It's funny you listed Burpee first for good germination rates. While I generally don't have much problems with seeds from various vendors including the 10 cent seed racks, this year I had sub par germination from a variety of Burpee seeds both veggies and ornamentals. No other supplier had such problems. These were direct ordered over the web from burpee. Some were tomatos, some were other veggies, others were ornamentals like Jester Millet which I have grown for 3 years with no problem.

If I have another bad 'Burpee year' i will just write them off entirely. I have never had such bad germination as with this year's Burpee seeds.

The tomatoes I grew this year that were not from savers were:
the Cherry Tomato blend from Burpee for 2009(Sungold, Sweet 100, yellow pear, I had probably 20 plants make it to adulthood out of about 24 seeds (and the ones that didn't make it were probably my fault, I didn't have any empty cells at seedling time).
Heirloom Sampler from Jung for 2007 (high viability)
And some heirloom seeds for 2007 I'd bought off ebay from a seller called GroCo. I purchased several from them and was very happy - big bags and good combined shipping. (I'm not related to the seller at all.)

Yeah my "germination honor role" certainly wouldn't include Burpee. If it wasn't for the fact that they control all the Brandy Boy seeds I wouldn't deal with them at all.

Or with a couple of others on your list per past discussions here. Which only goes to show that there are many more variables at play than just seed source when it comes to germination rates. ;)

The Rate & Review Vendors forum here at GW offers some VERY enlightening reading when it comes to where to buy or NOT buy your seeds.

Dave

My germination honor role for tomatoes would be Johnny Seeds, SSE and
Heirloom Seeds. These are the only ones I have ordered from. I plan to
try Sandhill Preservation next time.

Ferry Morse (easily available) is high up on my list, especially their certified organic line.

Johnny's is the only one who has never disappointed. All the rest have to one degree or another and those would include Totally Tomatoes, TGS, Burpee and Parks.

This year's "worst in show" prize goes to Totally Tomatoes. I ordered 8 pepper plants. I should have known better but at their low price I decided I'd let them grow my favorites for me and I could use my seed starting space for other veggie starts. 3 out of the 8 were snapped in half from poor packing and the other 5 were very tall leggy plants growing in a tiny 1 inch soil medium block. I mean, did they give any light at all to these plants or what??? They are planted and haven't grown at all in 3 weeks. Never again...

I've got you beat on the 40 years buying tomato seed although I produce all my own OP seed usually, but honestly, I don't look just at germination results.

It's just as important to me and I would assume others, to get seeds that are true to the variety, actually even more so than just germination that's great.

Germination rates can vary tremendously depending on the individual. I make seed offers. I can distribute seeds for variety X that are absolutely fresh seed and the germination reports I get back can range from 100% to 0%, yes, I said 0% bc not everyone sows seed the same way, uses the same mix, etc.

And different retail seed sources acquire seeds in different ways. Some produce all their own seed, speaking OP now, some buy off the shelf, some subcontract out and many do a combination of the above.

The overall freshest best germinating seeds, that's OP seed, that I know of are from SandHill bc Glenn sells no tomato seed over 2 yo.

As for hybrid tomato seed I've always had good luck with Harris seeds and Stokes, and others have made excellent comments about Johnny's and Pinetree and SSE seed ( from the public catalog) and a few others.

but I do think it's perhaps best to look at those companies that sell only OP seed as opposed to those that sell primarily hybrid seed, as opposed to those that sell both in equal numbers if companies are to be compared.

Again, germination is NOT my major concern, trueness of seed is.

I used to do a wrong varieties thread here at GW and it became apparent that some companies are much better than others when it comes to selling seed that was true for the variety.

And NO company is perfect re seed trueness or good germination of seeds.

Carolyn

> As for hybrid tomato seed I've always had good luck with Harris seeds and Stokes, and others have made excellent comments about Johnny's and Pinetree and SSE seed ( from the public catalog) and a few others. (snip...) Yes, I should have included Stokes. I haven't bought from them for several years, but did have good germination with their products. Never tried Sandhill -- I'll check them out.

I predominantly use hybrids, so "true to type" hasn't been such a big issue with me.

I am surprised at all the issues with Burpee -- I typically get 90%+, rapid germination with their tomato and eggplant seeds (but little experience with flowers).

-WC

I am going to throw a whole different view into this discussion. I think I have 17 different tomato this year. I started some way too early and had very good germination. Later I started a new bunch and had terrible luck. I needed some more and tried a third time, this time with seed starter rather than the potting mix I usually use, with even worse results. Pretty much the same conditions each time, Heat pad etc. Maybe I over watered them, Maybe the moon was wrong.. Right now I have some Minisotta Migit melons that have been on a heat pad for 11 days with no sprouts. My whole point is that what we blame on the seed company could very well be some minor change in the conditions we are planting in. Maybe a cold night, a over water, or some thing we never noticed.
Kenny

> I am going to throw a whole different view into this discussion. (snip...) Good point, but I presume from your comments that you had success/failure with each planting/trial -- not "seed A" versus "seed B" etc. within the same planting/trial?

But your point is well taken. If you had planted "A" in your first planting and "B" in your second planting, your conclusions could be much different -- that "A" was great and "B" was poor.

-WC