Oxbow Farm Totally Non-Objective Seed Company Ranking
Dec 21, 2017 11:38:53 GMT -5
keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.), synergy, and 6 more like this
Post by oxbowfarm on Dec 21, 2017 11:38:53 GMT -5
I've been noodling around thinking about making a video about my opinions on the best and worst seed companies I have experience with, I'm thinking I can make a post here and get some ideas organized and possibly some feedback. There are a few seed companies that are somewhat beloved by many that I intensely dislike, so obviously this post is entirely my opinion. Informed of course by my wisdom and deep insight.
There are some seed companies that I love that I don't use terribly much simply because they are fairly niche or I already have my own seed supply of their raison d'être. I'm not exactly sure if this is a "Ranking" so much as a rough classification into a few groups- Awesome, Good not Great, and Never Again.
First I'll just list the top 10 seed companies I actually use most frequently for our farm. We save a lot of seed, but there's a limit to what is possible. There are seeds of really common varieties that are just easier to buy, I can't see the purpose of saving Provider bean when it can be purchased for $50/5 lbs for example.
Top Ten
#1 Osborne Seed Company This is the company we buy the bulk of our bulk seed requirements for things like Arugula, hybrid tomatoes, snap beans, snap and snow peas, swiss chard, spinach, etc. Their prices are reasonable to great, the quality of seed is second to none, their customer service is fantastic, and they have a very wide selection of most crops. The only downside from a general gardener's perspective is that they do not cater to the packet trade at all, strictly bulk quantities of seed so they only fit for folks who are growing huge gardens or commercially.
#2 High Mowing Seed Company Very high quality seed, very good customer service, very expensive seed on average. High Mowing seems to be trying to become the Organic Johnny's, and are moving towards more and more hybrid genetics for most of their vegetable seed, so that's something to keep an eye on, but all in all the seed quality is second to none. Other than them being on a slippery Johnny's-esque slope, the one complaint I have about HM is a lot of their stuff is not very visually unique, and we try and create a display at market that looks a bit different than everyone else, which would be very hard to do if all we used was HM.
#3 Wild Garden Seed Frank Morton's seed growing subsidiary of GTFarm in OR. Primarily a greens specialist with many breeder mixes, F3 and F4 breeding material, and WGS bred varieties of lettuce, brassicas, and other salad crops, with some really nice sweet pepper lines and of course Cañoncito pepper which has been discussed recently. WGS lettuces and asian mustards look different from pretty much anything else on the market. Very good quality, reasonable prices, especially when you account for the uniqueness, and lots of genetically diverse and selectable stuff that should interest more people on HG.
#4 Adaptive Seeds Lots of very unique varieties from the Seed Ambassadors and just general seed exploration work done by Andrew and Sarah. stillandrew is also a HG member. Their quality is good to great, their customer service is wonderful and of course the kind of personal service you get from tiny companies. The only quibble I have with them is they typically use ziplock parts bags with hanging holes in them, with brassica seeds the hanging holes are kind of a PITA and seed dribbles out because I always forget the damn hole is there. I wish they'd use different bags, but that's just a little pet peeve of mine.
#5 Seeds from Italy This is all imported seed from primarily Franchi Seed. Italian seed packets are kind of a revelation when you are only used to American packets with a pinch of seed for $5. The stuff from Franchi come in usually 4-8 gram lots which equals thousands of seeds of most stuff. It also tends to be more genetically diverse/less uniform than typical American seed. If you demand perfect uniformity then this stuff isn't maybe for you, but frankly, I am OK with some rogues and off types when I'm getting an amount of seed that would cost me probably $20 from a typical US company. I'm generalizing a bit. Since it is imported, occasionally there will be a dead or weak seed lot, but Seeds from Italy always has made it right with me no questions asked.
#6 Gourmet Seed International This is another company specializing in imported seed, but they appear as far as I can tell, to be purchasing it in bulk, and repacking it in house after germ testing it. That makes the quality a bit more reliable than from Seeds from Italy. I've never had any dead seed from them. They also use the highest quality packaging on the market. All their seed I've ever rec'd from them was in a mylar, heat-sealed ziplock pouch. The only other seed company that I use that does that is Osborne. These are some awesome seed packages!
#7 Burrell Seed Growers This is a company I've just started using, but I'm really impressed with. I grew up in Colorado, and I never even knew they existed. Their primary business seems to be catered to the local commercial grower trade in the Rocky Ford area in south-eastern CO. This is a big melon growing area and they have a pretty astounding melon selection. The reason I found them was I was looking for a source for Mosco chile, which is a specialty chile pepper locally famous in Pueblo and the southern half of the front range of CO. So Mosco brought me to them, but I was really impressed with them! The seed quality of everything I've purchased from them has been perfect, near 100% germs with no off-types. Added to that is the seed is ridiculously cheap, available in large quantities, and they've got free shipping on lots of it. There is admittedly not a huge selection of every crop, they specialize in melons particularly, but this is a top notch little company that's actually been in business for almost 120 years. I've become a huge fan.
#8 Evergreen Seeds Of the two big Asian seed companies I like Evergreen better than Kitazawa, their prices are a bit better and they have more consistent quality. Pretty much very specialized in Chinese, Japanese, and Southeast Asian veggies. Downsides of Evergreen, clunky website, its a bit hard to tell if seed is treated or not, their seed packets are kind of chintzy and often have multiple different crops listed with then a check box for the one you actually ordered, like on a pizza box almost. I honestly kind of find that endearing, but others may find it super annoying, especially since they aren't resealable.
#9 Sustainable Seed Company I find them handy, the quality is good, the variety is good, they never clog my life with paper since they don't have a catalog, the shipping is reasonalbe, prices are good, I think they're a nice model for what I'd like seed companies to become, ESPECIALLY being paperless. Great selection of squash, corn, grains, cover crops, and obscure tobacco.
#10 Fedco I'm really conflicted about Fedco, but it can't be denied that I use them every year. Fedco has a pretty huge selection of hard to get stuff, and you can take a flyer on small quantities of something odd or interesting for quite cheap. And its easy to build a large enough order to get free shipping, especially if I piggyback on a group order with some colleagues. Lots of my farming friends use Fedco A LOT. My issue with Fedco is inconsistent quality. Something that germs great one year will show up dead the next, and then be great again. And forget about complaining, Fedco's customer service is totally crap. So if it shows up and doesn't germinate you might as well right it off, they aren't gonna even return your call, let alone make it right. Contrast this with my #1 company Osborne. Last season I bought some snap pea seed that was mixed with snow, by the time I noticed it , they had already refunded me the cost of the seed, and they emailed and sent a snail mail notice informing me of the refund and the problem with the seed with seed lot# etc. THAT'S customer service.
Honorable Mention
These are seed companies that I consider quality sources for the most part, but that I don't use a whole lot for one reason or another.
Cultivariable Bill is doing amazing things at Cultivariable, and most of his stuff is impossible to be found anywhere else. For the most part the focus on Andean tuber/root crops is what keeps me from a huge patronage, simply because right now most of them other than potatoes are not well adapted to my climate/photoperiod. Once he cracks the day neutral barrier for oca and ulluco, I will be all over it.
Native Seeds/SEARCH Here's another company that carries things that no one else does. Admittedly their descriptions are weirdly incomplete for varieties they supposedly collected themselves, and they definitely have trouble keeping things isolated. I'm also still mad at them for the Glass Gem fiasco, but this is a special company with a good social mission and unique seed.
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange This company is also one with a great social mission and special products. They definitely specialize in heirlooms of the American Southeast. A lot of them are not terribly well adapted to my growing conditions, so I don't typically use SESE all that often, but they are the premier seed company in the US for things like cowpeas, peanuts, okra, collards, and old time OP field corns.
Fruition Seeds These guys are local and friends of mine. I don't honestly use Fruition much because I already have most of what they carry, and they are still ramping up to provide quantities of seed larger than the packet trade. Their mission is to focus on local "bioregionally adapted" varieties, so all their seed production is nearby in NY and I think VT. So if I was a home gardener around here they would be my go to source.
Turtle Tree Seeds Another NY seed company, focussed on biodynamic certified seed, mostly grown by contract for them by biodynamic growers around the US. I like to check out what they have, and I occasionally buy from them, the seed is high quality. I don't really know why I don't use them more? This is a good company.
Hudson Valley Seed Company This is another local seed company that is small and growing and I am fond of, but don't use very much, very much like Fruition. They don't really grow enough quantities of the stuff I need a lot of, and the little stuff I often grow myself, I highly recommend them though.
West Coast Seeds This is a really nice Canadian seed co. I've ordered a few things from them in the past, and the quality was high. Best Thai basil strain I've ever used. I kind of stopped using them as I was only buying a few things and felt like I must have been forcing them to take a loss on shipping my small order. My cousin in BC uses them for almost everything. Good stuff.
Sandhill Preservation Center This is Glenn Drowns seed company, and I almost never use it, even though they have all kinds of truly unique product. The primary reason is the hassle in ordering. They have a website, but you then have to download their order form, print it off, fill it out and then mail a check with your order. I understand they are small and part time and do amazing work, but that complex of steps almost always stops me from pulling the trigger on ordering from them. They have kind of an amazing assortment of corn, and probably the best collection of sweet potato varieties anywhere, certainly any commercial source.
Pinetree Garden Seeds This is a nice little company, they SPECIALIZE in the packet trade. They will sell you a packet of something with 10-15 seeds in it for $1. So they really cater to small gardeners. Since I'm a market gardener I don't really fit into their niche, but I think they are a special little company. I just don't use them.
Victory Seed Company This is another online only seed company that reminds me a lot of Sustainable. I've used them and been very satisfied, but I don't use them a lot for whatever reason. There's only so many companies you can use, I suppose.
Kitazawa This is another Asian specialist seed company, I typically use Evergreen instead mostly. Kitazawa has a better website and seems to be a little better finance of an operation, and their seed packets are a little higher quality, I've had more bad luck with poor quality germs etc from them than Evergreen though. Good seed company all in all, but I can pretty much get all of the same stuff from Evergreen so?
Vermont Bean and R. H. Shumway's are not really separate companies, they are subsidiary catalogs put out by Jung's they have occasionally got something in one or the other catalog that I find worth ordering, even though I consider Jung's on the whole to be SHADY and a dishonest seed operator on the whole,and it is annoying to have to order one seed from each company when I know full well its all getting collated at one packing house. Very very rarely do I use anything from a Jung's subsidiary. Shumway's catalog is old school cool though.
Tomato Grower's Supply Company I occasionally use these guys if I find myself low on Sungold or similar. Specialize in tomato and pepper seed primarily and I like them pretty well, I'm just not that into tomatoes. We grow a lot of tomatoes, but this year we confined our commercial tomatoes to two varieties, and it was the best year we've ever had with tomatoes. So my need for the products at Tomato Growers is very low. I do think they have quality seed for good prices, and they are privately held vs Totally Tomatoes which is another Jung's brand.
Peace Seedlings These guys are similar to Sandhill for me. I admire Alan Kapuler and Dylana Kapuler, but the added complexity of their ordering process USUALLY prevents me from doing anything other than glancing at their seed listings. I mostly order online or over the phone, so companies like Peace and Sandhill kind of lose out with me due to the hassle factor. Obviously everything associated with Alan Kapuler's breeding work is likely to be pretty special and unique.
Vesey's I think the reason I don't use Vesey's is they don't do much in commercial quantities and their stuff is pretty plain jane. They seem a good company, and they have a good rep. I never use them. I almost forgot about them.
Resilient Seeds Formerly the Backyard Beans and Grains Project. Krista Rome's seed company. Probably the single best place for soup peas. I don't order much from Krista, mostly because I am still saving the stuff I've bought in the past. Highly recommended. Tiny company
Fertile Valley Seeds Carol Deppe 's "seed company" where she markets her own varieties, including Joseph's landrace moschata. Kind of similar to Resilient seeds, once you order stuff from Fertile Valley, you shouldn't need to order it again because you are saving it yourself?
Reimer's I used them once, seed grew well and was the variety described. That's about all I can say. Their website is a little wacky-dacky and puts me off for some reason. Edit- I've changed my mind about these guys. I was looking around at more obscure Ancho/Poblano Pepper vars and they've got lots of odd little peppers, some with USDA PI numbers, which means they've got to be growing them in-house, you can't get stuff like that on the open wholesale market, so they seem to be a neat little seed sompany, with a website that fooled me into thinking they were a fly-by-night. 1-14-18
neseed I've used them a couple times, one of my colleagues swears by them and only uses neseed and Seedway. They aren't really my style, but I bought the seed grew to parameters. I like my seed companies a little funkier, less plastic.
AgroHaitai Ltd I almost forgot about these guys, a Canadian company specializing in imported (I think) Asian Vegetable seed. They have a little different mix available than Evergreen or Kitazawa. Definitely worth checking out if you like Asian veggies, although a few things are technically not importable across the border.
The MAN
For when you want to grow the same seeds as the stuff in the grocery store. I never use any of these, and I don't even keep track of which agribusiness multinational corporation owns what.
Seedway
Harris
Parks
Burpee
Stokes
Ferry-Morse This is basically the umbrella company for all the box store seed rack rot-gut. Ferry-Morse, NK Lawn and Garden, American Seed, Livingston Seed, McKenzie Seed. Basically if you've ever been in a seed train and some mouth breather has taken a bunch of good stuff out and replaced it with Walmart seed packs? This is the company that creates that garbage.
DEAD TO ME
Companies that crossed the line with me personally, and I will never use. I won't even hyperlink them. I despise them to a depth unplumbable by any line.
Johnny's They sell utility patented seed. I don't care if they are just licensing the patents, they are selling patented biology. Fuck you Johnny's. My anger with JSS is kind of intense based on how much I used to love them. Most of my friends use Johnny's and Fedco almost exclusively. Everything about this company is awesome, except they sell patented biology. Its kind of like finding out your favorite HS teacher was secretly a pedophile. I know I'm in the minority on this one.
Baker Creek Poor quality seed that they lie about. All the time. I've no use for a seed company that can't tell the truth about their seed, doesn't do a good job handling that seed, and then puts enormous time and energy marketing their mediocre crap. They are shady as hell. Personally they are much better at taking pretty photographs of vegetables than growing and selling their seed. Don't even get me started about Joseph Simcox and the Explorer series.
Seed Savers Looking back, creating this catalog/seed company was the moment when Seed Savers Exchange truly jumped the shark. Dead to me, as is all things SSE.
Territorial Seed and Peaceful Valley/Grow Organic.com These two companies are dead to me for essentially the same reason. If you buy anything from them you subject yourself to an INFINITE FIRE HOSE OF DEAD TREES
These companies send multiple redundant seed catalogs throughout the entire year. And they continue for years and years after the last time you bought from them. Even when you call them and tell them to stop. And then call them again and again. There is a clearcut forest somewhere that exists just to supply these people with second class mailing paper. Paper seed catalogs need to go away, ASAP. To a lesser extent Johnny's does this too, but they stop when you ask them to. Territorial and Peaceful Valley seem to have uneditable databases?
Stopping again for now.
There are some seed companies that I love that I don't use terribly much simply because they are fairly niche or I already have my own seed supply of their raison d'être. I'm not exactly sure if this is a "Ranking" so much as a rough classification into a few groups- Awesome, Good not Great, and Never Again.
First I'll just list the top 10 seed companies I actually use most frequently for our farm. We save a lot of seed, but there's a limit to what is possible. There are seeds of really common varieties that are just easier to buy, I can't see the purpose of saving Provider bean when it can be purchased for $50/5 lbs for example.
Top Ten
#1 Osborne Seed Company This is the company we buy the bulk of our bulk seed requirements for things like Arugula, hybrid tomatoes, snap beans, snap and snow peas, swiss chard, spinach, etc. Their prices are reasonable to great, the quality of seed is second to none, their customer service is fantastic, and they have a very wide selection of most crops. The only downside from a general gardener's perspective is that they do not cater to the packet trade at all, strictly bulk quantities of seed so they only fit for folks who are growing huge gardens or commercially.
#2 High Mowing Seed Company Very high quality seed, very good customer service, very expensive seed on average. High Mowing seems to be trying to become the Organic Johnny's, and are moving towards more and more hybrid genetics for most of their vegetable seed, so that's something to keep an eye on, but all in all the seed quality is second to none. Other than them being on a slippery Johnny's-esque slope, the one complaint I have about HM is a lot of their stuff is not very visually unique, and we try and create a display at market that looks a bit different than everyone else, which would be very hard to do if all we used was HM.
#3 Wild Garden Seed Frank Morton's seed growing subsidiary of GTFarm in OR. Primarily a greens specialist with many breeder mixes, F3 and F4 breeding material, and WGS bred varieties of lettuce, brassicas, and other salad crops, with some really nice sweet pepper lines and of course Cañoncito pepper which has been discussed recently. WGS lettuces and asian mustards look different from pretty much anything else on the market. Very good quality, reasonable prices, especially when you account for the uniqueness, and lots of genetically diverse and selectable stuff that should interest more people on HG.
#4 Adaptive Seeds Lots of very unique varieties from the Seed Ambassadors and just general seed exploration work done by Andrew and Sarah. stillandrew is also a HG member. Their quality is good to great, their customer service is wonderful and of course the kind of personal service you get from tiny companies. The only quibble I have with them is they typically use ziplock parts bags with hanging holes in them, with brassica seeds the hanging holes are kind of a PITA and seed dribbles out because I always forget the damn hole is there. I wish they'd use different bags, but that's just a little pet peeve of mine.
#5 Seeds from Italy This is all imported seed from primarily Franchi Seed. Italian seed packets are kind of a revelation when you are only used to American packets with a pinch of seed for $5. The stuff from Franchi come in usually 4-8 gram lots which equals thousands of seeds of most stuff. It also tends to be more genetically diverse/less uniform than typical American seed. If you demand perfect uniformity then this stuff isn't maybe for you, but frankly, I am OK with some rogues and off types when I'm getting an amount of seed that would cost me probably $20 from a typical US company. I'm generalizing a bit. Since it is imported, occasionally there will be a dead or weak seed lot, but Seeds from Italy always has made it right with me no questions asked.
#6 Gourmet Seed International This is another company specializing in imported seed, but they appear as far as I can tell, to be purchasing it in bulk, and repacking it in house after germ testing it. That makes the quality a bit more reliable than from Seeds from Italy. I've never had any dead seed from them. They also use the highest quality packaging on the market. All their seed I've ever rec'd from them was in a mylar, heat-sealed ziplock pouch. The only other seed company that I use that does that is Osborne. These are some awesome seed packages!
#7 Burrell Seed Growers This is a company I've just started using, but I'm really impressed with. I grew up in Colorado, and I never even knew they existed. Their primary business seems to be catered to the local commercial grower trade in the Rocky Ford area in south-eastern CO. This is a big melon growing area and they have a pretty astounding melon selection. The reason I found them was I was looking for a source for Mosco chile, which is a specialty chile pepper locally famous in Pueblo and the southern half of the front range of CO. So Mosco brought me to them, but I was really impressed with them! The seed quality of everything I've purchased from them has been perfect, near 100% germs with no off-types. Added to that is the seed is ridiculously cheap, available in large quantities, and they've got free shipping on lots of it. There is admittedly not a huge selection of every crop, they specialize in melons particularly, but this is a top notch little company that's actually been in business for almost 120 years. I've become a huge fan.
#8 Evergreen Seeds Of the two big Asian seed companies I like Evergreen better than Kitazawa, their prices are a bit better and they have more consistent quality. Pretty much very specialized in Chinese, Japanese, and Southeast Asian veggies. Downsides of Evergreen, clunky website, its a bit hard to tell if seed is treated or not, their seed packets are kind of chintzy and often have multiple different crops listed with then a check box for the one you actually ordered, like on a pizza box almost. I honestly kind of find that endearing, but others may find it super annoying, especially since they aren't resealable.
#9 Sustainable Seed Company I find them handy, the quality is good, the variety is good, they never clog my life with paper since they don't have a catalog, the shipping is reasonalbe, prices are good, I think they're a nice model for what I'd like seed companies to become, ESPECIALLY being paperless. Great selection of squash, corn, grains, cover crops, and obscure tobacco.
#10 Fedco I'm really conflicted about Fedco, but it can't be denied that I use them every year. Fedco has a pretty huge selection of hard to get stuff, and you can take a flyer on small quantities of something odd or interesting for quite cheap. And its easy to build a large enough order to get free shipping, especially if I piggyback on a group order with some colleagues. Lots of my farming friends use Fedco A LOT. My issue with Fedco is inconsistent quality. Something that germs great one year will show up dead the next, and then be great again. And forget about complaining, Fedco's customer service is totally crap. So if it shows up and doesn't germinate you might as well right it off, they aren't gonna even return your call, let alone make it right. Contrast this with my #1 company Osborne. Last season I bought some snap pea seed that was mixed with snow, by the time I noticed it , they had already refunded me the cost of the seed, and they emailed and sent a snail mail notice informing me of the refund and the problem with the seed with seed lot# etc. THAT'S customer service.
Honorable Mention
These are seed companies that I consider quality sources for the most part, but that I don't use a whole lot for one reason or another.
Cultivariable Bill is doing amazing things at Cultivariable, and most of his stuff is impossible to be found anywhere else. For the most part the focus on Andean tuber/root crops is what keeps me from a huge patronage, simply because right now most of them other than potatoes are not well adapted to my climate/photoperiod. Once he cracks the day neutral barrier for oca and ulluco, I will be all over it.
Native Seeds/SEARCH Here's another company that carries things that no one else does. Admittedly their descriptions are weirdly incomplete for varieties they supposedly collected themselves, and they definitely have trouble keeping things isolated. I'm also still mad at them for the Glass Gem fiasco, but this is a special company with a good social mission and unique seed.
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange This company is also one with a great social mission and special products. They definitely specialize in heirlooms of the American Southeast. A lot of them are not terribly well adapted to my growing conditions, so I don't typically use SESE all that often, but they are the premier seed company in the US for things like cowpeas, peanuts, okra, collards, and old time OP field corns.
Fruition Seeds These guys are local and friends of mine. I don't honestly use Fruition much because I already have most of what they carry, and they are still ramping up to provide quantities of seed larger than the packet trade. Their mission is to focus on local "bioregionally adapted" varieties, so all their seed production is nearby in NY and I think VT. So if I was a home gardener around here they would be my go to source.
Turtle Tree Seeds Another NY seed company, focussed on biodynamic certified seed, mostly grown by contract for them by biodynamic growers around the US. I like to check out what they have, and I occasionally buy from them, the seed is high quality. I don't really know why I don't use them more? This is a good company.
Hudson Valley Seed Company This is another local seed company that is small and growing and I am fond of, but don't use very much, very much like Fruition. They don't really grow enough quantities of the stuff I need a lot of, and the little stuff I often grow myself, I highly recommend them though.
West Coast Seeds This is a really nice Canadian seed co. I've ordered a few things from them in the past, and the quality was high. Best Thai basil strain I've ever used. I kind of stopped using them as I was only buying a few things and felt like I must have been forcing them to take a loss on shipping my small order. My cousin in BC uses them for almost everything. Good stuff.
Sandhill Preservation Center This is Glenn Drowns seed company, and I almost never use it, even though they have all kinds of truly unique product. The primary reason is the hassle in ordering. They have a website, but you then have to download their order form, print it off, fill it out and then mail a check with your order. I understand they are small and part time and do amazing work, but that complex of steps almost always stops me from pulling the trigger on ordering from them. They have kind of an amazing assortment of corn, and probably the best collection of sweet potato varieties anywhere, certainly any commercial source.
Pinetree Garden Seeds This is a nice little company, they SPECIALIZE in the packet trade. They will sell you a packet of something with 10-15 seeds in it for $1. So they really cater to small gardeners. Since I'm a market gardener I don't really fit into their niche, but I think they are a special little company. I just don't use them.
Victory Seed Company This is another online only seed company that reminds me a lot of Sustainable. I've used them and been very satisfied, but I don't use them a lot for whatever reason. There's only so many companies you can use, I suppose.
Kitazawa This is another Asian specialist seed company, I typically use Evergreen instead mostly. Kitazawa has a better website and seems to be a little better finance of an operation, and their seed packets are a little higher quality, I've had more bad luck with poor quality germs etc from them than Evergreen though. Good seed company all in all, but I can pretty much get all of the same stuff from Evergreen so?
Vermont Bean and R. H. Shumway's are not really separate companies, they are subsidiary catalogs put out by Jung's they have occasionally got something in one or the other catalog that I find worth ordering, even though I consider Jung's on the whole to be SHADY and a dishonest seed operator on the whole,and it is annoying to have to order one seed from each company when I know full well its all getting collated at one packing house. Very very rarely do I use anything from a Jung's subsidiary. Shumway's catalog is old school cool though.
Tomato Grower's Supply Company I occasionally use these guys if I find myself low on Sungold or similar. Specialize in tomato and pepper seed primarily and I like them pretty well, I'm just not that into tomatoes. We grow a lot of tomatoes, but this year we confined our commercial tomatoes to two varieties, and it was the best year we've ever had with tomatoes. So my need for the products at Tomato Growers is very low. I do think they have quality seed for good prices, and they are privately held vs Totally Tomatoes which is another Jung's brand.
Peace Seedlings These guys are similar to Sandhill for me. I admire Alan Kapuler and Dylana Kapuler, but the added complexity of their ordering process USUALLY prevents me from doing anything other than glancing at their seed listings. I mostly order online or over the phone, so companies like Peace and Sandhill kind of lose out with me due to the hassle factor. Obviously everything associated with Alan Kapuler's breeding work is likely to be pretty special and unique.
Vesey's I think the reason I don't use Vesey's is they don't do much in commercial quantities and their stuff is pretty plain jane. They seem a good company, and they have a good rep. I never use them. I almost forgot about them.
Resilient Seeds Formerly the Backyard Beans and Grains Project. Krista Rome's seed company. Probably the single best place for soup peas. I don't order much from Krista, mostly because I am still saving the stuff I've bought in the past. Highly recommended. Tiny company
Fertile Valley Seeds Carol Deppe 's "seed company" where she markets her own varieties, including Joseph's landrace moschata. Kind of similar to Resilient seeds, once you order stuff from Fertile Valley, you shouldn't need to order it again because you are saving it yourself?
Reimer's I used them once, seed grew well and was the variety described. That's about all I can say. Their website is a little wacky-dacky and puts me off for some reason. Edit- I've changed my mind about these guys. I was looking around at more obscure Ancho/Poblano Pepper vars and they've got lots of odd little peppers, some with USDA PI numbers, which means they've got to be growing them in-house, you can't get stuff like that on the open wholesale market, so they seem to be a neat little seed sompany, with a website that fooled me into thinking they were a fly-by-night. 1-14-18
neseed I've used them a couple times, one of my colleagues swears by them and only uses neseed and Seedway. They aren't really my style, but I bought the seed grew to parameters. I like my seed companies a little funkier, less plastic.
AgroHaitai Ltd I almost forgot about these guys, a Canadian company specializing in imported (I think) Asian Vegetable seed. They have a little different mix available than Evergreen or Kitazawa. Definitely worth checking out if you like Asian veggies, although a few things are technically not importable across the border.
The MAN
For when you want to grow the same seeds as the stuff in the grocery store. I never use any of these, and I don't even keep track of which agribusiness multinational corporation owns what.
Seedway
Harris
Parks
Burpee
Stokes
Ferry-Morse This is basically the umbrella company for all the box store seed rack rot-gut. Ferry-Morse, NK Lawn and Garden, American Seed, Livingston Seed, McKenzie Seed. Basically if you've ever been in a seed train and some mouth breather has taken a bunch of good stuff out and replaced it with Walmart seed packs? This is the company that creates that garbage.
DEAD TO ME
Companies that crossed the line with me personally, and I will never use. I won't even hyperlink them. I despise them to a depth unplumbable by any line.
These companies send multiple redundant seed catalogs throughout the entire year. And they continue for years and years after the last time you bought from them. Even when you call them and tell them to stop. And then call them again and again. There is a clearcut forest somewhere that exists just to supply these people with second class mailing paper. Paper seed catalogs need to go away, ASAP. To a lesser extent Johnny's does this too, but they stop when you ask them to. Territorial and Peaceful Valley seem to have uneditable databases?
Stopping again for now.
