Anybody else have problems with Baker Creek?

[bvillebill]

I'm not intending this to slam Baker Creek as they seem to be a great business, but in my particular instance I've been very disappointed with the seeds I've acquired from them. I don't think the issues were on my end but you can never rule that out.

This year was to be a trial year for melons and winter squash, so I ordered 12-15 varieties of each from them to grow out and see what works in our climate. Of the 25-30 varieties, I had about 5 that had around 90 percent germination, 5 that had about 10 percent germination and 20 that had zero percent germination. The first half of each packet was planted directly in the ground, when those failed to germinate I put the other half of each packet in damp paper towels in the kitchen to give them optimum conditions but got the same results. Since they were all under the same conditions and right next to each other on the counter, when one packet germinates 100 percent and the others are zero I have to think it's the seeds and not me.

In addition, I ordered an ounce each of two different carrot varieties for my main crop carrots. I planted a 12' x 4' bed of each variety for early carrots with the plant to plant bigger beds for late / winter carrots. The first planting had terrible germination, but sometimes that happens with carrots so I just replanted and put 10x the number of seeds in figuring that I'd just thin them hard. Still ended up with a very, very sparse stand of carrots. In addition, of the ones that grew there are a lot of off-types such as white roots which are probably crosses with wild carrot and quite a few that are bolting, which I've never run into before with carrots.

Anyway, that's my tale of woe for this Spring and I was just wondering if I had terrible luck of the draw or if other folks had any issues with them. They have the best catalog around, true garden porn, and a lot of great sounding varieties but given the luck I had this year I don't know if I'll order from them again.

[castanea]

I've had germination problems intermittently with Baker Creek. Some of my problems have been with squash seeds.

[rowan]

I have bought so many seeds from them that I can't keep count. I personally have never had any problems with their germination which have always been better or equal to any other seed company that I have used, but I have to say that my own saved seeds always out do any seed company in the germination stakes including BC.

[raymondo]

I haven't had problems so far. Please do let them know bvillebill. If they don't know, they can't fix it.

[flowerpower]

BC has germination records for all the lot numbers. If they feel the germ. rate is low, there is a note on the pack and the seed count is tripled. You should contact BC in Missouri about it. If you had 20 packs with zero germ, that's a really serious issue. I've had issues with their varieties not coming true to type. And I was unhappy my Red Wing Salad mix was about 90% Lolla Rossa Green. lol

[edwin]

While I can't comment on BC, my feeling is that mixed seeds and poor germination are more common now. We've had problems from a number of seed companies - but nothing remotely on the scale here.

We have also had a lot of problems with the quality of taste.

I wonder how many seeds are coming from China or from commercial agriculture?

From very small (Annapolis Seeds for example) seed companies who I believe grow their own seed - we received empty seed hulls for one variety. I think they skipped doing a germination test. We have had some bad seeds from big places too - and everything in between. We are not giving up on Annapolis Seeds - but I was rather annoyed at empty seed hulls.

I guess I am getting use to bad seed and I think we are beginning ordering our seed accordingly. From a customer service point of view - I would really like it if seed companies would contact me when they know a variety is bad seed.

We had a bit of a shock this year with our starting seeds in paper towels. We had rather poor germination rates for about 50% of our seeds. We figured that a number were somewhat old. We planted a number in dirt - and low and behold they germinated extremely well. Looks like we soaked our seeds in too much water when we used paper towels.

[bvillebill]

Thanks for all the quick info guys, sounds like it was a fluke, maybe they got zapped at the USPS or something. BC doesn't say where their seeds come from, I assume a wide variety of growers.

Of course carrot seed is a tough one, I understand a lot of it is grown out in the middle of the high desert as the only real way to get away from Queen Anne's Lace. I save my own carrot seed and end up with about 5 percent rogues but just get rid of them white ones and it's all good.

After 30 years I'm still searching for the perfect carrot, if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. I've got good soil and can grown any of them but just don't end up with the sweetness I'd like.

Thanks.

[atash]

On a related note, I know from personal experience that disasters can happen to seed, and sometimes it is hard to figure out what happened.

We had a lot of complaints about one particular batch of one variety of seeds. I got spotty germination from it but did get plenty of seedlings, but several people complained of complete failure. My guess is that the seeds were viable but weak, and some local conditions finished some of them off.

We also got some disasters from upstream seed sources. However, I switched suppliers and that took care of that.

Bean seed seems to be particularly sketchy. Unlike most Legumes, beans do not seem to have good longevity, and I think they sit in distribution channels too long. I've had bad experience.

Tomato seed is long-lived, but for that very reason some sellers keep selling old batches too long. It's not immortal.

I've also noticed that while squash seeds are tolerably long-lived compared to corn or beans, squashes will sometimes produce empty hulls. I usually catch it in seed I've grown myself but I notice that one of our upstream suppliers sent us seed with mediocre germination. I've started filling packs with more seed to compensate for the possibility of duds.

Speaking of squash, while we will never have the assortment BC does, we could have some excellent varieties next year, God willing and subject to harvest.

I like the principals of BC and have to think their intention is to sell quality product. I second the notion of alerting them to the problem seeds, and please give them enough detail regarding the circumstances so that they can figure out what to do about it. A rather lot of customer service inquiries I get are RATHER VAGUE. "My seeds didn't sprout". OK, WHICH seeds? What was your order number? Who are you? (we get totally anonymous inquiries. I can look up email addresses, sometimes, but some people sometimes use more than one email address...). Did you plant the whole packet or just a few? How long before you decided they weren't going to sprout? Etc.

[12540dumont]

Whenever I start seeds, I keep the package. I have had some issues with Renee's Garden Seeds. Very low germination. On BC I've also had some issues and with Johnny's on occasion. My very worst is Territorial Seed, who I refuse to even order from anymore.

When I get inadequate germination, I send the envelopes back to the company and ask for a refund or replacement. So far, only Renee's has not send out a prompt refund/replacement.

In the melon trial, it was not uncommon to have 4 melons sprout for every 5 planted. Ditto on the squash. I had only one variety of carrot that did not sprout. And that was across 20 seed companies.

Off types drives me spare.

To get sweeter carrots, try re-mineralizing your soil. A little green sand, fines from your local rock company, etc.

[Drahkk]

I haven't ordered from BC yet, though I plan to next spring. This is the first year I've had a germination problem from Heirloom Acres Seeds, but it was just on one variety, and I don't plan to let the first strike turn me away completely. Occasional trouble from Gurney's/Henry Fields, but they've always replaced or refunded when asked. I have had issues with off types among heirloom tomato seed from Diane's Flower Seeds, though germination was fine. Thus far I've never had a problem out of Territorial; in fact they've been one of my first-choice sources. But times change, and I may have just been lucky. Your opinion of Territorial matches mine of Reimer Seeds, though. I've gotten enough dead seed from them I won't touch them with a ten foot pole. The last time I did, I got all of four plants from an entire pack of okra seed. Among other problems.

MB

[castanea]

The fun thing about Reimer though is that you never know what you're going to get. You may order a small yellow fleshed watermelon and instead you get a huge red fleshed watermelon. Or vice versa. Or you may order yellow tomato seed and get green tomatoes.

Levity aside, I've had some of my worst seed germination issues with USDA seeds. Last year I had Zapollo Macre squash seed from the USDA. I planted 10 seed and two germinated. This year I planted ten seed and none germinated. I think the squash seed germination issue is exactly what Atash mentioned - blank seeds. That can be pretty common in some types of squash seed and also in sunflower seeds.

[oxbowfarm]

It can be kind of hit and miss with different seed companies.

I've had an occasional problem with Johnny's but they make it right instantly, their seed is usually the highest quality and for sure their customer service is.

I've had A LOT of issues with Fedco over the years, and their customer service isn't all that awesome, but they have good prices and some unique things. I just never buy anything from them that is life or death.

Oddly enough I had great germination from everything I've ever gotten from the USDA so far. Go figure, this year I've got corn, tomatoes, and squash from the USDA and it's all doing well.

I had an unusual experience of getting some junk seed of Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato from Sandhill Preservation this year and they are normally top notch.

I've really liked using Seeds of Italy but I had one almost total loss from a packet of kale, and I've never had more off types in seed than from the Franchi seed. I planted Cour di Bou from them last year and while most of them where correct, I had a few determinate plants and several that looked like Costuluto Genovese. I just figured that Italian seed companies had different rules about seed purity. They sure do give you a ton of seed in those euro packets, so I wasn't about to complain.

I've definitely found that the seed you grow yourself is light years ahead of any seed you buy, especially squash and brassica seed.

[bluelacedredhead]

Terrible germination one year (2006 or 2007?) with Red Cheese Peppers from Baker Creek. I mentioned it online and they offered to replace the seeds. When I said it wasn't necessary, they recommended another variety with much higher germination.

Then last year, I bought a packet of Long Pie pumpkins. Of the two plants that I grew, one was Long Pie, the other a very tasty squash but the colour was more like a batwing summer squash. I mentioned it to them, but in all honesty, having only grown two out of a packet of 25+, I couldn't say whether it was a rogue seed in the package or a problem with cross pollination.

It's not the first company I've experienced this with (Pattypans in 1986? that were supposed to be Acorn from a very reputable Canadian company) and I'm certain it won't be the last.

Give them the opportunity to refund or replace.

[wildseed57]

I live just down the road from baker's creek, so I get what ever I need from them Jere is a nice guy and will bend over backwards to help out, although with that said I have had some minor problems in the past, but Jere is trying to cut back on the problems of running a Heirloom seed store that keeps getting bigger every year so much so that he runs out of seed very fast especially ones like lemon grass and some asian greens. BC has their own forum and you can post any problem that you have questions about , most of the people that work for Jere are glad to help out as much as they can either on the phone or at their main website.
George W.

[flowerpower]

Baker Creek will be getting an email from me this week. I have ordered 3 times over the past 4 yrs. I only order 4-5 packs of seed each time. In every order, there has been issues with the seed. My Red Wing Lettuce Mix that was mostly green Lolla Rossa. The Marina di Chioggia that was crossed and looked nothing like what it should. They even have pics of it on their FB page. And this year, my fancy striped Carnevale di Venezia morning glory are both crossed and there are solid whites in the pack. I can send them the pics if they want.

I am really getting sick of this shit with them. They really need to get on the quality control issues. I totally understand that (occasionally) there are mixups when packing seeds. But when they are pushing ''rare'' seed, they should be really careful about pollination. I should NOT be getting crossed seeds.

And I am gonna post my email to them and their response to me. I just have to think about how to phrase it nicely. I stopped posting on their forum a few yrs ago. So I won't be complaining there. I'd be banned in a day. lol