Rachels Tomato Seed Supply

Wow!!!.....Over 350 tomato seed types, probably take me all winter to decide......LOL, Scooterbug

Isn't it great!! Who would've thought there were so many types. I've ordered from them twice and have been very pleased with their seeds, price, selection and prompt delivery. Good luck narrowing down your choices :)

What's the url to this site?

Wow!!!.....Over 350 tomato seed types, probably take me all winter to decide......LOL, Scooterbug

Scooter and others,

Reliable places to buy true seed are increasingly hard to find. It all depends on whether you want to go with a place that offers primarily F1 hybrids or a place that specializes in OP primarily heirloom varieties or one that offers both.

Two places that carry even more than that 350 varieties are Tomato Growers Supply, with both hybrids and OP's, and Sand Hill Preservation which carrys well over 400 OP varieties at prices as low as $1.25/pack for 30 seeds plus if you order at least 10 packs.

I can recommend both of the above but it's getting increasingly difficult to recommend those places that sell OP heirlooms because of problems with seed purity.

Number of varieties carried I don't think should be a primary criterion. Purity of OP seed, service, and reasonable time of shipment are all important. So there are several companies that maybe don't carry so many varieties but do a better job of what they are doing. Baker Creek and Heirloomseeds come to mind and there are several others.

I'
m too lazy to post URL's here but for the places I mention they are easily found by going to Google.com. and I'm pretty sure there's a seed source list here somewhere but I don't know where that link is here at DG.


if you want lots and lots of OP varieties to select from, join SSE where about 4,000 OP varieties are listed for members. (smile)

But I don't suggest that folks new to the heirloom field get their seeds as SSE members initially from the members SSE Annual listings. One can order from the public SSE catalog from which anyone can order . But there are only about 40 varieties listed there.

There is no company selling OP seed that doesn't have problems, just by the nature of how OP seed is produced. But there sure are companies that are better than others, in my opinion. (smile) Well not just in my opinion, becasue each year I keep track of wrong varieties folks receive from different sources.

Carolyn

Here's a list of companies that specialize in tomato seeds: http://gardenwatchdog.com/advanced.php?category=80&submit=Search

Url's to check out:
Rachel's Tomato supply
http://www.seedman.com/Rachel/Tomato.htm

Tomato Grower's supply
http://tomatogrowers.com/

Sandhill Preservation
http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/

Seed Saver's Exchange
http://www.seedsavers.org/

Thanks for all the info. I'm going surfing now. :)

Tomato Growers is my favorite for tomato, peppers & eggplant.
Larkie

Terry,

Thanks for the link. I knew it was here but I didn't know where it was. Sigh.

Of the ones listed there are a couple of them that I consider to be outright frauds for a number of reasons. One of them has renamed several well known varieties and also has sold them by the wrong name on e-bay and has also misrepresented other information. I happen to be involved with this issue and it's BAD.

If you wish to e-mail me privately about this fine, if not,I understand. But I hate to see folks taken in by companies that are much less than truthful in what they are selling and then wrong varieties get redistributed to others. The pure seed problem is bad enough but blatant misinformation is just as bad in my view.

Carolyn

Carolyn, as the site's administrators we can't (and won't) place ourselves in the precarious position of issuing endorsements or negative warnings on the companies listed, although we do relate our own experiences as typical, ordinary customers.

I know some people are reluctant to provide feedback (for a variety of reasons), but we strongly encourage all customers to submit comments and ratings for the companies they've ordered from. While your recommendations may carry more weight with readers who are familiar with your credentials, I hope that won't preclude you from providing feedback. If you don't want to go so far as to leave negative ratings for some companies, you can choose the neutral rating and explain in your comment the reasons why you can't give them a postive rating. Your experience would definitely benefit others who rely on the Watchdog for guidance in choosing companies to deal with.

Carolyn, as the site's administrators we can't (and won't) place ourselves in the precarious position of issuing endorsements or negative warnings on the companies listed, although we do relate our own experiences as typical, ordinary customers

I do understand Terry.

I had thought that if I transmitted to you privately some of which I'm somewhat loathe to post publically, for several reasons, that something might be done. Foolishly I guess, I though perhaps the two companies I feel most strongly about might be deleted but I can see that if as administrators here you elected to post the seed sources you did, then you're not going to delete any of them.

I just hadn't thought far enough ahead on that.

My apologies for a somewhat leaky brain from time to time. (smile)

Carolyn

Dave and I (mostly me, I guess) were reluctant to add the notoriously bad mail-order companies when we launched the Watchdog. But as you've noticed, they're in there along with everybody else. Most of them are loaded with negative comments, which hopefully serve to warn other would-be customers before it's too late.

To omit a company because we feel it's not reputable leads users to one of two conclusions: that we overlooked the company; or worse - that "no news is good news" and it must be an okay company to order from. If we state upfront that we list only "good" companies, then by definition, any company not listed would be deemed "bad" by its absence. Which would place us in an untenable position:

1) Our personal opinions (and biases) are then inherently more valuable than all other consumers combined, since we would be pre-empting everyone else's ability to voice their opinion.

2) Any explanation/disclaimer we provided would get us into some nasty legal territory in a big hurry.

3) What about "good companies gone bad?" (There are some of those, too.) People who had a bad experience might then look to us for relief, because WE listed the company, and we hold ourselves out as only listing the "good" companies.

4) What about the perfectly reputable companies out there that haven't been added yet? It would be a shame for readers to infer that the lack of listing was attributable to anything other than us being unaware of the company's existence.

For all those reasons, we take the simple, egalitarian approach: all companies that sell gardening "stuff" online or via mailorder can be listed, and each company develops an overall image, based on the ratings and comments that are left by their customers. That has worked well, as long as people are willing to speak up and voice their concerns about companies, as well as sing the praises of the good'uns.