A Seed Saver's Garden

Zeedman said:
Some seed companies are closed because they are just now re-opening. Two smaller seed companies - that I've been waiting to order from - only opened this month. Seed listings are still being updated in some cases, so anyone still looking for seeds should check websites frequently for changes.

In related news... a strange thing happened today. I drove to a local garden store to buy more seed starter, in case it might sell out early. Never made it into the store though. Two police cars were just outside, with officers surrounding a shirtless man (it's 10 degrees F.) who was jumping around & waving his arms wildly. At a garden store??? Are we that far gone??? :ep Didn't want to get in the middle of that, so I'll put off that purchase until tomorrow.
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bean powered? hairy potter? them some good drugs up there? i dunno. :) glad you were not the problem or entangled.
 
meadow said:
I came across this blog post which explains the situation.

Four local-to-me seed suppliers have said essentially the same thing (there is no seed shortage, but there are difficulties in filling/shipping so many orders and to keep checking back for updates). All four companies were late in updating their websites, by the way, and one completely closed their site until well after the first of the year.
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Yes, I imagine in the US it's a whole 'nother situation. With your population being so much larger than ours, and having a geography where people are able to garden in basically every state, it makes sense that there is still a lot of seed to be had. Here, there is such huge percentage of land mass where gardening is not really possible (permafrost etc.), and a number of other factors which are probably mostly cultural, that don't lend to that kind of seed ubiquity. Since the beginning of this 'thing' there was definitely a shortage of seeds here, there still is. Most of the companies I buy from are missing close to half of their normal inventory. Some are being honest about it, and just posting 'sold out' where needed. But some of the others are hiding it, and just eliminating pages from their websites as though they were never there. I'm amazed at the soybean supply - lot of demand for them. The seed companies are pretty small outfits, the OP seed companies anyway. The bigger outfits really tend to sell mostly hybrids. I think these folks just don't have enough land, or staff, to keep up with the demand for their seed and it's outstripping the supply. I see the market opening up a little with newcomers, but some of them are listing a dozen seed types. It's not going to make much of a difference, not yet.

I can't help but wonder with our truck convoy situation, what that might mean for seeds, both ways. It looks like from your link that Renee's does not grow their own seed, they buy it. I think that accounts for why they are not having shortages, they probably increased the amount they order from their suppliers.
 
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heirloomgal said:
I can't help but wonder with our truck convoy situation, what that might mean for seeds, both ways. It looks like from your link that Renee's does not grow their own seed, they buy it. I think that accounts for why they are not having shortages, they probably increased the amount they order from their suppliers.
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Yes, you're correct about Renee's buying seed from other suppliers (as far as I can tell). The four that I mentioned grow most of their own seed, while also carrying some selection from other local growers; one of the four is a supplier for Renee's.

What you've mentioned about the conditions in your area is very interesting. I hadn't considered that before.

I think here in the US, some of the bigger companies did run out of stock the first year. Judging by what I saw posted in some forums, many new gardeners were hitting local seed racks and just beginning to learn about online suppliers.
 
I am utterly exhausted, but content. It's taken 3 days but I have finally created a numbered system for all my seeds. Joining a seed exchange, which has caused me to go looking for various things, made me realise that with all the varieties of things I've collected I need to have a more comprehensive form of organisation. It is a challenge that all my peas, beans, peppers, corn, okra, sorghum, radishes are in jars. This has meant I need to lift each one up to read the label - time consuming....:th. I numbered the tops of each species in series and gathered several sturdy box flats to keep them in, in case I need to move them for some reason. I like to keep everything on the floor in the basement (coolest and darkest). I typed up all the varietal names with their assigned number, so I only need to look at my list, and then go find the numbered jar. So much easier! Golly, organisation is so freeing. 🦋

The tomatoes are a different story since I keep those as 'files', which are so much easier to manage and store. However, in doing all this seed tidying I realised that much of my last Seedy Saturday seed packets never made it back into the main file system. I literally spent Saturday filing tomato seed packets. And I'm not done. I don't know how people who work in occupations that require a lot of filing do it. SO tedious and it's not enjoyable. I will be happy when I get this last tomato section done, hopefully tomorrow.

I've tried a lot of stuff that I've almost forgotten about. Apparently in 2020 I grew 'Petch Siam' eggplant and collected about 1/3 cup of seeds. Gosh, I don't even recall that and I have so much seed. But I did a bit of research on it, and it's got my curiosity piqued again about eggplant. Looks like eggplants don't really cross, or not much at least. I like crops that I don't really have to worry much about in that regard. @Zeedman I think you have a lot of experience with eggplant, are there any that you really like? I have seeds for Morden Midget, Little Bambino, Rosa Bianca, White Egg, Striped Toga, Cookstown Orange, couple others. I like the smaller eggplant types because they mature quick and you can get a lot of seed from them too.

I was also reminded of a favourite tomato I haven't grown in 2 years now - 'Uluru Ochre'. My goodness that was a superlative tomato. The colour was singular, a green-orange-dirt colour, or an orangey green kind of mud. Some describe as an orange-black. Whatever the colour profile, dang that was a fine tomater!
 
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heirloomgal said:
Looks like eggplants don't really cross, or not much at least. I like crops that I don't really have to worry much about in that regard. @Zeedman I think you have a lot of experience with eggplant, are there any that you really like?
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My favorite & most reliable eggplant is Diamond, one of the elongated Asian types... collected in Ukraine, but I can't recall its original name. It seems immune to the cold snaps & wilt which kill most of the eggplant I tried, and has been grown successfully by SSE members in Quebec. Purple eggplants often borne in clusters, and they bear heavily all Summer. And no thorns!
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