wildling_woods debacle...consider yourselves forewarned

[unless]

proceed at your own risk when buying cheap seeds off ebay. from now on, i know to buy from reputable seed companies and the handful of cottage seed sellers with whom i've built a level of trust.

my story? well, in my preparation for the spring/summer garden, my parsimony got the best of me, and i cheaped out on seeds. BIG mistake.

i found a seller on ebay that had a lot of things on my planting list--a user named wildling_woods. 99 cents a packet! free combined shipping! how could i go wrong?

in short, very, very wrong. no matter that the seeds took FOUR WEEKS to arrive because she forgot to ship them, or that she ignored my first few attempts at correspondence, because the bigger problems were yet to surface.

first, let me share with you my purchases:

mesa yellow gaillardia
purple tomatillo
gold rush squash
lemon cucumber
burgundy okra
new zealand spinach
malabar spinach
pink flamingo chard

all seemed well enough at planting time, but now that things are producing, it is as though some kind of demented traveling circus of mutant plants has rolled into my garden.

little is as advertised. the "mesa yellow" gaillardias are some kind of washed-out dishwater bicolor of red and yellow (flowers so homely that not even my mother could love them), the "purple" tomatillos are not only of the ordinary green variety, but they also ripen to the size of a large cherry (useless), and the "gold rush" squash is no more than yellow crookneck (in all fairness, i should have realized that "gold rush" is a hybrid variety and seen this one coming from a mile away). NOTE that i planted several of each thing, and all have come up as i just described (demonstrating that this is not just a one-seed fluke). it is as though the seller didn't take any effort to seek out the best parent specimens from which to gather seeds, opting instead for quantity over quality.

as of today, the cucumbers and okra haven't set fruit yet, and the rest of the plants are too small to discern whether they are true to the advertised type. i hope i'll have a sudden stroke of good luck, but i'm not holding my breath.

DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!!! i almost feel sorry for these unwanted plants, but they're taking up space and gobbling up my precious nutrients, and every day i get a little angrier at them. every day i peer at them through my kitchen window, and they just sit there--laughing at me. i lament that i have to wait until NEXT YEAR to right this wrong and get some decent seeds.

[tlintx]

Aww, I'm sorry! Is it much too late for even greens or something relatively quick growing?

And you can't even leave feedback to warn people by now. Can you email ebay and tell them what's happened?

The trusted source list here is a fantastic resource. I've dealt with four of them so far and had great experiences without exception.

Compost those wrong 'uns. At least they're fixing nitrogen in the soil, maybe?


Tl

[unless]

tlintx, i think i will just ride it out until i can put in the cool-season stuff. there's plenty of time left in the growing season here in south texas, but starting things in the heat of summer is tough and takes a lot of coddling.

i agree, the ebay feedback system for these kinds of items is flawed. i had to leave feedback even before the seeds had finished sprouting up, which undoubtedly gives the false impression to other potential buyers that everything is A-OK. if only i could go back and dish the truth.

[tlintx]

Oh, hey, you're near me!

It's almost time to start our fall tomatoes and pumpkins, and I'm going to start some Asian greens, too! I've read up on some that might be able to take our heat, and The Sample Seed Shop carries the OP ones. Just have to finalize my tomato list so I can start ordering.

You should definitely email ebay support. If this person is committing fraud, it should be followed up on, even if it's just a few bucks. Someone in zone 3 would be really set back.


Tl