Quick question for you... I want to buy garden seeds for this coming Spring at my new Mn digs!) and want to know if I can get them at this time of year. I want to get ahead of the coming crush for seeds, and I want the non hybrid "Heritage" types for future plantings (and YOU know why!)...
I know you have a section here on the thread but I can't locate this information yet. Your thoughts?
Try posts 3489, 3492 and 3496 for a long list of heritage seed companies. I’ll find more and post them as I find them.
This is from post 947:
There is a farm in Iowa, a school teacher, who grows fancy poultry of the old varieties and crops for seeds, all that I bought were good and cheap. Sandhill, it is here:
Nichols, had many heritage varieties and oriental, I have bought from them over 30 years:
Pinetree I also bought from, I like their mixed variety packets, so I could try more than one variety.
Post 943:
I looked and couldn’t find gurshaws either, maybe we both had the name wrong. Could it be Crenshaw melons we remember?
http://www.heirloomseeds.com/melons.htm
http://www.neseed.com/Crenshaw_Melon_Seed_s/256.htm
Post 78:
Here’s an interesting article, cached by Google. The original link seems broken, but the cached version will do. It concerns heirloom, or legacy, seeds.
Post 107:
An excellent article, thank you.
I try to not even buy hybrid seeds.
The seeds that the dollar stores sell, are the old varieties and about now, or in a week or two, they will put them out, at 15 cents per package, all that I have tried have been good growers.
Here, it cools off at night, goes to a hundred and above in the days and the soil is almost sterile, so it has been difficult finding seeds that would grow.
Another gardner and I kept at it, until we found that the old varieties would grow and also that the oriental plant sources had seeds that were not hybrid, Japan and some from China.
There are other heirloom seed companies, but they were priced over my pocket book’s limits.
If I were to order today, I would put Sandhill #1, he has tomato seeds that others charge extra for, for a very small amount, I think I went wild and ordered enough packets, that I paid about 25 cents or maybe it was 50 cents, for some rare breeds.
And if he says, not for full sun areas, he means just that, I did not listen, grew wonderful tomato plants and fruits, but like his catalog said, “not a leafy plant and the sun will cook the fruit”, which it did.
Post 899
Links and Heirloom tomato seed link:
http://wildcraft.gaelicmysts.com/?page_id=213
Post 2856
SOURCES OF SEEDS FOR THE INDIAN GARDEN
Native Seeds/Search. A nonprofit organization devoted to the conservation and promotion of native, agriculturally valuable plants of the Southwest.
Address: 3950 West New York Drive, Tucson, Arizona 85745.
Seed Savers Exchange. Not-for-profit organization devoted to the preservation of endangered vegetable varieties. Their “Garden Seed Inventory” lists the addresses of 240 companies and commercial sources for nearly 6,000 non-hybrid varieties. Address: P.O. Box 70, Decorah, Iowa
52101.
Vermont Bean Seed Co. Garden Lane, Bomoseen, Vermont 05732.
Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Features varieties adapted for the Northeast.
Address: Albion, Maine 04910.
Gurneys Seed and Nursery Co. Their large selection of seeds includes several heirloom varieties. Address: Yankton, South Dakota 57079.
Jung Seed and Nursery. 335 South High Street, Randolph, Wisconsin 53957.
Additional Readings
Heiser, Charles B. 1969. Nightshades, the Paradoxical Plants. W.H.
Freeman and Co., San Francisco, 200 pp.
_____. 1976. The Sunflower. Univ. Oklahoma Press, Norman, 198 pp.
_____. 1979. The Gourd Book. Univ. Oklahoma Press, Norman, 248 pp.
Jabs, Carolyn. 1985. The Heirloom Gardener. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 288 pp.
Johnson, Judi, and Frances King, compilers. 1976. Green Corn and Violets.
Illinois State Museum, Springfield, 53 pp.
Styles, Bonnie W. 1984. Early Native Americans in Illinois. The Living Museum 46(2):19-29.
Wilson, G.L. 1917. Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation. Univ. Minn. Studies in Soc. Sci. 9:1-129.
——Reprinted with permission from “The Living Museum” 48(3):35-38.
Have fun!
You can also look at this seed exchange site:
http://idigmygarden.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=7
Baker Street Heirloom Seeds
They sponsor the IDigMyGarden forums.