If you want seeds cheaply, you can get them from WinterSown, it will only cost you the postage as the seeds are shared freely. Currently, there's over a 140 on the list, so it's got a lot of variety to choose from.

Here is a link that might be useful: Your Choice Tomato SASE

Another source for low cost tomato seeds is Remy's Sample Seed Shop, which I've linked to below.

She produces all of her own seed and shows pictures of most of the varieties. When you open the site click on buy tomato seeds at the top.

I've known Remy for many years and her selection of varieties and customer Service is excellent as you can see from some of the comments at her site as well as many I've seen online.

I don't know how she does all she does since she works full time as the Produce Manager at a Wegman's near Buffalo, NY and Wegman's is rated one of THE BEST supermarket chains in the US.

A couple of years ago Wegman's was offering sturdy shopping bags with either tomatoes or grapes printed on them. So what does Remy do but ask if anyone is interested ( she posts elsewhere where I do) and for a modest fee she sent those out to I can't tell you how many folks.

Anyway, take a look at the varieties she offers, and see if anything appeals to you.

Carolyn, who notes that Trudi is no doubt buried in snow as is Carolyn. Who knows when I'll get plowed and dug out of the almost two feet of snow out there. Sigh. All I ask is the power stays on.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Sample Seed Shop

Thank you both so much - two fantastic sources! I am soooo excited.

I hope you're already plowed and dug out Carolyn, and may the power stay on too. We dug out four cars, the driveway, the sidewalks, the front and back decks and two large patches of yard where the puppy can make. I came in saturated and very cold, and have spent the day bundled up and under blankets. I'll second Remy as a soruce of seeds, she's got good seed stock and she's also a very nice person.

Another source is the GardenWeb exchanges! Start checking the Seed Exchange, Tomato Exchange, or Round Robin Exchange from time to time and you'll eventually find someone offering seeds you might want.

Another source is the GardenWeb exchanges! Start checking the Seed Exchange, Tomato Exchange, or Round Robin Exchange from time to time and you'll eventually find someone offering seeds you might want.

*****

Above I said that with one exception I never trade seeds and one of the reasons is b'c the number of traded seeds or seeds gotten from exchanges have, in general, a much higher percentage of Crossed varieties.

Several years ago I used to do a WRONG Varieties thread here at GW and that point was made amply. I've been posting online about gardening and especially tomatoes since 1989 and it's always been that way.

If someone has lots of space and knows how to rogue out wrong plants, OK, but for those who have limited space and spend all that time raising the plants only to find that they don't have the variety they expectd, that's bad news.

There is not ONE commercial source that hasn't had problems with OP seeds b'c that's the nature of the situation, but those rates are way lower than with traded seeds or seeds just asked for.

And as regards those small family commercial sources some do ALL of their seed production, some subcontract out seed production and some buy off the shelf wholesale and some do a combination of those three sources.

Years ago I used to do a free seed offer here at GW as well, and the results were always interesting to me. For fresh seed produced in lets say 2005 and when I asked for feedback on germination the rates would range from 100% to )%, I kid you not.

Well, this isn't a diatribe, but I would be cautious when getting seed or trading seed from tomato seed exchanges and the like b/c you have no real idea if the person you're interacting with, or interacting blindly with, bags blossoms, uses geographic isolation and if not those methods, knows what the general X pollination rate is where they grow and it's not the same everywhere.

Carolyn

Do you bag your blossoms Carolyn?

I don't bag my blossoms Trudi but for several years now, since I fell ( Dec of 2004) and have to use this walker, the folks who have been doing the major seed production for me do bag blossoms.

Previously, when I was growing many hundreds of plants and varieties each summer I didn't bag blossoms b'c there were too many plants to do so, but I kept good records for all the ones I listed in the SSE YEarbooks and of maybe several hundreds that I listed there I can think of only less than about ten that had some X pollinated seeds; some varieties X pollinate more easily than others. That's how I know that my X pollination rate is about 5% which means that statistically, of seeds saved from 100 varieties on average 5 could have X pollinated seeds.

But many folks have no idea at all what their X pollinate rate is.

To this day I always write with my blurb in the front of the each Yearbook that seed purity is not guaranteed b'c there have been times that I've saved seeds here at home with Freda's help ( post 2004), she who now does all my gardening for me, and this refers to 2005 and beyond.

And this also refers to all the varieties that I offer in my free seed offer elsewhere, meaning, no guarantee of seed purity. I think it's best to be very upfront about these issues, so I am and in those seed offers I'm often listing seed produced pre 2004.

Carolyn

Very informative Carolyn! I stopped trading tomato seeds several years ago for the reason you above state. To waste a whole tomato season on tomatoes I thought I was growing but didn't is something I don't have time for.

I already got an email that Remy's seeds are in the mail. I'm good to go and happy for your information.

So, if we shouldn't trade for toms seeds on forums, why would we want to get them from the SSE yearbook? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me as folks there may mention OP, but often don't mention bagged or not bagged.

In my own garden, I grow too many to bag, however, I do give a variety its own bed, with beds well separated. And throughout the entire garden is a smorgasbord of blooms, so tom flowers aren't the only game in the garden.

For the past few years I've grown plants from NPGS seed--even a few of their lots are crossed. Sigh. It's inevitable. I would never dicourage anyone from trading, but do encourage people to cull every step of the way. Any off types should be yanked on sight and seeds should be saved from several fruits on only the hardiest and healthiest plants.

So, if we shouldn't trade for toms seeds on forums, why would we want to get them from the SSE yearbook? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me as folks there may mention OP, but often don't mention bagged or not bagged.

*****

Trudi, I'm not suggesting that folks get them from the SSE YEarbook, far from it b/c it's my opinion that folks should have grown quite a few varieties before even contemplating an SSE membership, unless they wish to do so b'c they support the mission of SSE to preserve OP varieties.

What I am saying is that there are alternatives to SSE if someone doesn't want to trade seeds and those alternatives are the now several small family owned businesses that specialize in tomatoes and almost all of them do process their own seed and have very few problems with X pollination.

I've urged folks to buy at least half of their seeds and if they want to trade for the rest OK. It's the small family owned places that have done the most in helping with seed preservation by making so many varieties available to the public.

Almost ALL places where tomatoes are featured initially got many of their starts via the YEarbook, and I'm talking commercial places now.

This thread asked for inexpensive seeds and I suggested Remy's Sample Seed Shop.

But going further than that I'll list some of the smaller family run businesses that perhaps some here might consider:

Tania's T-base website, b'c Tania sells seed for lots of varieties

Glecklerseedmen

Marianne Jones at mariseeds

Mike Dunton at Victory Seeds

Glenn Drowns at Sandhill Preservation with over 400 varieties listed.

..... and those are just ones off the top of my head.

The SSE YEarbook should NOT be looked at as a seed catalog, rather as a mechanism for facilitating preservation of OP varieties. SSE also has a PUBLIC catalog, as many here know, from which anyone can order seeds.

Finally, to get back to what I cut and pasted above. Folks want to trade seeds b'c it usually costs a stamp or two. And there's no information, usually, as to whether or not blossoms were bagged, or whatever.

When one requests seeds from an SSE listed member it's also true that usually no information is given as to bagging or geographic isolation. But there is a request price for those seeds which is about the same as most commercial places, so not cheap seeds at all. OTOH one has about 4000 varieties to select from and many are very rare and hard to get otherwise. But as I said above, it's my opinion that folks hopefully have grown many of the well known varieties first, before they go looking for rare stuff, and there are those commercial places where the owners are SSE members and many rare varieties already are offered, and that would pertain to Jere Gettle at Baker Creek, Glenn Drowns at Sandhill, Adam Gleckler at Glecklers and Marianne Jones and Tania K at her site, to name just a few.

Carolyn

This is a very interesting discussion and I now am wondering how accurate I can be with saving my own OP seeds? In the past, using my own saved seeds I noticed some very bad results in a few instances and just assumed I had miss-marked my seeds. Now I realize they were flowers that were cross pollinated.

My plants are all in one bed, so the opportunity for X pollination is very high, I would guess. But then, I only save seeds from the very best specimen on a plant. I love saving my own seeds and actually that is the reason I wanted a good variety of OP seeds to plant this year.

Please keep the discussion going --- I am learning a lot.

All excellent points Carolyn, and I'm with you in supporting small family-run business.

Carmen, if you have space, try growing some DETs in containers which you can place around the property as you like. I do grow several each year in containers, and have a long row of them up against the garage--they are right next to each other but in this pot row I grow the hardiest looking volunteers I find throughout the garden, and from them I save seeds from the best of the best, and those go into a blend.

Container growing can give you better distance between varieties if you space the containers well apart. It could be an option for you in the future. There are numerous posts at this forum on how to make and use containers--all great info!

Trudi

Carolyn, you do make some good points, though you seem to be assuming that all GardenWeb trades are of saved seed.

I find a lot of them are actually commerical seed. People will buy a packet, split it up, keep part, and trade the rest.

But yeah, I concur that trading through GardenWeb is not for everybody. You are more likely to get crossed seeds (if you are trading for seeds someone saved), but I've also had problems with getting seeds that weren't viable, seeds that got totally pulverized because the person didn't pad their envelopes, and people being stingy and only sending a tiny bit of something (which kind of depends on what veg you're talking about, but I don't see how, say, only 10 carrot seeds is going to do anyone much good). And then there's of course the remote but still real possibily of the other person not upholding their end of the bargain at all.

But, on the other hand, it's cheapy cheap cheap-cheap. So it's kind of a You Get What You Pay For thing. I guess I just mentioned online trades since the OP emphasized "inexpensive", but maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut (or my hands still, as the case may be).

Certainly there is much less risk in just buying seeds from a reputable business. I haven't tried Remy's but it does look good.

neo, I wasn't referring to asking for/trading seeds just at GW for there are such Seed Forums at every place where I read/post.( smile)

And yes, cheapie it is but not so cheap when one figures in the time spent sowing seed, raising the transplants, caring for them after being set out only to find that you don't have what you thought you were going to have.

And yes, a few, not many where I post, do offer commercial seeds that they've bought and it's courtesy, I think to state where those seeds were bought b'c there's a rather large difference in credibility amongst commercial seed sources as I see it.

Carolyn

Howdee

I just ordered from The Sample Seed shop the other day and received email my seeds shipped already. They also have really great selection as well as wonderful prices.

In my opinion the swap area is a great place to meet people as well as trade seeds. I use to do a lot of trading or swaps. When I planted seeds then I would always plant commercial seeds as well as the ones I received traded. I just rarely relied or banked on what I got traded. It's all just fun.

Acres

agree 100% with Acres on this one. If someone is commercially growing or total subsistence farming, trading may represent a risky undertaking. Buy a few, save a few, trade a few - always give source & year of seed &, if saved, indicate whether bagged or not, then it is all good.
I have gotten some wonderful plants from traded seed over the years & hope I have shared varieties that gave as much pleasure to others as they have given me.

I like the Sample Seed Shop very much; you can order a few flowers or other vegetables with your tomato order. I even thought, too late for this year, that her little packets would be nice to send with Christmas cards to a few select friends. Sandhill is also good and inexpensive but you have to be patient. They don't usually have their list up yet, but it will be up in time for planting. They also have other interesting vegetable seed at very reasonable prices. Tania's site is great and she is great to deal with. The postage at all these places is very reasonable. It is really fun to make out your order from Trudi's deal and to get the package. I have had good results with her seeds. Just doing the research to make out your order is great for mental health this time of year.

I believe you will find seeds much lower price at FEDCO SEEDS and much more to choose from. they do sell some hybrids but they are clearly marked.

Fedco sells full sized amounts of seeds, many below $1. I do not believe you can beat Fedco with anyone else. They are a farmers cooperative so sell only the very highest quality seeds and are not so interested in profit as they are in getting seeds to people at the lowest prices.

Here is a link that might be useful: fedco catalog

I've bought seed from commercial growers that were not what they advertised several times. I think that is more disappointing.

I USUALLY break up a commercial pack and share but have gotten burned on that too because of mistakes with the commercial pack. I do have to say, I have on occasion gotten something that others have wanted and shared my own saved seed - but this is rare.

Stuff happens - even the experts have a 5% X pol. People have to keep this in mind.

I checked out your fedco link. I am making out an order now. There are not as many kinds of tomatoes as the companies I recommended but there are all sorts of other vegetables and flowers for cheap prices. At first I thought the $5 fee for orders under $30 was an issue until I started looking at all the kinds of lettuce and radishes etc. I am sure I will hit the $30 mark no problem. Making out seeds orders gets me through January. I will have fun researching to make my order, thanks.

Carmen,

You could always do what I did when I first started "collecting" heirloom tomato and pepper seeds. I became friends with another forum member and we collaborated on our seed orders. We both made lists of seeds we were interested in getting and compared them. Where we shared interests (and that was frequently) we'd split the list in half, and my friend would order half of them and I'd order the other half, then when we got the seeds, we'd repackage half of them and send them off to the other person. That cut our costs by quite a bit when ordering new seeds.

We don't do that anymore. Because of illnesses and other stuff, we lost contact. We probably had three or four hundred varieties each (with a lot of overlap!) These days when I buy commercial seeds, I often wind up sharing them with others who are looking for what I have purchased, and I still do some trading. I have had very few problems with trades [knock on wood or formica], probably because I have so much room and grow so many tomatoes, that a few "off" ones don't bother me.

Betsy

That is a great idea, Betsy and one I will try next season. I ordered 12 varieties from the Sample Seed Shop and will save seeds from all of those (assuming I have a decent tomato crop this year.)

Anyone know of a source other than Sand Hill Preservation for Nicky Crain & Ukrainian Heart (TNMU) ?

When looking for seed sources the first place I go is to Tania's Tomato data base and I've linked below to the page at her site with seed sources for Ukrainian Heart.

For Nicky Crain she shows only herself as a source for 2011 but sold out already.

Tania has not had the time to update all the 2011 seed sources b'c so many places were late with their seed catalogs and updating their websites.

Many folks have gotten both varieties from Glenn at Sandhill. IS there a problem that you've had with Sandhill in the past such that you're lookiong for another seed source? I do know that the catalogs are going out much later than before for a variety of reasons and those to the East Coast went out last Friday and Glenn asked me to let him know when I got mine. They will go out in batches across the country based on zip code.

Just a wee anecdote. He said that two whole pages got messed up and knowing that I don'tlike the variety Sandpoint he told me that I'd be happy b'c it came out as Sandpit. LOL

I have seeds for both but they're so old I wouldn't send them to anyone. LOL

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Ukrainian Heart

Carolyn

Yes I did find Ukrainian Heart after my post. I will order them from Tania's. No I do not have any problem with Sandhill at all except I e-mailed them a few days ago asking if they had Nicky Crain and Ukrainian Heart and the response was no because they had a bunch of rain last year which caused crop failure with both of these. So that's why I asked on this forum if anyone knew of another source. So I guess I'll have to wait till next year for the Nicky Crain. Maybe I'll try Slankard's instead. Thanks for your help. Hope you are well.

Dan

Dan

I received my Nicky Crain from mariseeds. She doesn't have it listed on her website, but she is listing it in the SSE yearbook, so I know she has it. Also Ukrainian Heart

http://www.mariseeds.com/seedcatalog/catcontents.html

Thanks for your help. I e-mailed her and asked if she has any. Was not aware of this source. Thank you for showing it to me. Looks like a source I will looking at some more. You folks are the most knowledgeable and helpful people. Thanks again.

Dan