Agree! With the cost of a postage stamp, you can trade here with fellow growers. Usually heirloom too!

Well, I'm not sure if any fellow growers are producing F1 hybrids, which is what Sweet 100s are. VFN and all that. That's why trades are usually with heirloom varieties.

I used to trade out of large packets, so it is possible.

See if a Home Depot, Lowes, or similar big box store has the seeds. The ones near me sell seeds by both Burpee and Ferry Morse, with FM being cheaper for the exact same variety of seed.

Rodney

The nurseries are responding to the TYPICAL consumer's requests for fewer seeds. They will plant 10, grow 3 and it's all they want. You are paying for the "rack space", the fancy packaging, and other overhead such as heating and cooling and parking and ... it's a long list.

When you order online, you are (usually) paying for a small plastic ziplock bag with a laser-printed label, or a plain white paper envelope with a printed stick-on label. And a non-fancy industrial building somewhere with boxes of seeds on shelves and a couple of people to fill orders. It's far less expensive. A box of 10-seed packets and the boxes of 50, 250 and 500-seed packets are all taking up a very tiny bit of warehouse space.

Yeah at Home Depot and Lowes etc they have the Burpee and Ferry Morse racks and everything is under $2. If you are looking for bargain seeds those are the brands, and the prices are set by the manufacturer. They surely have the Sweet 100.

Yes, I think you are correct. The big box hardware stores have seeds that are much cheaper - Burpee, FM, etc. I guess the rule has to be that if you want something special, look at the nurseries. If it's something common, head for the big box hardware store. I usually associate nurseries with more carefully handled and stored seeds, but I had never noticed the astonishing price differential.

As to consumer requests for fewer seeds in a packet, I have no big problem with that, except the price should be adjusted accordingly. I'm paying for 10 seeds what I should be paying for 40!

Menard's carries Burpee seeds and they are always 40% off the price listed on the pack....plus the store sometimes has a sale on the seeds....another 20% to 40% off the discounted price. And sometimes an 11% storewide rebate you must mail. The Burpee packs sold at retail stores usually don't line up exactly with their catalog offerings. Weights may be different, seed mixtures may have different varieties, some varieties seldom or never show up in retail places. I've seen Brandy Boy once....about 7 or 8 years ago....and I do look at multiple places.

I'll check the big box stores and the smaller local garden centers before ordering since prices are usually much less. Plus I love to browse the racks and touch and read the actual packs. Heck, I even have a collection of empty seed packs at home. My husband jokes that they are MY baseball cards :)

However, I live in a good sized town with several great garden centers and big box stores. For those living in other areas, internet sales seem like the way to go...just watch for a promo if price is a big concern. Many of the online places do have deals, especially if you have signed up for their emails.

The disincentive about online orders is shipping costs. If you're just getting one pack, that doubles the price. Of course, those shipping costs are ridiculous -- far above what postage would be. I go that route when I'm after unusual varieties, though it isn't often that even a good online house has all the unusual varieties I want. So have to order from several companies, and pay inflated shipping charges for each.

Dan said, "As to consumer requests for fewer seeds in a packet, I have no big
problem with that, except the price should be adjusted accordingly. I'm
paying for 10 seeds what I should be paying for 40!"

You are paying to get that seed packet into that rack for you: The cost of the packaging, distribution, stocking the racks and ringing up the sale for a packet with 10 seeds and one with 40 seeds is the same. The cost of the contents is a tiny part of it.

So I guess racks at Home Depot and Lowes are a lot more expensive than the racks at my local nursery? Who knew? And the shipping charges from online vendors are atrocious. I guess my rack at home is even more expensive than those!

Burpee at least does deliberately relabel varieties on the rack. They seem to make stuff up because they don't want people looking for a deal. I don't think tomatoes are as big an issue with this as other plants.

Last year Botanical Interests got me to pay stupid tax with the low number of seeds for Sun Gold tomatoes. I thought I would just grab the package while I was at the nursery. Their seeds are often a bit pricier than Burpee at Wal-Mart or Ferry Morse or wherever, but I felt okay about it since I was supporting a company that is somewhat regional to me and supporting the nursery, too. I was okay about it until I opened the package and saw how few seeds there were. I will be paying closer attention in the future.

I just spent about $60 on 5 carrot varieties and one squash, from Johnny's. That sounds like alot but I order the 5,000 seed carrot packages which last a long time. Carrot seeds last for several years no problem. It's much cheaper in those quantities if you can use them. Still they were like 7-11 dollars each and those were the cheaper ones available. I always get good carrot seeds from Johnny's so I want to stick with them. I think I'm going to be much more careful planting carrots this year. Usually I plant them so thick I end up thinning at least 5 out of 6. Wasteful. If I plant more carefully I can cut the price in half.

zour dollar store sells sweet 100's for...$1, and I usually get 80-90% to germinate just fine. I'll buy last season in Dec for 10c a packet. So, you might try that.

Is that Dollar Store, as in caps? I have one down the street. Never thought of looking there for seeds, but that's a good idea.

I think I've seen sweet 100's at Family Dollar in the 4 packs for a dollar displays. Yeah, they have less seeds than normal packs, but at 25 cents a piece you can't really complain. Now's about the time of year they show up (haven't checked yet this year, though).

I've noticed that Home Depot has a buy one get one free week on ALL seed packets each year. Locally, this happens in April. Even though its BOGO free, they actually ring up as half price.

Since this sale is in April, it may be a bit late for the current season for some seeds (tomatoes, peppers, etc), but if you're able to plan ahead for the following year, you can really get some good deals.

I just opened a fresh pack of popular hybrid tomato seeds I purchased last April during the HD sale. There were a total of 26 seeds and I paid a total of 85 cents (which includes tax) for the packet. That's 3.26 cents per seed.

I could order the exact same varity right now online and get 35 seeds for $8.90 (including shipping). That's 25.4 cents per seed.

I certainly does pay to shop around and become aware of when and where the deals are.

Dan in the dirt: I have a couple of extra packs of that Super Sweet 100 Hybrid Cherry Tomato. If you want, I can pop that in the mail for you. E mail: bienchat@hotmail.com

Hmm. Well, I already bought my seeds ($.38/seed = $40,000/lb!) but I'll make note of these good suggestions for next year. As to a seed promotion in April, hah, my season starts in late February! But yes, it makes some sense to stock up for the following year.

I'm just going to plug this, except for tomatoes, I get a lot of my veggy seeds from MiGardener's store, 99cents and a small shipping fee. Generous amount of seeds too, usually more than stated.

Actually that's not bad. Growers price from Clifton $3752 per lb. There are hybrids that go for close to $40,000 per lb. Unit price goes drastically down with volume. When those of us that buy local recommend it, we are buying bulk seeds not packets.While that used to be ounces and lbs, today they usually have dippers of different sizes and can scoop up a small dipper to a large dipper. Discount stores are you best bet for packets, but are pretty limited as to variety. There use to be a number of Cheap seed companies like American which sold in drugstore , convenience stores, dollar stores etc. but I have not seen in the past couple of years. Target use to have racks of Burpee's Fordhook collection but have abandoned the garden section. I buy beans,peas, corn by the lb locally plus a few others where I can use an ounce or fraction of an ounce.

I want to thank folks for the suggestion about looking in a dollar store. I was skeptical, but I went to our local one today. I was astonished to see a good-sized seed display - American Seed, with common varieties, on special for 4 packets for a buck. These packets were all marked as being packaged for 2017. I bought and opened a package of tomato seeds, and found 40-50 seeds inside. We'll see.

There are several outfits calling themselves American Seed. This one seems to be associated with an outfit called Plantation Products, which in turn is associated in some way with Ferry Morse.

For common tried and true varieties, I've found the dollar store packs grow fine. When I think about it, it seems amazing that seed can be grown, packaged, shipped, and sold for just quarter....and by us the 4 for $1 is the regular price. Menards has a small rack of a low priced brand for $.35 a pack...sometimes on sale for much less. I check there, too, since they have some different varieties than Dollar Tree.

My experience was that there were fewer seeds in a package and the germination rate is not that great. For some plants such as vegetables, once you miss the window, you wind up paying more to get seedlings from a nursery. My 2 cents...

My feeling is that in each seedling pot, I just drop five or six seeds in. If the germination rate isn't great, no sweat. As I said, in one tomato package, there were loads of seeds. At that price for seed - less than a penny per seed, who cares? I'll see what the germination rate looks like. At least they are allegedly fresh seeds.

You get what you pay for ... but, one can hope.

Menards are only in north central U.S. None around here, or within a thousand miles.

Depends on what you want. Generic varieties are very easy to fine and grow regardless of who sold the packet. It's very easy to judge how many you are getting from a quick shake. Very specific varieties are next to impossible to find locally.

Another huge thing related to germination is how they transported and stored/displayed the seeds. A local HD puts their seed racks in the front next to the carts where temps hit 80-90F in full sun; after spring rush they put it *outside* in the garden area where indoor plants are found. 80F with near 100% humidity.

Yes, we're certainly talking about generic varieties. If you want Podunks Mauve Striped Tomatoes, you won't find those at any Dollar Store, Home Depot or nursery. But your HD example was my concern that drove me to nurseries. They know how to handle and protect seeds. But when you're looking at seed prices that are more than ten times lower, you'll tolerate a possibly lower germination rate.

There are several Ebay seed purveyors that charge a couple dollars for shipping but then additional packets ship free. I'm sure that there is some limit, they probably would not ship 1,000 packets free, but I bought 3 packets.

I have to be suspicious of ebay. Many of their seeds come from the orient, and who knows what happened to them between here and there. Many others aren't associated with any reputable vendor, so who knows if they know what they're doing. I'd be interested to hear about how it works for you.

I saw one e-bay ad for 12 packets of Burpee 2015 vegetable seeds for $6. No, you don't get to choose WHICH vegetable seeds. Duh?

Quite a few big box stores know what that are doing but I just gave that example as a heads up. As mentioned, seeds there go BOGO around early April. Even Walgreens has had BOGO seeds. Burpee, FM, AS, SoC, and I think another brand. Lowes and HD will price match each other. The only egregious priced seeds I have ever found are specialty herbs.

http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/tomatoes/tomato-super-sweet-100-hybrid-prod001013.html

So ~$2.50 for 50 seeds at big box stores nationwide in April.

If you want to see expensive, start growing uncommon fruit and trees from seed. Expensive seed + gibberellic acid + time spent for cold stratification and you only get a few viable seedlings.

If you're in the right part of the country, Menards has Valley Green seed packs at 9 cents each this week (11 for 99 cents). I've purchased some of them in the past (turnip greens, flowers) and they were fine. I think I purchased them because I have some type of serious mental problem where I can't pass up a seed rack without buying something.

They just opened their first 3 Menards in the KC metro area but I haven't made it over to the one closest to me yet. I like them because they have an outdoor lumber yard so I don't have to handle the lumber twice at the store like HD or Lowes.

I think I have all the seeds I need for this year after ordering from Johnny's and Totally Tomatoes but never say never.

For most seeds I started buying larger quantities every few years. I just plant a few more each year in case germination rates drop.

Well I never throw seeds away that are less than a couple years old. What we're talking about here is the price of new seeds. You can get a small discount by buying in quantity, but that offer has never been particularly inviting to me.

I'll buy a larger quantity of certain seeds that have a longer shelf life like Broccoli, Radishes, or Green Beans but not things like onions or leeks that lose viability pretty fast.

I have to be suspicious of ebay.

You have to do what is best for you. I always check feedback, and I've bought seed on Ebay before that has done well, my current bean seed is from Ebay. I no longer start tomatoes or peppers from seed but do start beans that way. The only seed that never did well was the chard, but even chard from a different vendor did badly. There are clearly some ridiculous ads on Ebay, but one can use one's common sense.

My local seed store has gotten more and more stingy with the amount of seeds in their packets...to the point where it's no longer an auto-buy for me (they used to be my exclusive seed supplier). I tried the dollar store seeds and germination was low and the tomato seeds I planted weren't the correct variety. I've ordered seeds online but only varieties I can't get locally. Sometimes the hardware stores have sales on their seeds, I noticed Lowe's has buy one, get one 50% off this week (I'm in Canada).

I have to say that I've never had a bad experience buying seeds on ebay...BUT...I do not buy from China..I always try to look at the feedback, and their location...if you are way up North and you buy from a seller in the deep South..then some varieties just won't do that well for you. I have bought seeds from a seller in the Ukraine..(Opalka tomato ), before it was more common here, and had a great experience. Buyer beware! Check the country and the feedback, and ebay is great for seed shopping!

This post and responses certainly takes me down memory lane. I've done most of what was mentioned, running the gamut from buying the "cheap" seeds to special ordering online for special items, paying ridiculous prices and S&H. After almost 60 years of gardening, I now go to local places that have bulk seeds and buy what I want. Less selection, but there are only two of us now and we don't do as much canning, etc. as we once did. The most amusing thing I ever saw was a display of "Martha Stewart" seeds at KMart. I was amazed, and took one packet of peas out of the display to look at and almost tossed it to the ceiling, it was that light. The price was $3.49 and that was about 15 years ago. :-)

"Martha Stewart" and other branded seeds still exist. Worse is the influx of "Organic" labeling.