Is The Run On Seed Continuing?

[GoDawgs]

I stopped by the feed & seed this morning to see if they had any leftover seed potatoes as I've decided to try a late planting and see how it holds up in the heat. My favorite sales lady said that for the first time, they ran out of seed potatoes and ran out early. They usually have some left over that they give away to someone to feed to their pigs but not this year. Hmmm...

When I was at Walmart yesterday I cruised by their Ferry-Morse seed display just to see how it was looking and sure enough, just about all the packets of bush and pole beans were gone as well as some of the corn packets and maybe a few squash.

Anybody else noticing anything either locally or online? Since I have everything I need for this year I haven't checked online seed companies in a good while. Are they still backlogged and /or out of a lot of stuff?

[Growing Coastal]

I am hoping that the new growers don't catch on to ordering seeds early any time soon!

[stone]

I had 'volunteer' stuff coming up, but with the frost last night, and even colder temps predicted for tonight, reckon I'll be checking through the seed stock collected from last years harvests...
Still haven't entirely given up on the self-sown stuff...

reckon the new growers will take seed saving seriously after the experience of seeds being sold out.

[maxjohnson]

Well there are video games scalpers, ammunition scalpers, so far fortunately I haven't seen scalping for vegetable seeds yet and there are a lot of independent seed sellers to choose from. Mostly I just see big sellers like Burpee and Johnny Seeds ripping people's off.

[Gardadore]

Just placed another order with Baker Creek as my old Carbon seeds aren't germinating and I wanted fresh ones. Since I already had things in their basket I went with them. Looks like they are processing quickly as they already have a label made. Hope the post office cooperates. Actually Baker Creek's seeds have arrived the fastest of all my orders this winter and spring. Their DHL service gets them to the local Post Office faster than UPS or FED EX. Also see that our local Farm Store still had a lot of seed potatoes and onions last week.

[GoDawgs]

I had 'volunteer' stuff coming up, but with the frost last night, and even colder temps predicted for tonight, reckon I'll be checking through the seed stock collected from last years harvests...
Still haven't entirely given up on the self-sown stuff...

reckon the new growers will take seed saving seriously after the experience of seeds being sold out.

What did your area get down to this morning? We had 30. They're talking 36 tomorrow morning and then we're over the hump.

[Labradors]

Gardadore, I hear that BC has some lovely annual "flower" freebies right now which sure beat the boring cabbage freebies that I received last year! Of course, true veggie gardeners might disagree .


Linda

[MissS]

It seems so to me shopping online. Many of the flowers and veggies are sold out. No Fortex beans to be found anywhere. It's a good thing that I ordered extra last year.

[wykvlvr]

Of course it depends on the flowers. Marigold, nasturtiums and a few other always have a place in my garden... And I think after all the small bee activity I saw last year there will always be at lest one or two borage plants also...

[Gardadore]

I hope I do get an interesting flower Freebie with this BC order. Have gotten kale twice! 22 degrees here this morning. Praying that is the lowest for a while. The primroses in my tabletop tent lost their flowers but the leaves look OK.
We seem to have honeybees this year. When the crocuses were blooming heavily last week I noticed a lot of honeybees and the air was literally buzzing! Hope this bodes well for the summer as it has been a few years since we have had honeybees. There must be a successful beekeeper nearby this year!

[agee]

What I am noticing is that the online seed shops are not having the shut downs that they were a few months ago, so in that sense things have stabilized. Another observation is that a higher portion of seeds are out of stock on the seed seller websites, a few websites will state if the stockout is for the rest of the season which is a good thing. So my conclusion is the actual run on seeds is over but that you may not be able to get all of the varieties of seeds you want this season because the supply has been depleted.

My recommendation is that if someone wants any seeds but can't find them locally or online is to post in the Seed Swap section of this site or other online seed swaps as most gardeners have more seeds than they can use in a single season.

[Julianna]

I had read last year that this would be a two year ever because the seed growers had already mostly planned and planted by the time the covid garden rush started. So unfortunately, supply for 2021 would still be short if demand remained high. However, 2022 should catch up if growers plant an increased amount in anticipation of continued demand. Same with fertilizer production and such.

[peebee]

In my area, So. CA., I checked the seed displays of my local Walmart, Lowe's & HD over 3 visits in the last 3 weeks & there's still lots of packets. In fact it looked like hardly any were sold at all. Compare that to last year, when supplies were very sparse around this time. I think the people that tried their hand at gardening from seed have realized it's not their thing.

[worth1]

In my area, So. CA., I checked the seed displays of my local Walmart, Lowe's & HD over 3 visits in the last 3 weeks & there's still lots of packets. In fact it looked like hardly any were sold at all. Compare that to last year, when supplies were very sparse around this time. I think the people that tried their hand at gardening from seed have realized it's not their thing.

Gardening is hard work.
Not like the Gardening games on the computer at all.
Maybe there will be some deals on pressure canners.

[Julianna]

In my area, So. CA., I checked the seed displays of my local Walmart, Lowe's & HD over 3 visits in the last 3 weeks & there's still lots of packets. In fact it looked like hardly any were sold at all. Compare that to last year, when supplies were very sparse around this time. I think the people that tried their hand at gardening from seed have realized it's not their thing.

Maybe also they had to return to work? I think a lot of covid gardens were based on working from home, furlough, or being home for another reason like unemployment, etc. Maybe they dont have the same time this year. In the past week, the roads here are almost back to normal. Hwy 1 is slowing to a crawl. Surface streets are backed up several lights. The traffic is back and I am guessing this means more people at work again.

[Nan6b]

I bet demand is still higher than pre-covid, but seed companies have had a year to gear up. Some of those new gardeners will continue. I saw one or two places advertising their delays, and some stuff sold out, but I've mostly been able to get whatever I needed.
Nan

[Gardenboy]

www.seedsnsuch.com is the only vendor that I know of that is taking over a month or longer to fill seed orders. They have good quality seeds at a good price if you don't mind waiting that long.

[jmsieglaff]

Definitely have noticed websites I use shutting down for restocking/inventory for short periods. There were some seeds that I could not get, I assume due to demand. One thing I noticed at a local garden center I buy from, it seems prices were up steeply--I suspect related to increased demand.

[pepperhead212]

While I hadn't ordered anything since the fall, I had heard about all the delays, and out of stock problems people were incurring. However, about a week ago I made an order from Baker Creek for a friend (with no credit cards), and not a thing I looked at was out of stock (of course, I still had to order a couple of things for myself!), plus, I got an email a couple of hours later saying that my order had been shipped! I couldn't believe it! They must have more employees or something, since a couple of months ago they couldn't handle all the orders.

[bower]

I panicked and ordered early thanks to the other thread about this, and happily got (almost) everything I wanted.
I'm a big fan of growing our own seed as well, but wanted some new things - mostly to grow seeds of, of course.
I did get email from William Dam a few weeks ago to let us know their situation - in spite of gearing up for a big year, they made as much sales as a normal whole year in one month! But they had a good supply in and had taken on extra workers, still they were warning of some delay in processing the number of orders. So I think the rush to gardening is not petering out yet, at least not in Canada.
My worst fiasco last year was not being able to get any perlite for potting mix. It was sold out the entire season. I found a bag of Promix in the fall, which I'm mixing with compost to pot up the tomatoes - and I bought that promix for the perlite alone.