposite of the Have List, the Want List is where you list fruit varieties you're looking for. However, unlike the Have List, the Want List also shows how many users have the variety you're seeking available for trading (see the area surrounded in red).
Members
The members area, as you might expect, lists all current members of the site. It can be helpful when trying to contact another member but is not the most direct way to conduct a trade.
Find Trade Partners
The most direct overview of available trades based on your Want and Have lists is the Find Trade Partners. Here different members will be displayed who both want varieties you have and have varieties that you want.
If you see a potential trading partner who seems like a good match then propose a trade by clicking propose trade! This will bring you to a page where you can contact another member and propose directly the germplasm you'd like to exchange. Have other plants or seeds you'd like to include to sweeten the deal (say some wild ramp seeds or live plants) or other wants you suspect a member might have? Feel free to discuss that in the "Additional Message Information" box. Once you click submit a message will be sent to the other member letting them know about the trade you're proposing and a dialogue can be started.
Support + Feature Requests
Lastly, but certainly not least, is our Support + Feature Request Page. Scion Exchange is a new site being maintained by a small team of volunteers and we'd love to know was that we could improve the experience by adding features or types of plants to exchange. We're also very appreciative of being made aware of any bugs that you might find so that we can fix them as quickly as possible. If you'd like to contact us mentioning any of the above or anything else you can do so through this page. This page is the best means to contact the developers of the site (as opposed to contacting us directly) because it centralizes message in one place for us to see them so please route your messages to us through this portal.
