I've never personally ordered from either of those places, but I'm sure there's lots of folk here that can tell you about them. I've gotten lots of seeds from swaps here on the Garden Web. I've also purchased seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Territorial Seeds, FEDCO, and Pinetree Garden Seeds (Burpee too but not recently. I think they're just too pricey). I also buy seeds locally from big box stores and from local gardening centers.

If you buy seeds now, you'll need a cool place to store them out of direct sunlight. I usually keep tomato seeds for several years (4 years.) Some people have good germination rates even after 4 years. That's just my rule of thumb with tomato seeds.

I've gotten tomato seed from Territorial (great catalog!), Pinetree, Johnny's, and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, plus the Seed Savers Exchange catalog (for things I can't find elsewhere; they're a bit pricey) and Sand Hill Preservation. I like Sand Hill a lot, even though they still take only paper order forms by mail, no internet orders... Glenn and his wife (Linda?) have done an enormous amount to help with heritage seed and poultry preservation, and they always take good care with their seeds. I don't get much from Baker Creek except melons, but they do have good tomato seeds as well.

I've also gotten a lot of seeds by trade; I need to put up my own trade list, now that I just finished entering all the tomato varieties and packets I have in a small database to keep track of them. :) I'm also a member of Seed Savers Exchange, which means I get the Yearbook, a phone-book sized volume full of all sorts of seeds and information from the other members who offer them. Tomatoes are probably the most extensive category in the Yearbook; I've gotten some very interesting varieties I never would have heard about otherwise, with some history and growing information as well. For the serious heirloom lover, SSE membership is a great idea, and not expensive.

The best time to order from smaller shops or individuals is after harvest is over, around December or January... that gives people time to wrap up the garden, process the seeds and pack them, and catch their breath before spring. The biggest seed-request time for SSE members is February through May, and members are asked to hold off once we get to June. Full seed companies like Territorial or Johnny's will still have seeds from last year's packing available all summer, so long as they didn't sell out.

I'd just add that tomato seeds keep a long time depending on the conditions... we have a fairly dry climate here, so I keep mine in paper coin envelopes on a shelf, and I've gotten quite satisfactory germination off of seed that's up to ten years old. I germinated seed from 1994 this year, and while the percentage had dropped to about 40%, I still got enough plants to work with (I'm saving seed this year). If you're in a more humid climate, you can save seed in an airtight container: tupperware, corked vials, little ziplocs, packets inside a bail-top jar... the possibilities are endless. If you really want to extend their shelf life, you can add the little packets of dessicant you find in purses and shoes, then put them in the refrigerator, but when seeds normally last at least six to eight years most of us don't bother. :)

Welcome to the wonderful world of tomato fascination.

--Alison

Thanks Alison and BooBerry...so much useful information. I am absolutely fascinated now...the "tomato bug" has really bitten me this year. I have dabbled before, but now I am hooked! My husband, too: he is ready to build me a raised bed dedicated to tomatoes! It's a good bit to wait until the harvest is over, I guess....I am really interested in exchanges, but as my tomato plants this year came from *gasp* Home Depot, I don't really think I have much to offer. I love the production of my grape tomato plant, but my "beefsteak" patio container plants are blah. So next year, I plan to get into a variety of the good stuff, save the seeds and exchange them...maybe even locally.

I am going to save this link to come back to it later...and I am marking my December calendar to buy seeds...a great Christmas present to myself!!!

I think where you get your seeds also depends on what kind of tomatoes you want to grow, OP or hybrid, and if OP heirlooms how many have you grown and are you looking for the more common varieties grown by lots of folks or ones harder to find.

I used to do a wrong varieties thread here at GW quite a few years ago and there certainly are differences in the purity of seed, germination rates, service and price of seeds as regards the many sources now available.

I can name some places I feel are good, now, b'c things can also change with regard to a certain compny.

I agree with Alison that the best time to maybe order your seeds is after the various catalogs and websites have been updated for the 2011 season.

But I do have some very strong feelings about trading seeds.

The feedback from the wrong varietis threads I used to post here and things are no different now than then, indicates that the percentage of wrong varieties is highest with traded seeds, that's one fact.

Second, it's only thru the dedicated efforts of several family owned seed businesses that everyone today has the huge number of choices that they do have. So I would hope that everyone would consider buying at least half of their seeds to help support those who help to support the tomato addicted. LOL

As for me, I don't trade seeds, never have and never will. I list varieties in the SSE YEarbook and I make an annual freed seed offer although I used to do it here until 2005. if someone provides me with a new never distibuted variety, usually not even named then sure, I offer tha person a choce of varieties in return.

So , if someone wants me to list the seed places I feel good about I'd be glad to do it. Not tonight b'c I met with the eye surgein today about my two upcoming cataract surgeries and they must have used industrial strength stuff to dilate my eyes b'c here it is a bit after 9 PM and my nose is almost pressed up against the screen trying to see what I'm typing. LOL

Carolyn

I've gotten tomato seeds from burpees, johnny's select and seed savers exchange. I am happy with all three sources though burpees charges a lot more for shipping. One year I bought tomato seeds from tomato growers and I think the seeds were contaminated with type of fungal/viral disease. It's been a few years so I don't remember the details, but I do remember that when I called them to report the possible contamination they didn't seem to care about it at all. So that was the last time I bought anything from them.

I have had very good luck with bakers creek for my other vegetable seeds and they seem to have a very good selection.

Baker Creek (rareseeds.com) tomatogrowers.com, neseeds.com (for very hard to find, specialty seeds) and Ed Hume.

Mike

I like::

Baker Creek @ http://rareseeds.com/
Seeds of Italy @ http://www.growitalian.com/
Gourmet Seeds @ http://www.gourmetseed.com/
Southern Exposure Seed @ http://www.southernexposure.com/index.html
John Scheepers @ http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/

The folks at Seeds of Italy have unusually large seed packets with a larger number of seeds in each package and their seeds have different expiration dates than American produced seed. The folks at Gourmet also have large packets. Both of these companies ship fast and have online ordering.

Southern Exposure are great folks to work with and I totally LOVE their company!!!

Baker Creek has the most beautiful seed catalog.

Cheers,
DL

At this point, which is about 6 years into when the "tomato bug" bit me, I only purchase my seeds from either:

Tomato Growers Supply http://www.tomatogrowers.com/

or

Victory Seeds http://www.victoryseeds.com/catalog/main_vegies.html

To me, there is simply no other reason to purchase from another company. Between the two, they've got everything I'd ever want, and both have been extremely reliable. For example, TGS doesn't have the outstanding bicolor Little Lucky and my favorite green, Cherokee Green. On the other hand, Victory doesn't have Sungold or Chapman.

Of course, I also save seeds and have received seeds from other people here in these forums, but if I were just starting out again, I would get the vast majority of my seeds from these two companies.

I like Heirloomseeds.com

I use Hazzard's Wholesale Seeds. Most seeds come in a minimum packet size of 250 seeds except some expensive hybrids that come in 100 seed packets. You can get better prices on the hybrids elsewhere, but for open pollinated tomato seeds you get 250 seeds (actually most packs have about 280 seeds) for about twice to three times the price of what other dealers would charge for 20 to 50 seeds. They sell 7000 varieties of flower and vegetable and herb seeds, and their catalog is about an inch thick, but no pretty pictures. Shipping is a flat $5.95. but once you order from them they will keep sending you free shipping offers. A lot of packets, but not all, have the germination test data on them, which very few other vendors provide. So if you are growing plants for sale and need a lot of seeds they are a good place to buy from, but if you are only going to start a couple of plants better to go to one of the retail vendors, even though your per seed price would be much higher. Shipping is very fast and so far they have had everything in stock, all my orders arrived in four to six business days from when I ordered the seeds.

This was my first year with OPs and starting my own seedlings and I got my seed from tomatofest. I've been very happy with the germination rate and seed purity. I started my seed in early March, Ill probably start a little earlier next year

A lot of good places have been mentioned and at least one bad one lol. I have a small garden and like tomato growers supply (tomatogrowers.com).

I like to order in January. :)

Julie,

I am from Hillborough and I am also planning on ordering seeds this year. I am really digging the heirlooms (pun intended), and I will be ordering a bunch of different varieties.

Since you are so close, maybe you are interested in trading seed varieties that you and I order, then everyone could benefit. From what I've seen you get at least 10 seeds in a package. And while I like all different types of tom's, I don't need 10 each.

Although I could save the seeds for next year, we are still experimenting with all the different varieties to find the ones that we like the most.

If you are intersted, let me know. I will give you my email.

Matthew

In the past I have bought my seeds from Tomato Growers Supply and Sand Hill Preservation but they didn't have some of the hearts and blacks I wanted to try this year.

This last year I ordered from the companies listed below and received excellent service from all of them.

Knapps Seeds
Sample Seeds
Trade Winds Seeds

I live on a mountain side at 7500 feet, with a short, cool summer season, so I only grow short-season tomatoes, and mostly Siberian selections. I got most of my seed almost 20 years ago from Seeds Trust/High Altitude Gardens, and I've been growing mostly the same varieties since then.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seeds Trust/High Altitude Gardens

My first real year with the tomato bug. I got my five
heirlooms from tomatofest.com and am well pleased. I got
a 97% germination, so have no complaint there. Each was a
bulk order and, LOL, rather than count, I think they went
way overbaord on quantity.

BTW, I am wishing Carolyn well on her eye surgery. We need
her posting here.

I get whatever I can from Pinetree, because their prices are excellent, and I always order all sorts of veggie seeds from them. Then, I usually do a smaller order of tomato/eggplant/pepper seeds from Tomato Grower's Supply for the varieties that Pinetree doesn't carry. Also like Baker Creek, though I don't order from them every year.