Free Seed Catalogs Question

[AlittleSalt]

This is my forth year of learning about gardening. My first fall garden, first tomatoes grown from seed, and the first time I have gone online and requested free seed catalogs.

Today, I did a google search and ordered the first 5 results from seed companies for free seed catalogs sent via snail mail. I chose:

Territorial Seed Company
Burpee
Rare Seeds "Baker Creek Heirloom" 2015 Catalog sent in December
Gurney's
Park Seed Company

Then I thought that you guys would know which places to buy seeds from and which one's I should steer clear of. So, here I am asking. Cost is important because I cannot afford expensive seeds, and our garden is only 45' x 45' or 2025 sq. ft.

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

This is my forth year of learning about gardening. My first fall garden, first tomatoes grown from seed, and the first time I have gone online and requested free seed catalogs.

Today, I did a google search and ordered the first 5 results from seed companies for free seed catalogs sent via snail mail. I chose:

Territorial Seed Company
Burpee
Rare Seeds "Baker Creek Heirloom" 2015 Catalog sent in December
Gurney's
Park Seed Company

Then I thought that you guys would know which places to buy seeds from and which one's I should steer clear of. So, here I am asking. Cost is important because I cannot afford expensive seeds, and our garden is only 45' x 45' or 2025 sq. ft.

Well, of the ones you listed I do buy from Baker Creek, Burpee, and Park. Burpee and Park I buy from mostly for things I can't get elsewhere.

I've found Burpee's quality and shipping fine, but prices and shipping high -- sometimes you can get significant discounts with coupons or order codes, but you have to do considerable hunting to find discount codes large enough that their prices aren't still very high.

Quality from Park has been fine, and I'd probably order more from them, but delivery is nearly always a hassle. While I think they are much better than their thread here indicates, it appears to me that they don't update their website when they are actually out of something. Then your order is just put on hold, with no notice to you, until the missing item comes in, by which time they may be out of something else on your list. I've had the same thing happen with shipping address -- even though I confirmed correct shipping address when ordering, they'd decide it didn't meet their specs, and just put the order on hold. I've been able to clear this up by emailing customer service -- and I've always found their customer service nice -- but sometimes it takes a dozen emails to get a simple order actually shipped. When I order from them I give them a week or two (assuming that all items ordered were supposed to be in stock), then email their customer service and ask if it has been shipped. If they tell me it's just going out, next Tuesday, then I email them again next Thursday and ask if it's on the way. I also email their customer service immediately after placing any order to specify "no substitutions" because they haven't had that on their order form.

Baker Creek has a beautiful catalog and unusual varieties. They also maintain -- though not as diligently as they once did -- a set of garden forums where you can ask questions about gardening and seed varieties -- theirs or others.

Two very fine companies I order from are Victory and Sandhill.

victoryseeds.com

sandhillpreservation.com

Both these have rare variety preservation among their major goals.

Sandhill is a family operation on a sand hill in Iowa -- where part of the land has been revitalized by careful conditioning with successive crops, turned under, to produce productive soil, and part of it is preserved unchanged to provide habitat for local wildlife resident there. It's a "snail mail, payment enclosed, understand that this isn't our full time job so we'll fill your order when we can but it may take a while" place -- but they are reliable, and have many unusual varieties -- and usually include quite a few more seeds in the packets than the minimum they specify, plus their prices are some of the lowest around. But order from them early -- very early, in the fall if you're ordering something like tomato seeds you need shortly after the first of the year. Otherwise, get your order in as soon as they update their catalog in January to be sure you'll have it by planting time. (Note: I've ordered only seeds from them, and garlic bulbils -- not live poultry or sweet potato plants, which can be more complicated to ship successfully without excellent online communication.)

I've had prompt, correct shipping from Victory and they also have unusual varieties. Victory Seed is a very well run operation by Mike Dunton, great-grandson of Victor Dunton, on the family owned and operated Oregon farm Victor established in 1909.

One good way to check out sources is to do a web search like this:

scoop Gurney's site: davesgarden.com

substituting the name of whatever site you're considering for Gurney's in the above.

I urge reading the text of davesgarden reviews, not just glancing at the summaries, as many people will take the time, whether they give a positive or negative rating, to describe the particular strong points or problems they've had with a company, and that gives you an idea whether their good or bad points are things that are meaningful to you.

I sadly have to endorse the negative majority about Gurney's -- I had ordered from them for decades, and my family had bought from them for generations, but problems just became too great for it to make any sense to continue. Which doesn't mean that they might not work out OK for you but . . .

[Worth1]

http://www.tomatogrowers.com/
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=3

https://www.tomatogrowers.com/inforequest.asp
There are many more good ones but I have only ordered from the top link.
I have never had a problem and they are good folks.



Worth

[KarenO]

I like to support a seed store in my area, a mom and pop operation that has been in business for years. I only order what I can't find there which isn't much except the more interesting Tomato seeds.
As far as regular garden seeds go they have everything I need. If there is a similar garden seed shop in your area, perhaps consider supporting a local business instead of the big mail order companies.
There is a knowledgeable staff there who know and understand our local growing season and conditions which is something that can't be found by mail order and they also tend to stock and carry locally useful and popular varieties that do well here.
Just a thought. I enjoy seed catalogs and get some as well every year but the majority of seeds I buy, I buy locally.
Karen.

[Sun City Linda]

Several of our members here are in the seed business. Knapps Fresh Veggies and The Sample Seed Shop both run by posters here. Also Tanya, although it is under her correct name, I think its Tatainias, someone will probably post a link soon. They don't mail out catalogs but have the information online.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Sun City Linda

Several of our members here are in the seed business. Knapps Fresh Veggies and The Sample Seed Shop both run by posters here. Also Tanya, although it is under her correct name, I think its Tatainias, someone will probably post a link soon. They don't mail out catalogs but have the information online.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Main_Page

Worth

[AlittleSalt]

JLJ, I wrote those down to look up tomorrow when it gets too hot to be outside. Thank you.

Worth, the last catalog I looked up and sent in for tonight was, "Tomato Growers Supply Co." Funny, I clicked on your top link, and there it was again.

Karen, I agree with supporting locals completely, and that is where this reply is going to get long

I live 10 miles from the town where I was born. The town/city has 30,000 people in it. There's a Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes, and major Grocery Stores to buy from, but I try to support the Mom and Pop shops as much as possible.

There are a lot of feed and seed stores in the county I live in, and some of them actually sell seeds. Around here, COWS get top billing. Dairy cows, beef cows, and rodeo. I pass by a PRCA Rodeo grounds every time I go to town. At those feed stores, you can buy just about any sort of hay, cattle supplies, cow medicines, and anything else you've ever heard about cow related. It is kind of funny though, it seems like there are more huge fields of corn, hay, and grain than cattle.

Anyway, buying seed around here from places advertised as, "Feed and Seed" gets a typical result of: I bought some Purple Hull Pea seeds and asked if they were bush or vining types? The man selling the seeds said, "Yep, those are purple hull peas".

There is one Mom and Pop shop that we buy from every year that we have gotten to know the wife and husband pretty well. Their shop is in an old converted gas station. They have told us how they order their plants and they get whatever their suppliers happen to send.

I've noticed in Tomatoville, that there are seed swaps and stuff like that, and I think that sounds great, but the seeds I have saved from certain things I've bought around here ...well. I have three bottles of saved onion seeds. The label on each bottle says, "Red, White, or Yellow" Onions. I have no idea what type they are? Those selling them to me had no idea either. They grew well, so I replanted biennials and grew onion seed crops this year.

The other problem I have with trading seeds is that we bought a lot of those, American Seed 20 cent packs. I found out here at Tomatoville that American Seed does not grow their own seed/plant. They buy seeds and resell them. We bought Dwarf French Marigold seeds from those 20 cent packs. I planted a 25' row of them and they grew prolifically. I filled two pint jars full of seeds because the plants grew much larger than expected. The Dwarf French Marigolds grew to almost 3 feet high. There were so many flowers that after collecting 2 pints of seed - I started composting them.

Like with the onions, if I were to offer the marigold seeds for trade ... I can't tell if they are truly what I bought them as. They are seed that grew well for me but I have no idea where they came from because American Seed bought them and resold them.

Lastly, I've noticed that with Burpee seeds in our local stores the prices are way lower than the online prices. There's a place called, TRC. I'm guessing it is Tractor Supply Company. They sell Burpee seed for around $2.29 - $2.99 per pack. Of course, Walmart sells NK seed for around $1.29 per pack.

I like the idea of a seed catalog. You can buy different seed and it is like looking at the Sears catalog back in the day. I miss those days.

[habitat_gardener]

If you're looking for a handful of specific seeds, don't be shy about posting a note in the Wanted forum. Those of us who have been growing tomatoes for a few years are eager to share the varieties we've loved.

Another source of free tomato seed is Wintersown -- 6 varieties free for an sase.
http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Your...mato_SASE.html

Seed catalogs are fun because of the photos and (usually) exaggerated descriptions! i like the catalog from Johnny's because it has tons of information, such as optimal germination temperatures for each crop. I don't think I'm on lists for free catalogs, but I get all the free catalogs I need from local garden shares.

When I order seed, however, I tend to look for small seed companies. I try to keep my orders down to 2 per year, and I usually order from different companies, from a rotating list that includes Tatiana's Tomatobase (also a wonderful place to browse online), Sand Hill Preservation, The Sample Seed Shop, and Fedco. Sand Hill and Fedco also offer free catalogs, and though they are printed on newsprint stock and don't have color photos, the selection is mind-boggling and fascinating to read. I occasionally order from obscure places if they have a particular variety I've been searching for.

[ScottinAtlanta]

And don't buy from eBay - as testified here many times, the risk of getting mislabeled seeds is high from some of the eBay sellers.

[kath]

I'm assuming that you know about the Seed and Plant Sources section of the Tomatoville website and have looked through that already, right?

I agree that Fedco is great for inexpensive seeds of all types that are available in small packets for small gardens as is Pinetree Garden Seeds, which I don't think has been mentioned yet.

http://www.superseeds.com/

I've gotten mixed results from Burpee's seed packs from the superstores- there are very few seeds in them and the quality often is not good for a number of reasons. This year I only got 2 sweet pea plants from an entire packet, for example. The point is that you can get packets of seed for a dollar or less from the above 2 sources and the quality will be good. Pinetree has times during the year when you can get free shipping if you place your order online.

Since cost is a main concern, I also would suggest posting a list of the varieties of veggies that you would like to try in the wanted section because there are many of us who have extra seeds that would love to share with you for free or for a SASE.

kath

[greyghost]

I grow a mix of heirloom and hybrid seeds. One company I like very much
is harrisseeds.com

Some other favorites (some sell just tomato seed, others have other vegetable seed as well) are:

heritagetomatoseed
twoseedsinapod
sampleseeds
secretseedcartel
ohioheirloomseeds
tatianastomatobase

I'll probably add to this list later.

[kurt]

As a precaution,if possible and availiable, uncheck after reading the terms and conditions in their websites.Some firms farm out your email and you will be getting all sorts of mail,pop ups on computer etc.Although some of the marketing is great but can get annoying,plus I am one of those "save the trees"and do not want to end up throwing away a lot of junk even though we have a decent recycling programn here at our waste collection system.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by kurt

As a precaution,if possible and availiable, uncheck after reading the terms and conditions in their websites.Some firms farm out your email and you will be getting all sorts of mail,pop ups on computer etc.Although some of the marketing is great but can get annoying,plus I am one of those "save the trees"and do not want to end up throwing away a lot of junk even though we have a decent recycling programn here at our waste collection system.

I dont know if it is a coincidence or not but after I looked on a link here to photobucket I started getting emails from photobucket.
I sent them to the block sender list.
As far as some seed suppliers buying seeds and repackaging them this is common practice.

They buy in bulk and then package them with their name on it.
There is no way these smaller guys can grow and save all of the seeds they sell.
Plus the hybrids; they would have no way of breeding them or even know what to cross to get the seeds.


Worth

[greyghost]

I should have said that johnnyseeds.com is probably my all time favorite-they
do send a beautiful catalog, too.

Seeds prices seem a bit high but the quality is terrific-I don't think I've ever had
a seed from them fail to germinate, either. Seed quantity in their packet is
generous. Always look for a "free shipping" code (it's usually posted here
at T'Ville) as their shipping cost is high.

Most of the seed sites (members here) in my above post don't send a catalog but have a terrific selection, low prices, great service and quality.

[Pappi]

Some good seed companies mentioned already. But some I order from regularly are Johnny's, SESE, Bountiful Gardens, and High Mowing.

Johnny's - I feel they have one of the best seed catalogs. The amount of growing information for each veggie type and the general catalog layout is amazing. Their quality and service is excellent as well. They do trials and breeding as well as working with breeders to develop new varieites. All in all you support an employee owned company that invests back into the fields.

SESE - Another excellent seed company and catalog. The grow information is very good as well. I always look forward to seeing the new cover every year as well. Reasonable shipping, good quality, and great variety keeps me ordering. They also have Ira Wallace as well, which if you ever meet her she's an amazing woman.

Bountiful Gardens - A very interesting and unique catalog. They specialize in biointenstive/SFG gardening if that is something that interests you. The catlog contains a great deal of growing information catering to this. Everything from spacing for close quarters to expected yield range depending on skill, land, and environment. They have very reasonable shipping and carry unique varieties you can't find easily. They have developed a system of growing and have implemented it in austere conditions around the globe.

High Mowing - An organic company that does a great job breeding new varieites for the organic grower. Can be pricey sometimes but they always seem to have a variety or two that I need to trial. An excellent company and catalog with great growing information.

Territorial - A good company with good growing info. But prices for seeds and shipping can be higher if not ordering bulk. Most varieties can be found from another source. That said I do occasionally order from them.

Baker Creek - A wonderful quality catalog. Not much for growing information and descriptions can be...interesting. A very unique collection of varieties and decent prices and inexpensive shipping.

Sandhill - They maintain a large collection of harder to find varieites at excellent prices. I do occasionally order from them. I would order much more but find the pace and hurry up and wait offputting. I always get my catalog about 2-6 weeks after the majority of others as well. Always disapointing to send in an order and knowing that they won't be able to fulfill all of it because something is already sold out. If you can accept these things then look forward to great prices and ample seed quantities.

Pinetree - Smaller quantities at good prices and shipping. It mostly repackaged seeds, but if there is a variety you want to try and just need a small quantity, it's good.

I tend to buy most my non tomato or unique seeds these days. Whenever I find myself thinking about bottom line whether it is packet cost or shipping I just remind myself of two things. One is that packet of carrots will give me 50-100 punds easily. Or whatever it is I'm buying. Two is will I find myself wishing I grew that variety later in the season if I cheap out on it.

I'm generally a frugal person. But when you factor everyting in when growing for yourself or for market then the seed cost is actually the cheapest part. Any leftovers are generally given to community gardens as well, so someone else who is worse off than me can grow some as well.

Pappi