Lot of stuff I’ve been reading say to buy around mid December when the seed catalogs come out, but which ones?
I usually just get seeds and plants from Home Depot, it’s done the job, but I want to find some nice heirlooms and/or varieties they don’t carry. Also screw “white label” seeds. But that’s another discussion.
So this last year I got some different seeds from Lee Valley, but I wasn’t a huge fan, still felt like Home Depot just under another name.
So what’s your guys favorite website or place to get seeds. And when do you find the best time to order.
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Native American Seed Company, but they’re pretty specific to native Texas plants.
For veggies, I’ve had success with Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
Just a heads up Baker Creek has a dubious history of right leaning support and using their adopted Asian son as a prop to advertise Asian veggie seeds in their catalog until folks online asked about it. Just a lot of questionable behavior.
http://www.theredneckhippie.com/2019/04/baker-creek-seeds-supports-racism.html?m=1
https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/j1kqfp/controversy_with_baker_creek/
I remember reading about the Cliven Bundy thing a couple years ago and still don’t quite understand Baker Creek’s fault there. Dude’s a world-renowned watermelon farmer in addition to right-wing terrorist, and it doesn’t seem like Baker Creek did anything at all to support the man except ask him about growing watermelons
https://xerces.org/milkweed/milkweed-seed-finder
Use the map to find a supplier near you that cares about sourcing local milkweed. If they have that priority, chances are they will get a lot of other stuff right too.
I found https://sowtrueseed.com/ through that utility and I’ve been happy with the seeds and tools I’ve gotten from them.
I found out our local library has a seed bank. So that’s something I will be looking into participating in when it reopens in the spring.
Look up seed saver’s exchange. I usually just save my own seeds, it’s not very difficult for most plants. But that’s where I bought most of mine to get started.
Seconding seed savers exchange. Most (all?) of their seeds are open pollinated. For anyone who doesn’t know what this means, it basically means that you can save seeds to regrow the next year.
Many types of seeds that you can buy do not enable this because they aren’t true to seed, or in the case of some gmo plants, they might be infertile.
When a hybrid plant is made, the genes are basically unstable. Remembering back to learning punnet squares in biology class, the offspring (seeds) from a hybrid plant can have a different mix of genes from the parent plants. For example, your hybrid tomato bred from one parent that had disease resistance but bad tasting fruit and another parent that had good fruit but susceptible to disease would give you a mix of offspring that can be like either parent, the hybrid, or the worst of both parents. Sometimes, over time, you can pick only three “good” ones and make sure they are only pollinated by other “good” ones by bagging flowers and hand transferring pollen. With open pollinated plants, none of that is necessary.
I’ve had a really great experience with Johnny’s Selected Seeds. I started ordering from them because I was doing an undergraduate research project, and they responded to my questions within a day with detailed answers and a couple pdfs. Great germination rates, and a good variety of seeds too. (also they ship to Canada!)
I have ordered as late as April. I just make sure to chuck my seeds in the fridge if I order during the winter
Random small Etsy people who seem legit have been good to me. Recycled packaging, directly supporting a very small business, etc. has been nice.
I’ve had good luck with Pinetree seeds. They have a nice selection and decent growing tips. I’ve been very pleased with everything I’ve purchased from them.
Bah, thanks for the suggestion, they don’t seem to ship to Canada though.
I do see they have a catalog to sign up for, so maybe I’ll peruse some websites and see which ones also do that.
I found a couple, but rather get word of mouth than rely on marketing.
A little bit specialized/niche, but my favorite is Kitazawa Seed. For more Western varieties, I like Fedco. I tend to order in late winter.
