Addiction

[Rhodie Ranch]

^^what she said about smaller companies. I ordered everything from Seed Savers Exchange. They do good work.

 

[Beekissed]

One of my dogs got aholt of my seed box this past fall and scattered them all over the garden, along with my alphabetical dividers that keep them organized. I had more seeds in two spaces of my alphabet than is pictured in the OP. Gone...all GONE..it rained that day, so I found them sopping wet, chewed, muddy and none could be salvaged.

But...on a brighter note...this allowed me to start from scratch and order all NEW seeds!!!! Which will be the start of my new collection of seeds which will be kept far from dogs in the future.

I just happened to have a similar box on hand to take the place of the old one and the dividers were all intact, so begins another seed collection.

Not an addiction! Just common sense to have plenty of seed on hand...never know when you won't be able to get seeds as easily in this world.

 

[baymule]

Amen to that Bee! Seeds = food.

 

[Beekissed]

@digitS' I share your concerns about Jungs & their corporatization. They are in my home state, and when I was young, they were the "go to" seed company. Not so much now; had a bad experience with dead nursery stock, and was very dissatisfied with their handling of the issue. Wouldn't order from them now if they were the only source for something I wanted. I was sorry to see them gobble up Vermont Bean, a company I had been happy with.

Had the same experience with Jungs years ago...dead nursery stock. Wouldn't refund the money, just wanted to give me credits...why in the world would I want credits with a company that sends dead plants???

Ordered from Fedco and Shumways this year only...would have ordered all from Fedco but they didn't have the variety of sweet onion I wanted. LOVE the way Shumway's mag looks and reads. Brings back memories.

Used to use Pine Tree but had problems with their seeds germinating, so had to switch sources.

What I don't understand is free shipping...but high handling fees. $7 to put a few seed packets into an envelope? I'd rather just be charged shipping. What is really stupid is to NOT charge handling if you buy $25 or more in seeds....but wouldn't that require MORE handling and not less, if you had more seed packets to handle?

It's all a rip off and I don't respect those kind of business practices. Just charge the shipping already, but all the gimmicks are fraudulent in nature.

 

[catjac1975]

I'm right in the asylum with y'all. I have a large igloo ice chest full of seeds. Maybe 300ish varieties of tomatoes alone. I figure that's pretty small since there's at least 30,000 varieties. At least that's how I look at it. Problem is, most My seed is at least 7 years old.

Most of the tomatoes should be viable. I plant heavily if the seed is old.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

@Zeedman , I think that the first seed catalog I saw was Shumway's. It was the first one I studied .

If the youngsters think Shumway's looks old-fashioned, it looked old-fashioned to me 50+ years ago! But, I studied it. It was a relief that there weren't rapid changes in some of these outfits.

I think I remember the first ads for Johnny's in the Organic Gardening magazine ! Oh @Chickie'sMomaInNH ! Don't forget Pinetree if you take that drive. I am waiting for Pinetree to have some larger package sizes. Maybe ... they never will.

Steve

oh, i forgot one i ordered from! yep! i got some stuff from them too. i certainly can't forget all the locals i try to get as much from before i go outside for the rest,

 

[digitS']

Three days! Johnny's seed order arrived yesterday.

Although I felt a need for that seed, it will be a relief to pad the 2018 supply with some lower-priced seed. Of course, I have seed held from last year. And, there is saved seed.

I remember one TEG gardener saying nice things about my seed saving. Shucks. It don't take much ...

• much of it is tomato seed. I don't ferment and rinse; mostly it's just clean the cutting board with a paper towel and get that out in the sunshine for a couple of weeks.
• pepper seed is about the same. Varieties cross! Grow the variety you want by itself.
• brassica is easy to allow to bolt to seed, right? Tie it up to a stake so the plant doesn't get down in the dirt. Leave it until the top pods begin to break and lose their seed. Cut and find a good place for the stalks to completely dry. A tarp on the ground, dry stalks on top, walk on them. Clean the tarp, carry the messy seed up a step ladder, dump the seed back down on the tarp. With a light breeze, you won't need a very tall step ladder . Result - clean seed.
• beans and peas, some benefit from the shoes/tarp/ladder treatment. Some don't need it.

Odds-&-Ends, some are easy. Of course, I'm limited by using so much of my ground for hybrids. You know, I honestly think that I could get better plants by creating my own hybrids - get some of that hybrid vigor we learned about in high school biology .

Howsomeever ... it's gonna take smaller digitS' than mine to handle tomato blossoms! I figure that just using two OP parents that you are reasonably happy with should result in good odds for spectacular offspring!

clumsy digitS'

 

[digitS']

Fedco and Harris seed orders have arrived.

So prompt! But, nothing beats Kitazawa ... I ordered on Saturday and they shipped it within hours! Even confirmed that with the US Post Office. Kitazawa did something like this last year. Their shipping cost is very high but one of these others outfits I had to "pad" my order a bit to get a discount or I'd have paid as much. Kitazawa probably has the same discount thing for larger orders.

I'm frustrated with having changed my email address and accessing my accounts in some of the seed companies. They gotta know that people do change email at times - tying an account permanently to an email address is nutz!

No mail today ...not much left out there. I've ordered some dahlia bulbs ... like, that somehow makes sense . I really, really don't want them showing up this week! And, the promised shipping date isn't until March - I hope they look at our weather before putting them in their outbox ...

DS may be visiting soon. I'm thinking of asking him to stop at Irish Eyes on his way up from Portland ... ya know, in 2017 I had a good potato year in their new location. No shipping on some exotic spuds for 2018 would be fun and might be especially successful .

Steve
Oh! @Collector -- the Yellow Jelly Bean tomatoes are available thru Botanical Interests and local garden centers often carry their seed. Jung's and Tomato Growers have them in their catalog.

 

[Zeedman]

I'm frustrated with having changed my email address and accessing my accounts in some of the seed companies. They gotta know that people do change email at times - tying an account permanently to an email address is nutz!

Agreed... and about as nutz as tying an account to a phone number. Should use a something more permanent instead - like a TEG login.

 

[digitS']

(ᐛ) All orders have arrived!

And today, pepper and snapdragon seed went in the soil mix ズ !

And tomorrow, I'll turn up at the garden center オ because the leftover snapdragon seed is less than I thought it was and i didn't order enuf.

Steve