2026 Seed Swap & Scion Exchange
Thanks for joining us in 2025!
Sunday, March 29
12:00 - 4:00 p.m.
At MOFGA's Common Ground Education Center in Unity
*Snow date is April 5, and will be called by Friday, March 27
This will be an indoor and outdoor event, so wear your woolies and come enjoy a warm drink, see old friends, meet new friends and bring home some scionwood for grafting and seeds for planting.
Gardeners and orchardists are invited to bring their seeds, scionwood and cuttings to share. If you don’t have any, come anyway!
Community members and local seed growers bring an incredible variety of vegetable, fruit, flower, and herb seeds. We also regularly have over 150+ types of scionwood to share, including scionwood sourced from MOFGA’s orchards. Limited quantities of rootstock will be available for sale. Custom grafting is available by donation to the Maine Heritage Orchard.
Other items for sharing are welcome such as plants, cuttings, seedlings, hatching eggs, kombucha and yogurt starters, salves and other homemade items.
Read on for info about the day’s workshops, as well as participating organizations and vendors!
This event is located at MOFGA’s Common Ground Education Center, 294 Crosby Brook Rd, Unity, Maine.
Questions? Please email [email protected].
*If you’ve been to the event before, you know that space can get tight at the start of the event. We encourage folks to join the event later in the day — we promise, there are still plenty of seeds and scions available over the duration of the event!
2026 Workshop Schedule
| Topic | Time | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| Outdoor Workshops | ||
| Pruning Demo | 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. | Renae Moran, UMaine Cooperative Extension |
| Maple Sugaring Demo | Ongoing | Maddie Eberly, MOFGA |
| Indoor Workshops | ||
| Re-imagining More Native Plants in your Garden | 12:10 - 12:40 p.m. | Christa Little-Siebold, Wild View Gardens |
| Seed Saving 101 | 12:50 - 1:30 p.m. | Caleb Goossen, MOFGA |
| Soil Health 101 | 1:40 - 2:20 p.m. | Caleb Goossen, MOFGA |
| Fruit to Nuts: Edible Native Perennials | 2:30 - 3:10 p.m. | Ivonne Vazquez, Bas Rouge Farm & Forge |
| Fruit Tree Exploration | 3:20 - 4:00 p.m. | Jack Kertesz, MOFGA |
| Seed Painting | Ongoing | Waterville Creates |
Ongoing activities, orgs, and vendors:
This year, we’ll have offerings happening in two close-by locations in order to open up space around the swap tables.
At “The Farmhouse”
- Ash Protection Collaboration Across Waponahkik (APCAW)
- B+T Baked Goods
- Maple sugaring demo with MOFGA’s Low-Impact Forestry Specialist, Maddie Eberly
- Native Gardens of Blue Hill
- Out on a Limb CSA
- The Moody Dog
At the Exhibition Hall:
- Make the welcome table your first stop! Get your bearings for the day and enter the raffle for a chance to win a MOFGA membership.
- Seed, scion, and woody plant education with the Maine Tree Crop Alliance
- Seed Painting with Waterville Creates
- Custom grafting: a team of orchardists from the Maine Heritage Orchard and Fedco can graft available scionwood onto rootstock for you, in exchange for donations to the Maine Heritage Orchard. Rootstock is also available for sale. Plus, watch and ask questions about their grafting techniques!
2025 participating orgs and vendors:
- Assisted Migration (Tree Giveaway!)
- B&T Bakery
- Fedco Seeds
- Maine Heritage Orchard
- Maine Tree Crop Alliance
- Native Gardens of Blue Hill
- Specialty Potato Variety Showcase from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension
- Wild Seed Project
Tips for Packaging Scionwood to trade:
- Use elastic bands or string to bunch together a single type of scionwood so that individual sticks can be removed easily, but won’t fall out of the bundle. See the example below.
- Label at least one stick in the bunch using masking tape – if you have time aim to label 5! See the example below.
- Remember: after harvesting your scionwood, store it triple-ziploc-bagged in the fridge (not freezer.)
- Each piece of scionwood doesn’t need to be very long – 8 inches is plenty!
- Keep an eye out for wood that looks like it could have problems, like the two sticks on the right in this photo. Don’t cut from trees with diseases. Last year was a very bad year for fireblight and so we’re being extra cautious; if your tree looks potentially diseased, please err on the side of caution! See below for an example of potentially diseased scionwood.
- We’ll have plenty of scionwood to share, so please don’t feel obligated to bring wood to swap. We want to share clean wood only!
Can’t make the swap in person but still want to trade?
There are other seed swaps happening aroung the state!
- Saturday, April 11: Cobscook Scion Exchange & Seed Swap
- Saturday, April 11: Rockport Seed Festival
Are you running a seed swap? Let us know and we’ll add it to the list!
Fruit Tree Resources
Seed Resources
On the Origins of the Seed Swap and Scionwood Exchange
The Seed Swap & Scion Exchange was initiated in 1983 by the Maine Tree Crop Alliance (MTCA). After several years in Augusta and then several more at Unity College, the event found its home in 1999 when MOFGA moved to our campus in Unity and we partnered with the MTCA and the Maine Seed Savers Network to bring this event to our community. The Seed Swap & Scion Exchange has been a beloved annual event ever since! In 2023, we rang in the 40th year of this annual celebration of seeds and fruit trees. For more details about the origins of this event read Jack Kertesz’ history from his perspective as a founding member of the MTCA here.
