Please list reputable seed companies

11 years ago

I keep reading on here, don't buy from ebay, don't buy from this company etc. Can someone list the 5 most reputable, tried and tested seed companies that you have been using for years that sell all the types of peppers including exotics?

Thanks,

Daryll

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Comments (31)

esox07 (4b) Wisconsin
11 years ago
Darylltx, I have only ordered of line one time and got so-so results. I got some wrong seed (2 of 4 varieties were wrong) and it cost me that season of growing for that seed. The plants that did come up wound up being desirable plants however and the retailer did make it up to me in the end. I will choose to not list their name as I cannot say I would or would not buy from them in the future.

But aside from ebay, amazon, and established seed sites online, I think it is wise to consider your local garden store for some of the more common seed. I think you could expect a very low rate of mixed seed from the well known suppliers such as Burpee. They are normally much cheaper too and you don't have to wait or worry about the mail either. Of course, you are not likely to see Bhut Jolokia, 7 pot or Twilight in the seed racks at Home Depot but if you just want some Cayenne, Sweet Banana, Bell, Jalapeno, etc...., then I would probably just stop at the garden center.

But stay tuned, this thread is likely to provide you with several recommendations for both bad and good online retailers for the more exotic varieties.
Bruce
esox07 (4b) Wisconsin
11 years ago
Oh, I think I was unclear above regarding Ebay and Amazon as sources for seed. My recommendations there is to stay well clear of those sites unless you like surprises....mostly bad surprises.
Bruce
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DMForcier
11 years ago
I have had very good luck with the big box stores that are supplied by Bonnie Plants (Lowe's, HD, Wal-Mart). They even snuck in a fatalii on me ("World's Hottest Habanero" though it really isn't a hab). Good strong plants. But you won't find any other super-hots there if that's what you're after.

I also like their herbs, and they do lots of tomatoes, but I haven't tried those.
John A
11 years ago
You won't go wrong buying from Beth at Peppermania. She's quick, reliable, and the quality is good. See the link below.
John A

Here is a link that might be useful: Peppermania
woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
11 years ago
I wouldn't buy Burpee or Ferry Morse. Although the plants are what they say, the germination rates are atrocious. I've had better luck going down to the grocery store and picking up fresh peppers in the produce section and dried chiles in the hispanic section and harvesting seeds from those.

I've read on these forums that NMSU Chile Pepper Institute and tomatogrowers.com are good sources.

Kevin
esox07 (4b) Wisconsin
11 years ago
Woohooman, I haven't had any trouble with germination rates on Burpee or Ferrey Morse seeds. However, I plant 4-5 seeds per starter container and pick the strongest looking one of the ones that come up and snip the rest off. But very rarely do I have less than 3 or 4 to choose from. At under $2 per pack, I can afford a couple dud seeds I guess. But as woohooman says, you likely will get slightly better results from some of the "Reputable" online sellers as they mostly do their harvesting and packing by hand where I am sure it is mostly machine driven by the bigger brick and mortar store brands. And you will likely find little to no exotic or super hot choices from them.
Bruce
Darylltx
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks all ill try tomato growers and pepper mania. I haven't ever heard any thing bad of tomato growers. I think as ghost's popularity peaks and is not in such a frenzied demand, we;ll start seeing them a lot at big box stores. I know I've seen a few more at local small town nurseries recently. I like to buy the ones at least a foot tall with some fruit already on the plant, so I can make sure it looks like a Bhut. However for some reason where I am in 95 degree temperature all summer I didn't get one Bhut pepper pollinate other than that one that was on the plant when I bought it in May. Hundreds of flowers, no pod. I finally chopped the plants down at 3 feet about 3 weeks ago, just too depressed to look at them any more and whiteflys were starting to enjoy the leaves. even when the temperature lowered to 85 high for the day, I gave it another 3 or 4 weeks flowers but no buds. I will always wonder why those BHUTs did not pollinate here.......

Daryll
abnorm
11 years ago
Besides the already mentioned Peppermania, TomatoGrowers and the NMSU Chile Pepper Institute ......I also buy from:

http://www.sampleseeds.com/

"small" seed packets at reasonable prices from a Buffalo, New York GardenWebber

http://www.gourmetseed.com/

Excellent quantity for a "normal" price...from New Mexico

doug
highalttransplant
11 years ago
Might as well throw my 2 cents in the pot : )

I'll second the recommendation for Peppermania!

Since you asked for the top 5:

2. Cross Country Nurseries

3. Trade Winds Fruit

4. Seed Savers Exchange

5. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Actually my number one favorite seed source is other members of the pepper forums. (This one, and another that I won't call by name, so that I don't get into trouble here.) Many of my favorites came from trades, or seed swaps.
Edymnion
11 years ago
The NMSU Chile Pepper Institute, their stuff is always tops.

The Hippy Seed Company, they've got all the nuclears you could ask for, and they always ship exactly what you order. Nice people, good product.

Pepper J... bwah ha ha ha... *wipes away tear* Oh man, sorry, I couldn't even get through that with a straight face. Yeah, not him. Ebay before PJ.
woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
11 years ago
Bruce: Here's my experience with those 2 companies and let me stress it's only with PEPPER seeds -- every other kind of veggie has had more than adequate germ rates.

Anaheims - sufficient (FM)
Jalapenos - sufficient (FM)
Serranos - less than sufficient (FM)
Habaneros - got 2 plants out of the whole pack (Burpee)
Poblano And Cascabella - not one seed sprouted Out of a dozen or so each that I tried this past spring -- I'll try again with them in the winter or what we here in SoCal call "winter." (FM)

In my opinion, one would probably do better paying the extra buck to one of the aforementioned online dealers and having a feeling of confidence that when it's time to start one's seeds that said seeds will pop up rather than "hope" that they do.

Just my 2 cents.

One further observation -- I get the general feeling(I don't know, It just may be me) that some of you don't really care for PepperJoe.

;)

Kevin
rick_in_va
11 years ago
Good experience from tomatogrowers and seed savers exchange. Out here in VA we have Southern States Coop. which is inexpensive and reliable, and very generous seed packets which they package themselves. You may be able to get seeds from them via mail.

We avoided mentioning the really awful online sellers. Would we get sued if we had a thread for "the five worst seed suppliers" in case there are naive newbies out there? Hint: rhymes with "rhymer".
woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
11 years ago
Rick_in_va said, "We avoided mentioning the really awful online sellers. Would we get sued if we had a thread for "the five worst seed suppliers" in case there are naive newbies out there? Hint: rhymes with "rhymer"."

Nope. Slander and libel are awfully hard to build cases on, especially when the "opinion" is based on personal experience with a particular company.
Bill106
11 years ago
Well with the guidance I've received here I can't go wrong. Thanks everyone.
scorpion_john
11 years ago
tomato growers is good, also pepperlover.com, judy is great, john
nuwanda
11 years ago
Sandia Seeds: Chimayo, Japapeno, Hatch all had great hit rates.

Hippy Seeds: Scotch, Brain Strain, good hit rates again.
willardb3
11 years ago
Try here for chile vendor reviews

Here is a link that might be useful: Hot Pepper
wichitachief
11 years ago
I've had good luck with refiningfirechiles.com.I did get a couple of mislabeled? from Tomato growers supply.Problem is one is a nice variety I liked which I can't reorder since it's not what I ordered (even though the package said it was).
kuvaszlvr
11 years ago
3 of my favorites (along with many of the ones listed above) are Terra Time & Tide. Lenora is great, she goes out of her way with customer service and she has good seeds at a great price. She sells on ebay and I won't generally buy seeds on ebay but got her name as a reputable seller a long time ago.

Wayland Chilies on Local Harvest. Spencer has great seeds too and also goes the extra mile with customer service and he has great prices on his super hots too.

Junglerain, Grant is great too. And he's got some really wild hybrids, and seeds you can't find anywhere else. Even with him being in Australia, his seeds arrive really fast.

Pam
wjp4140
10 years ago
I bought seeds from peppers of the world. They were at a garden store, though they have a web site.
seysonn
10 years ago
Posted by woohooman San Diego z 10a (My Page) on
Wed, Oct 10, 12 at 15:22
I've had better luck going down to the grocery store and picking up fresh peppers in the produce section and dried chiles in the hispanic section and harvesting seeds from those. ..Kevin
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That is mostly what I do too. Right now I have most of my pepper seeds collected same way.
When comes planting time , I might pick a few seedlings from the BBS. I have not bought pepper seeds for a long long time that I can remember. Hispanic, Indo-Pakistani, Asian stores, Farmers market .. have been my source plus whatever I grow myself.
pepper_rancher
10 years ago
I get my seeds for everything *except* peppers at Morgan County Seeds (lettuce, kale, tomatoes, etc).
What kind of pepper seeds are you looking for, someone here will probably send them to you for SASE or for trade...
ruthz
10 years ago
I didn't see Peppergal mentioned and I was thinking about ordering a few from there this year. Any comments. I don't order from ebay or if I have to use paypal.
I have a ton of seeds, but most are from trades. Do any of you worry about what they were grown with and if your growing the true pepper?
I'm growing Beaver Dam this year for the 2nd or 3rd time. This year it's bigger and better then in the past years.
This is what made me think maybe I should start with new seeds if it's the 1st time trying a specific pepper.
ronnyb123
8 years ago
bump
the_northeast_chileman
8 years ago
Refining Fire Chilies

For seeds, not plants...
merlinjr
8 years ago
PepperLover

Always got my seeds from Judy there was always blown away with quality of service and extra seeds sent.
wlynum
8 years ago
Check out http://www.chileplants.com/ They are great for plants and seeds. I received some absolutely beautiful plants from them earlier this spring and I got my seeds from them last year.
the_northeast_chileman
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Dalton Dicarlo10 hours ago

I want a website with a good variety and good quality.

Unfortunately Beth/Peppermania no longer in business.
AgentK (Chennai, India)
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Pepperlover.com - they seem good. Heard http://hellhotpeppers.com/ also sells good seeds.
Picklewix
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Sandiaseed.com is one of my favorite seed companies – they offer organically sourced heirloom chile pepper seeds and also heirloom tomato seeds. I LOVE all their green chile seeds, they offer a lot of Hatch seeds so that I can grow the world-famous New Mexico Hatch chile varieties here in Colorado. I know they may not taste exactly the same as the Hatch region-grown chiles, but since they're fresh and homegrown I think they taste AMAZING regardless!

If you like spicy like I do, Sandia Seed also carries Hot Hatch chiles as well as the super hot pepper seeds like the Carolina Reaper (in red and yellow!) plus lots of colors of Ghost Peppers and Scorpion peppers. I like to grow the hot peppers to make into hot chile flakes or also to add to salsas. Sandia Seed has a great recipe for Carolina Reaper Salsa, search for it on their site.

I also love Baker Creek for all other types of vegetable seeds like squash, pumpkins, lettuces, spinach, and other fall/spring/winter veggies.
Kansas Farm Girl - Shell - South of KC
5 years ago
I highly recommend White Hot Peppers for seeds. Fair prices, fast shipping and many bonuses. A+ in my book.

Shell

Please list reputable seed companies

Comments (31)

esox07 (4b) Wisconsin

esox07 (4b) Wisconsin

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