seed catalogs vs. store bought seeds

i but from seed catalogs mainly for the variety they provide. store seeds are fine and you can grow a fine garden from them, but they tend to be bound by mass-marketing considerations. nurseries are imho, better in this regard, than walmart or home depot.

you may be able to get all the seeds you want at the stores, but once you start studying catalogs, i think you'll find a few that you didn't know you wanted!

also, its tradition. we order our catalogs and read them over and over again in the depths of winter when we can't be outside much.

 

Some varieties just can't be purchased locally. Also most I find are treated and if you want untreated you have to order.

 

Treated seeds will be purplish in color due to a fungicide coating that helps to resist rot and some other organisms. Orgic growers tend not to want treated seeds as ,if I remember correctly, the compound has mercury in it.
If you want pure organic you need to avoid treated seeds.

Mass marketed refers to the most popular seeds that are pushed on the public and neglects the older varieties that don't ship well or are odd shaped or do best in particular climates/soils.

Many old heirloom varieties fall out of the area of mass marketed seeds.

 

Organic veggie sellers CAN NOT use treated seed. They also have to use seeds that have the classification "organic" meaning they came from organically raised seed stock. It's not a choice if you want to be legal.

My local store does not have what I want when I want it. They only handle a few types of tomatoes and no organic seeds at all.

Here are a few of my seed catalog web addresses.

Thompson & Morgan...... www.thompson.morgan.com

Pinetree Garden Seeds..... www.superseeds.com

Territorial Seed Company.... territorialseed.com

Stokes Seeds INC......... www.stokeseeds.com

Park's Seeds........ www.parkseed.com

I think you can order catalogs on line at each of those sites.

 

I've always gotten most of my seeds from a local Farmers Co-op store in a nearby town. I've never had a problem with them as far as growing but you have to be a fast shopper cause they only order so many seeds for the year and once they are sold out they don't buy anymore until next year. In another town nearby where I live there is a fruit and vegetable stand that sells seeds year round. I don't have as good of luck with their seeds, I feel like when I go to them in the spring to buy seeds that they are still selling last years seeds and that maybe the reason why they don't grow as good. I do order from seed catalogs once in a while. If I see something that looks interesting then I might order it and give it a try.

 

Sometimes when you buy seeds at a retail store, they have not been
stored properly and germination suffers for it.

Example: our local Wal-mart keeps the seeds in the greenhouse, in the heat and humidity. I've even seen them get splashed by overspray when the clerks are watering.

I guess its no big deal if you're buying a marked down packet of 50 cent seeds, but if you're making a large purchase, I'd go the catalog route - those folks have a reputation to protect and take better care.

 

It seems to me that the majority of seeds in the stores are hybred seeds not open pollinated and the variety available in stores is very small. I get the Totally Tomatos catalog that has literally 100s of varieties of tomatoes alone. Ordering from cataloges also allows you to get more types of seed specifically for your growing region. I need short season (90 day) high altitude varieties for my area and beans that do real well in Georgia just won't do here. Also most of the seed varieties you get in the store are the same varieties sold in the grocery store with the same, usually bland flavors. You cannot buy Brandywine tomatos in the grocery or Amish Paste or blue potatos or really good old time dry baking potatos. LIkewise small individual cauliflower and broccoli. I love Nantes carrots which are not available in the grocery store. They do not keep or ship well.

 

Planting and growing methods are important but so is viable seed. Large seed companies sell most of their seed in bulk to large growers. What's left over is packaged for the home grower. Its not always in the best condition or this years seed. If you start a pack of tomato seeds and only 20% germinate, you got bad seed. The seed companies count on you to blame yourself for the bad performanc because you did something wrong.Knowing the germination rate of a companies seed can save time and money and frustration. Take ten seed of a specific plant,i.e. tomato. Wrap them in damp paper towling, enclose in a plastic bag and let germinate in a warm place. Now count how many seed germinate. 2 seed give you 20% ,9 seed give a 90% germination rate.
I buy from small organic/heirloom companies who maintains a rate of 80% or better. I used to buy quite a lot of seed from a british owned company. They specialized in exotic seed from around the world. They were sold about 12 years ago and went thru several owners who had no clue about seed storage. The quality went down and the price went up.
I stoped buying. Saving your own seed from the best plants grown in your garden gives you plants adapted to your growing conditions. Every year you plant out your own seed enables that seed to mutate itself just a little more. There's a lot of truth in the stories told about some old time gardner having the best produce in the neighborhood.

 

I ordered from Nichol's Garden Nursery about 20 odd years ago and then when I finally got a place to garden again I mistook Pinetree for Nichol's. I didn't particularly like them but they are okay.

I finally found Nichol's again and they are still family owned, offer organic seed and have pretty good prices. I just ordered $40. worth of seed from them and will probably order some more before the year is out.

I also order from Johnny's they are about the same but have some that Nichol's doesn't.

I ordered a new catalog that I had never seen before and I couldn't describe it to do it justice!!! www.jlhudsonseeds.net They also sell some great books. They are a seed preservation company that licenses seed NOT to be interbred or genetically ingeneered, trademarked or patented in any way. Their seed is public domain.

Great prices with botanical names. They have several books I would love to get right now..."Source List of Plants and Seeds" 363 pages, sources for 70,000 species, varieties and cultivars available from 500 mail order companies.

Also, "Ecofascism: Lessons from the German Experience." Talks about how some of our environmental groups are embracing eco-fascism and even calling for a "Green Adolf" The book is geared towards preventing these groups from ruining and perverting environmental efforts.

"Principles and practices of Seed Storage" 289 pages. I definitely could find a use for this book. It identifies the humidity, temperature and time frames. Also ancient records.

They also sell Gibberellic Acid Kits. This is a naturally occurring acid found in plants that hastens the germination of seeds and for any of you who do market gardens or greenhouse/nurseries this is excellent.

This catalog also includes, shrubs, lily seeds, trees, medicinals, fern spores, fruits, ect.