So I recently ordered sweet pea seeds from three sources in England and
one in New Zealand. Their websites are fully automated and accept Visa,
Mastercard, and Paypal. You never really interact with a person, unless
they send you an email directly, after placing the order. I’ve ordered from
these sources several times in past years and the seeds arrived with no
problem. I never even had a chance to send them my seed import permit
(“small lots of seeds” permit). So I assumed that there was little to no
checking of small packets from first world countries. Then I also heard
that a permit wasn’t needed for just a few (6? 10? 12?) packets from other
countries. (Although I was never able to find this exemption on their
website.)

But in this most recent set of orders a month ago, the first two packages
arrived from England no problem. But then I got the third one from England
and the one from New Zealand, and both had been intercepted by the USDA and
the seeds destroyed. So I re-ordered but sent messages to the vendors
asking if I could send them a PDF of my permit so they could include it in
the packages. They were happy to do so, but didn’t realize there was a
problem. They had never had any of their packages sent to the U.S.
intercepted before. One of them had also even heard about the “special
allowance” for a few packets. Then they started emailing me that they were
getting emails from a number of other American customers who had had their
seed orders intercepted and destroyed the past couple of weeks. Virtually
all of the recipients were completely befuddled as to what had happened
(which is why they emailed the vendors). They had no idea that they
actually needed to get a seed import permit (which is free) and have a copy
of the permit included with the order. (There are a few more details to the
proper way it should be done and many of you know about these, so I won’t
get into it here.) So I wrote up a detailed set of instructions that the
vendors could send to these customers on how to get the permit and how to
use it.

This all suddenly happened in the past month.

So warning #1: For those of you in the U.S. ordering from overseas, it
appears that the USDA agents have suddenly become vigilant in intercepting
seed packages from international sources. (I don’t know why, but I have
some suspicions.) You might want to insist on people/nurseries sending you
seeds from other countries that they include a copy of your seed import
permit with the seeds from now on. <
https://aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/…

Today however, I have had several phone calls from the USDA inspection
station at LAX because my permitted seed orders arrived. In their manual
Plants for Planting <
https://aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/…>,
there is a huge list of species, from page 6-6 to 6-983, that lists all
kinds of additional requirements or restrictions or even forbidding some
from being imported. Usually, it only applies to live plants. But sometime
it applies to seeds as well. (And sometimes it restricts the plants but
specifically says that seeds are allowed in.) It turns out the manual says
that all sweet pea and Lathyrus seeds have to be fumigated with methyl
bromide before being sent to the U.S. unless they are from Mexico or
Central America. The entry in the Plants for Planting Manual even
references the specific kind of treatment it requires with an index number.
This index number links to an entry in another manual you can download from
their website called the Treatment Manual <
https://aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/…>
that describes in detail each particular kind of treatment (dosages,
durations, etc.). So I reluctantly agreed with them that they had to
destroy my second set of orders.

But I really really wanted to get some of these varieties. So I
contemplated all kinds of things including having them sent to a friend in
Mexico or Central America, who could re-package them and send them to me
from their country (although I suspected that somewhere else in one of
their manuals they have some regulation forbidding that as well). So just
for kicks, I decided to download the treatment manual to see if there might
be any way I might get a vendor to somehow comply with the fumigation
requirements. (It turns out that unless it’s a big (read: commercial)
order, it’s ridiculously hard because not only does the treatment have to
be correct, it has to be overseen or approved by one of our USDA agents but
in their country!) However, as I was scrolling through the different
treatments, I got lost and scrolled back up and found out that I was in a
particular section devoted solely to all the various different kinds of
treatments for *seeds*. And right there, right at the top of the section on
seed treatments, before the first treatment type was listed was a blue box.
And in that blue box was the following “NOTICE”:

<<NOTICE
Seeds for Propagation. Precautionary treatment for small lots of seeds (1
lb. or less) is *not* required if you can inspect 100 percent of the seeds
and you do *not* find any pests.>>

So I called the inspection station back right away, and even though at
first they resisted, they finally looked it up themselves (in their own
manual, remember), and agreed that it said what it said, and my seeds did
not have to be fumigated, and they didn’t have to destroy them. It is true
that they would never have known to look there for that Notice, and it is
interesting that the Notice is not mentioned at all in their main manual,
Plants for Planting, which is the document they always consult every time
they are inspecting any imported plants or seeds. It was purely
serendipitous on my part, but I’m glad it happened. And now the agents at
the LAX inspection station know about it. The Notice is generic, so it
applies to any seeds that require some kind of fumigation treatment in
order to be allowed in. And they told me they’re sending my seeds on to me!

So warning #2: If a species whose seeds you’re trying to import into the
U.S. is listed in the USDA’s “Plants for Planting” manual as requiring
fumigation in order to be allowed in, be sure to notify your inspection
station about the Notice at the top of page 5-3-30 of the USDA’s “Treatment
Manual”. They probably don’t know about it, and they’ll probably try to
destroy your seeds unless they do know about it.

Anyway, that was my unexpected adventure for today (and the past month).
Maybe some of you will find this informative.
--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m

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