%!!%-#WHAT'S UP WITH PACKAGED SEEDS!!!!

Many years ago, if you ordered a package of seed, you got enough to plant a 100 ft row. Then they began selling by the ounce 1, 1/2,

1/4oz and etc. Then by the Gram (which most of us never understood) and NOW!! it is by the "offering" (sounds religious to me).

I got my seeds from Burges and was shocked to find my watermelon had 6 seed in the package, the Cantaloupe (1 pkg had 6 and one had 7). Cucumbers had 7(plus 1 not developed seed).

I bought a package of seedless watermelons at a local discount store,it had 7 seeds.

I don't know why I am posting this, except I need to vent my anger, and let people know it was not always a ripoff. QUESTION? Are their seed companies that sell by something other than "Offers"?

Also, let't talk about Heirloom seed, (saving your own). Where is a good source?

Have a good day! (Soy) Rogerx

Reply to
Rogerx
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Most people don't use anywhere near a full packet of seeds, and the marketing weasels have figured this out. Also, hybrid is expensive to produce, so they're enhancing profits by charging more and giving you less.

Forgive the American bias (I can't help it; I was born with it): There are a lot of good resources on seed saving. Look at the web site for the Seed Savers Exchange:

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U.S. based, but international membership. There are a number of good books on saving seeds. My favorite is "Seed to Seed" by Suzanne Ashworth. Widely and reasonably available new and used. There are all kinds of online swap groups; one is Yahoo Groups seed exchange group. Again, mostly U.S., but members all over. I'm sure other resources will pop up here.

Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Reply to
Gary Woods

Rogerx wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

See if you can find La Rosa seeds. They don't have a large range, but at least they put a decent amount of seed in a package.

Reply to
Ian Gay

Start raising and saving your own seeds whenever possible. ;-)

Later this spring, I anticipate having a ton of brocolli seeds thanks to all the beautiful little honey bees!

I feel your pain and empathize. :-P

There is nothing wrong with the cantaloupe seeds you can get from the grocery store. Pick out a nice, juicy ripe one right on the edge of spoiling, scoop out the seeds and wash and dry them, and store them in paper envelopes. Winter squash and pumpkin seeds are also good. I've never seen any summer squash or cucumbers tho' that are ripe enough to harvest seeds from, but you could raise a few each year and let them go to seed.

You can do that with tomatoes too.

HTH?

Reply to
Katra

Try saving your own seeds from a seedless watermelon. They have to be crossed pollinated by hand and then protected to prevent accidental pollination by insects. Also, the parent crops need to be grown to produce seeds to continue cross pollination. And hybrids that produce seed almost always revert to their parent plants. A very labor intensive process. Just look at an auto repair bill.

JAB

Rogerx wrote:

Reply to
jbert

You can also create your own seedless watermelons out of any watermelon...

All you have to do is to catch the bloom on the first day and place a seeding hormone (comes in a paste form) on the pistil in the female flower and then bag the bloom to preven any insect pollinization.

I don't know the name of the hormone off the top of my head, hopefully someone here does. I learned about this technique from my botany proffesor back in community college when I worked for him in his greenhouse.

kat

Reply to
Katra

Many years ago, if you ordered a package of seed, you got enough to plant a 100 ft row. Then they began selling by the ounce 1, 1/2,

1/4oz and etc. Then by the Gram (which most of us never understood) and NOW!! it is by the "offering" (sounds religious to me).

You still get generous packets If you use retailers that cater to small market gowers. Willhite and Twilleys are two of my favorites. Open pollinated seed are very inexpensive. A 1/4 ounce packet of watermelon seed from Willhite is $1.40. Thats about 200 -300 seeds depending on the cultivar. Tomatoes come in 1/16 oz packets for $1.40 which run a couple of hundred seeds. Hybrids are of course much more expensive and run abou $5.50 per 50 seed (watermelon) and abou $ 5.00 per 100 seed (tomato). Seedless watermelons are a different story, those run about $20.00 for 50 seed.

Reply to
farmerdill

What about the seeds inside of summer squash and zucchini? Can you use those? Is there any special handling required to save seeds overwinter? I plan to begin saving my own seeds starting this year because of the high seed prices. I figured it CAN'T be as easy as simply saving seeds from veggies you've got or everyone would do it. Am I hearing that it IS, in fact, that easy?

Cheers!

Reply to
Doll is Mine

In some cases it is quite easy, in others, it is not. With hybrids, saving seed means you have some interesting surprises the next season.

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Reply to
Boron Elgar

It really is that easy. ;-) As long as the vegetable in question has MATURE seeds!

You can also plant garlics from the clove heads at the grocery store, as well as potatoes, yams and pearl onions but I'd rather plant onions from seed and gather new seed when those bloom.

The summer squash and zucchini at the store tho' tends to be too young. The seeds are not mature! Mature summer squashes are tough and inedible once they are ready to seed, but that won't stop you from starting your own from purchased seeds, then leaving a few choice ones ON the vine/bush for your own seeds next year!

Speaking of grocery store seeds, I found this to be a bit amusing! One of my neighbors was growing his first garden and loves black eyed peas, so wanted to raise some. He asked me where he could get inexpensive, bulk bean seeds.

I told him "the grocery store". He said, no, for planting. I told him that ANY bags of ANY variety of whole, dried beans at the store would do just fine, grow just fine and produce very well! :-)

He'd never thought of the fact that beans are _seeds_!

Kat

Reply to
Katra

An obsession of mine: different garlic varieties do differently well at different locations. You may likely do OK with store bought, but there's a universe of wonderful garlic out there that isn't mass-produced. Why not get a few bulbs from somebody near you and raise your own?

Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Reply to
Gary Woods

I've had trouble growing garlic... I need to try a special bed for it with better drainage.

I seldom eat fresh garlic too, so I'd not want to grow much. If I eat fresh garlic, I smell and taste it in my mouth for HOURS and it makes me nauseated after awhile.

I know this is sacrelige, but I prefer garlic powder......

Reply to
Katra

It often can be. Let a couple of onions go to seed, and after the pods have matured and the seed fallen you'll have onion seedlings coming up all around next Spring! Lift them and arrange in neat rows as you desire. The same goes for some flowers, too. You can harvest your own sunflower seeds, and marigolds are easy, as well. I've harvested lots of snapdragon seeds and not one sprouted, so that is one flower not to waste time with!

You could let mustard go to seed and harvest the ripe pods, if you want mustard seed. Beans are another crop where you can allow a few of the latecomers to mature and dry out. With potatoes just buy small ones and wait till they shoot then plant them.

Reply to
John Savage

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