Quote:
Originally Posted by goodwin
Replying to questions that folks have raised, I'm a seed vendor and I think my biggest nightmare would be to send out wrong seed or mixed seed - though, of course, I'd want to know.
That's a different problem than inadequately isolating varieties or releasing lines that aren't stable.
I often have a number of jars of my seed out as I fill packets, but it's good practice to have only one open at a time. And anyone who has saved seed knows how sticky those little fellows are and how careful you have to be to brush everything off. Anyway, it's probably just as well I do it all myself, because otherwise I'd be a wreck worrying.
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Lee, it's just plain fact that no seed site source that deals primarily with OP varieties is going to have a perfect record when it comes to seed purity. Most all of the small family owned sites that many deal with I know do their best but if they produce their own seed there's no way , especially if they list a lot of varieties, that they can bag blossoms, or isolate by geographic islolation.
Some sites produce all their own seed, others do some and buy some off the shelf and still others subcontract out and some do a combination of those ways of getting seed to offer.
And I think folks should realize that.
If a particular site has a record of sending out seed for MANY varieties that are not pure, then that's a different issue as I see it.
For several years when I was at Garden Web I put up a thread on wrong varieties, and it became apparent at that time that some seed sources were much better than others, or worse than others in that regard.
In my experience there are far more seeds that are crossed that are obtained by seed trading and that also came out in those threads as well. But there are those who just love to trade seeds and how I wish they would buy at least half of their seeds so as to support the commercial places, and especially now b/c of the current economic climate that's out there, b'c some of those places are hurting and in many cases it's their sole source of income.
So I think a bit of understanding of seed purity with purchased seeds is really necessary.
Recently I sent in my listings for the 2012 SSE YEarbook. I don't have a clue if there are any crossed seeds amongst those varieties I listed and clearly state the same in my contact information in the Yearbook.
And I do the same with the seeds I offer in my annual seed offer here at Tville.
When I was listing hundreds of varieties in the SSE YEarbooks and did all of my own seed production I would start the seed processing for the season by cutting my fingernails as short as I could and you know why.
Just some random musings as the sun rises over the hill in front of me where I see a couple of deer who probably want to know when rifle season starts as opposed to the bow season now in progress.
