POLL: North American Seed Vendors

[Shule]

I would recommend different vendors for different purposes.

For newly bred awesome varieties, J&L Gardens, Artisan Seeds, and Wildboar Farms, are nice. Also, Burpee tends to come out with new ones a lot.

For newly discovered, but pre-existing plants, Baker Creek is nice. It also has more reviewers than other sites, as well as a strong community, great pictures, and nice seed catalogs.

For nice-looking seed packets, Baker Creek and Snake River Seeds are nice, but there are others, too.

For F1 hybrid selection, Johnny's Selected Seeds is nice. Reimer Seeds has a fair amount, too.

For OP/heirloom selection, Sand Hill Preservation Center, Trade Winds Fruit, TomatoFest, Baker Creek, Timeless-tomatoes, Victory Seeds, Reimer Seeds, and maybe Adaptive Seeds are each nice. (Reimer Seeds gets a lot of negative press, though, but some people have good experiences.)

For reliability, people seem to enjoy Tomato Growers Supply and Victory Seeds. Maybe Pinetree Gardens.

For affordability with a reasonably to decent selection the following are nice: DollarSeed, Pinetree Gardens, Trade Winds Fruit, Sand Hill Preservation Center, Timeless-tomatoes, Victory Seeds, Baker Creek (shipping is often free there), etc.

For generous seed count, Sand Hill Preservation is my favorite, but there are others that might surprise you, considering the prices.

My overall favorites are Sand Hill Preservation Center, Baker Creek, Trade Winds Fruit, Pinetree Gardens, and Timeless-tomatoes but I like most seed stores! The more I look at Adaptive Seeds, though, the more I like it.

For inexpensive hybrids, try Pinetree Gardens, and big box stores (like the Home Depot and Walmart). The Home Depot even sells seeds online, with a surprising selection.

Dollar stores (such as Dollar Tree) are often good places to look for seeds.

If you're Canadian, Tatiana's store is really nice, when it's open. Nice selection, greay varieties hard to find elsewhere, and I think the prices are decent. She seems to put a lot of care into it.

People at Tomatoville seemed to favor Tomato Growers Supply, a lot.

[worth1]

I get a lot of my ((NOT)) tomato or pepper seeds from a local feed, seed, garden supply and hardware store.
You can get just about anything there.
The prices are a little higher on stuff but in my opinion you pay the price later by going big box to get things sometimes.
I support my community first, state second and country third when I can.

[Nan6b]

From The Seed Kingdom (theseedking.com) I've gotten packets with very large amounts of seeds. That's without using the "wholesale" section.

[Ginger2778]

I will use whomever has what seeds I want, with a few exceptions. I won't use Ebay or Amazon (unless it's the only place on the internet). There are probably good folks but I don't trust that they all know what they're doing or if they're telling the truth.

This^^^^

[root_grow]

I'd also recommend Fedco in Maine. The tomato selection isn't super special, but for everything else the combination of price and seed count is great. They offer generous packets, and I appreciate that you can scale up packet size without going straight to massive bulk quantity. I haven't had any problems with germination or off-types.

Otherwise, I order from whoever has what I want (except ebay and amazon) at a price I'm willing to pay, which varies depending on specifics of the vendor, and I rotate through vendors over years to pick up things that aren't available everywhere.

[Sue_CT]

My choices are based on Heirloom Tomato varieties, reliability, then convenience and price. If I get seeds that don't turn out to be what I expect or have poor germination rates I get turned off. I like to try heirlooms that are new to me and sometimes only available from a few places. The places I mentioned have the widest selections and tend to get my business more often just because they send fresh reliable seeds and becuase I can get more of what I am looking for at one time, place fewer orders and pay less for shipping overall.

[Sue_CT]

You might want to start a new poll and include TGS, TomatoFest, Reimers, Sand Hill and the Sample Seed Shop among others mentioned here. That would be an interesting poll. You might do two polls, one for tomato seeds and one for all other vegetable seeds. Many people who love to grow tomatoes will gravitate towards vendors who specialize in tomatoes.

[rdback]

Interesting there's been no mention of https://www.southernexposure.com/. Great resource, especially for folks in the Southeast.

[Sue_CT]

I took a quick look at southern exposure and I am not surprised. They have about 100 varietes of tomatoes and they don't even have a category for heirloom tomates, whereas Victory Seeds, for example, has over 500 varities of just heirloom seeds. For a garden of mixed veggies it looks like a nice site. If you want uncommon, hard to find or heirloom tomato seeds I expect you are going to have to go elsewhere. Many of us met over on the TV forum, and there were always those that grew hybrids or some hybrids and some heirlooms, but the largest majority seemed to grow heirlooms. There are a lot of nice smaller seed companies that would probably never get much attention on a forum of tomato lovers just because they don't specialize in that.

[HL2601]

I second Fedco in Maine as a reliable source for many tomatoes, veggies and greens. I also like Heritage seed market-T'ville members there have always done a great job for me.

[Shule]

Southern Exposure is definitely popular with some people. I think I've met at least one or two people that won't shop anywhere else. Also, it's one of the few places that sells potato onions.

[TheDante]

[mention]Shule[/mention] Thanks for the detailed input

Wow! Did not expect such a resounding response from this vendor POLL… should I create 2 Polls with all the Vendors mentioned and missed? - Thanks Sue, got me wondering… should I or should I not.

Maybe I should create a POLL asking if I should create a new poll with 2 polls too!

Clearly I have lost my marbles now.. lolololol

[worth1]

Many of the seeds I get from said store are Fedco seeds.

[SusieQ]

From The Seed Kingdom (theseedking.com) I've gotten packets with very large amounts of seeds. That's without using the "wholesale" section.

I don't know if they're just using their name, but I ordered from SeedKingExpress last year (out of Houston, TX) with horrible results. Foolishly, in order to save a few pennies on seeds, I placed an order with them, and EVERY SINGLE PLANT (40+) came up not true.
When my 'dwarf' tomatoes were at 3 feet and climbing, I knew I was scammed.

Lesson learned. Never again. Only highly established vendors get my business from now on.

[PlainJane]

I love Artisan Seeds, Secret Seed Cartel, Wild Boar Farms and Vertiloom.

[Sue_CT]

DIdn't mean to say Southern seed exchange was not popular, just that it doesn't specialize in tomatoes. This is primarily a tomato site. I am sure some would use it, and many may love it, like I said it just doesn't look like a great variety for tomatoes in particular. They have some nice heirlooms, a few I grow regularly, like Brandywine Sudduth. But if you are looking for a wide variety of heirlooms or hard to find heirloom tomatoes there are just other places that are also good that have a much larger selection. If you are particularly looking for potato onions or even other things I am sure it is wonderful. It looks like they have heirloom varieities for a wide variety of veggies so those that like to grow those types of veggies would probably like it a lot.

[sunflower]

I don't want to sound like I'm tooting my own horn but I know plenty of people at Tomatoville like my seeds. But someone new probably wouldn't know my site. I have over 500 mostly heirloom hard to find varieties. knapps-fresh-vegies.com

Carol

[Paquebot]

Totally Tomatoes has a few varieties, too!

Martin

[MissS]

I don't want to sound like I'm tooting my own horn but I know plenty of people at Tomatoville like my seeds. But someone new probably wouldn't know my site. I have over 500 mostly heirloom hard to find varieties. knapps-fresh-vegies.com

Carol

I'll toot your horn for you Carol. I have been buying your seeds for many years. They germinate well and grow true to type. A reliable vendor for sure.

I was just sticking to the list of vendors that she offered.

[MissS]

@Shule Thanks for the detailed input

Wow! Did not expect such a resounding response from this vendor POLL… should I create 2 Polls with all the Vendors mentioned and missed? - Thanks Sue, got me wondering… should I or should I not.

Maybe I should create a POLL asking if I should create a new poll with 2 polls too!

Clearly I have lost my marbles now.. lolololol

I hope that you find your marbles soon, what color are they perhaps we can help.

All kidding aside, why not start a thread for folks to list their favorite vendors in. They can describe their experience and results. Perhaps another thread for vendors that they don't like so much. If all works well, you can ask one of us moderators to make it a sticky for you.