Discuss your tips, tricks and experiences growing and selling vegetables, fruits, flowers, plants and herbs.
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May 8, 2011 | #1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Alabama 7.5 or 8 depends on who you ask
Posts: 727
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Where to Buy Seeds by the 1/4 lb, 1/2lb and the pound
I have been going through some of the seed companies in the seed and plant sources and haven.t found any selling by the 1/4 lb, 1/2 lb or by the pound. If any Tomtaoville Seed store owners do so please post or pm me. Also, those that sell to the Farmers Market where do you get your seeds in bulk (1/4lb, 1/2lb and by the pound)
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May 8, 2011 | #2 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Woodville, Texas
Posts: 520
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We buy seed by the pound (beans, brassicas, okra etc.) and by the thousand (toms, squash, peppers).
I can highly recommend Clifton Seed Company, headquartered in Faiso, NC. with branches in Moultrie, GA and Fort Myers, FL. This an old-line, family owned business with the very highest standards of quality and competitive prices. They have been very supportive of our Gardeners for Jesus project. We deal with the GA branch - 866-342-5893 or www.cliftonseed.com. On tomatoes, their minimum order is 1M and they handle only commercial determinate varieties. Example: 1M Mountain Glory is $59.60, 5M-$260 and 100M is $5000. And yes, they do have many customers that buy 100M tomato seeds - but they treat us as well as the big farms. We used to deal with Twilley Seed Co -800-622-7333. They have smaller minimums than Clifton and cater primarily to market gardeners, roadside operations etc. They are also a good company but sometimes the seeds had a lower than acceptable germination rate (too long in storage). Clifton gives you the crop date and guarantees the germ rate stated for the current year (99% on most stuff). Most seed co's just give you the PACKAGE date (when it was packed from bulk), but Clifton gives you the harvest date, so you never get seed that's already over the hill Jack |
May 8, 2011 | #3 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 2,591
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For the tomato seed I sell, I offer bigger package sizes IF I HAVE ENOUGH SEED. I will also sell even larger quantities when asked if I have it. But I'm a small fry in the seed biz so usually I only have 2-4 oz of most of the seed I collect. I'm trying to rotate my collecting so I will get fresh seed for varieties every 3 or 4 years too as that seems to be about optimum for decent germination.
When it comes to buying the seeds I use for my market gardening, I get a lot from a family biz near Minneapolis, Jordan Seeds. They have good prices on bulk seeds and I've never gotten bad seed from them. 2 other companies I've bought a lot from are Holms Seeds and Rupp Seeds both in Ohio. I especially like their selections of winter squash. Carol |
May 8, 2011 | #4 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cincinnati
Posts: 907
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May 8, 2011 | #5 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: western Colorado zone 5
Posts: 307
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I buy by oz at the seed house in the big city here. Beans and corn by pound and peas. Some tomato seed they order in and it by count. They do not have a big variety and I get all my basic seed there. Rest I order from catalogs . I would guess a local seed house would get you any amount.
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May 8, 2011 | #6 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Woodville, Texas
Posts: 520
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I'm really surprised that you produce and sell seed, Carol! You're the first market gardener I've run into on the web, or elsewhere, that sells seed - lots of them sell plants, though. I'm sure your seed is excellent, but I would be afraid to buy home-grown seed. It's a very hi-tech business that requires a sophisticated lab and ironclad quality control.
2 ounces of tomato seed is a lot - roughly 25,000 seeds. It runs about about 12M/oz. Jack |
May 8, 2011 | #7 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Landers, CA
Posts: 191
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www.hazzards seed.com they
have grate prices on large orders and a lot of speices to choose from,good luck. les |
May 8, 2011 | #8 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: NW Indiana
Posts: 1,150
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May 8, 2011 | #9 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 2,591
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Jack,
Tomato seed doesn't have to be high tech if you are doing the heirlooms or other OP varieties. I don't do F-1 hybrids so no hand fertilizing at all. A 5 gal bucket of tomatoes usually gives me about 2-6 oz of seed. A bit less for romas or oxhearts. Even more for cherries. I bleach rinse my seeds before drying to kill any disease on the seed. I do a simple germination test before listing a batch of seeds. I started saving seeds at least 10 or 12 years ago when I had a hard time finding seed for the oddball hot peppers I use for the hot sauce I make. Then about 7 or 8 years ago I added some tomatoes to what I saved. I found Tomatoville kind of by accident about 3 years ago and my variety list went crazy ever since. I had somewhere in the 150 to 200 range pre TV, but have close to 500 now. Or will have after this growing season. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Around my area, the elevators will sometimes have a selection of bulk vegie seeds. But the variety selection is usually crummy and the turnover is not great so often the seed will be old. You are a lot better off ordering from a catalog, any catalog. Carol |
May 8, 2011 | #10 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Alabama 7.5 or 8 depends on who you ask
Posts: 727
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JackE thanks for the clifton seed co link and that they are determinate varieties.
Wi-sunflower - Carol, do you have a web site for your seeds? And thanks for the other seed companies information. If you have a web site please post a link. Colorado-west - We have two feed and seed stores here but one retired and the new owner does not sell tomato seeds anymore just some of the basic bean and greens and corn seeds. The other seed and feed also quite selling tomato seeds not long after the other one (though they sell a little more than the basic seeds of beans and greens and corn). I talked to them about ordering some and they seemed to want several pounds of each variety to order. les - thanks for the hazzard's seeed company link fortyunenorth - thanks for the Johnny's Selected Seeds link |
May 8, 2011 | #11 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cincinnati
Posts: 907
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Here is Carol's website: http://knapps-fresh-vegies.netfirms.com/
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May 8, 2011 | #12 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Alabama 7.5 or 8 depends on who you ask
Posts: 727
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Quote:
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May 8, 2011 | #13 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cincinnati
Posts: 907
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Quote:
For example, if you click on "New 2011" and scroll down the page to the specific varieties, you will see Beauty Queen - 1 gm $10 and 5 gm $20. Each variety has a different bulk price. |
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May 8, 2011 | #14 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Alabama 7.5 or 8 depends on who you ask
Posts: 727
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Well I found one that sells up to 1/4oz
http://www.tomatogrowers.com/LQtomatoes.htm Doesn't seem to be anyone selling heirlooms above 1/4oz so far. |
May 8, 2011 | #15 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 2,591
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On the varieties I list 10 grams, I have plenty of seed. If you give me an email of what varieties you would be interested in, I'll see if I have enough seed to do a larger amount. I just don't list a bigger quantity on the web site as I didn't think there would be much interest in that much of any 1 variety.
Here is Rupps web site http://www.ruppseeds.com/ They are in Wauseon, Oh. Here is Holmes http://www.holmesseed.com/ There are in Canton, Oh The Holmes catalog does have about 50 OP and Heirlooms listed in amounts up to 1 oz. But they don't list most of the unusual varieties talked about here on TV. Carol Last edited by Wi-sunflower; May 8, 2011 at 03:25 PM. Reason: added thought |
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