Anyone order from nikitovka seeds and reviews

[coachkos70]

Anyone ever order from there

[MissS]

Yes I have. I ordered quite a few Eggplant seeds from them this year and did a seed offer here on the forum with them so that many of the seeds could be grown out. I also ordered a few tomatoes as did Rajun Gardener who also offered his seeds here. I am sad to say that while they had great prices their seeds for the most part did not grow true. So given that most are not what you have ordered, I will pass on this company in the future.

[coachkos70]

Thank you. Did anyone else have the same reviews

[eyegrotom]

I have ordered tomato and pepper seeds from them a couple of times. Never had a problem with their seeds.

[habitat-gardener]

MissS offered eggplant seeds from Nikitovka and I chose 4 varieties. Two were not what they were supposed to be (Gandia and Sneg Sredi Leta), but Gandia still produced good eggplants. One of the four varieties (Matrosik) was exceptional, and the fourth (Chornyy Krasen) was also good! I was happy to try all of them. So ordering from them is a gamble, but they offer so many potentially interesting varieties that I'd consider it. I wouldn't plan my whole garden around them, though.

[sjamesNorway]

I also ordered seeds from them which didn't grow true, so will never order from them again.

Steve

[ddsack]

I ordered a variety of different seeds from them, including bok choy, carrots, cucumbers as well as tomatoes. The tomato seeds did produce two different types, so maybe a cross there. However, all the seeds had very good germination and I was happy with the other vegetable results. I would order other veggies from them again, but probably skip on tomatoes. Relatively quick shipping considering they had to cross the Atlantic to get here.

[TomHillbilly]

I had ordered Russian Federation seeds several times in the past. Some young lady in the Altai region of Russia had a Ebay store. This is on the far side of Russia near China. All her Russian Federation seeds had a good germination. Even though many was 3 years old, as stamped on the Federation packs. Unable to locate her store this year, I ordered from Nikitovka instead. If you noticed ?? They advertised seeds as Russian Federation Seeds. The seeds have arrived as promised. None were in the typical Russian Federation packs. The seeds postage was marked from the Ukraine. I went back to the Nikitovka site, and it clearly says they are a seed company based in the Ukraine. In Short-- I've not sown any seeds yet, but I've had problems from seed vendors located in the Ukraine in the past. I've had good luck with seeds that arrived in Russian Federation packs. Actual Russian Federation seeds come in a pack like Burpee. They are exactly as claimed to be. The verdict is still out on these Nikitovka seeds. They are not the normal Russian Federation packaged seeds. The experience "ddsack and sjamesNorway " mentioned with Nikitovka-- I had with other Ukraine vendors.

[habitat-gardener]

Here's my report on using the USDA's Small Lots of Seeds permit, which requires all seed vendors outside the US to send seed orders directly to a US agricultural inspection station, before they get to the recipient. This permit is free and relatively easy to get but it does not include all types of seeds. Notably, tomato and pepper seeds require an "expensive, time-consuming" phytosanitary certificate. Recently, Nikitovka has added info on the Small Lots of Seeds permit to its site, and says "U.S. Gardeners who plan to purchase or receive seed from any groups or individuals based anywhere outside the United States should obtain a Permit for Small Lots of Seed."

I ordered from Nikitovka partly so I could add a "Garden SOS Seed Pack" for a Ukrainian family to my order, partly because of all the interesting varieties offered, and partly to support a business in Ukraine.

I put in an order on September 4 and received it today, about 6 weeks later. But it seems to have taken about the same time to travel the last 100 miles from the USDA agricultural inspection station to here, as it did from the other side of the world. The "opened for inspection" tape on the package is marked 9/27! I wonder if it was sitting on a shelf at the inspection station for a couple weeks.

Nikitovka packs seeds in little plastic baggies, which are placed in a larger baggie that includes a paper tag with info about the seeds. The seeds are all visible without opening any of the baggies. However, it looks like the inspection involved taking the little baggies out, because many of them were put back the wrong way, obscuring the info about the seeds. One little baggie (basil) was emptied out, and all the seeds are loose in the larger baggie. I hope they put all the seed baggies back in the correct envelopes!!

[Danny]

Guess I got lucky with the ag inspection as I have gotten all my previous orders with out any inspection note or tape. I've ordered several times and the little I had grown did grow true so far as I could tell, but I am no expert either.

[Toomanymatoes]

My most recent order from June'22 took 3 months to get to me here in Canada. I wrote it off, but was pleasantly surprised when it arrived. I am fairly sure it had to do with Government inspections.

In Canada, we have a small seed lot exemption so we do not require a phytosanitary certificate for 'small' seed orders (small is actually A LOT of seeds). This is the first time I received a package that had been opened and inspected. No note or anything. Just a badly re-taped package with the Government agency stamped on it.

Hopefully I will be ordering from them again in the future. Good prices and great selection.