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Safyre--sometimes it is better to start a new thread rather than adding onto an old one. As for your question, it really would help to know what plants you're talking about. (As to the OP where how many seeds really depend on the plant). Are you talking transplanting into pots indoors, or into a garden. Since Houzz got rid of zone info, where are you at? I'm in Denver, so starting seeds now would mean I can't transplant out until April/May at the general earliest (my veg garden is just in plans right now for seed starting soon). But I have lots of pots indoors for the winter. All are different--I have some newly sprouted chives that I seeded directly into their pots. But I won't start my basil for another month or so, because it shouldn't go out until end of May due to our night temps here.

What hasn't been mentioned here is that those of you who buy seeds or receive them in a trade usually have no idea of what the seed age is, and all things being equal as to how you sow your seeds in what artificial mix, when and how you transplant them after they have 1-2 true leaves, what you transplant them to, how you grow them on, any amendment used, etc. there WILL be differences in germination percentages, count on it, based on seed age alone. One example. I used to make seed offers here at GW and offered several hundred varieties at a time. And I asked for feedback on germination percentages. These were my own saved seeds so I knew exactly what year the seed was produced. Well I remember that I made a seed offer here in late Fall of 2004 and I was offering seeds with ages from 1995 and up, having offered seeds from 1991 to 1994 in a previous seed offer. Let's say variety X was offered, seed fresh from the summer of 2004 and germinated the very next Spring. For a single variety I got back reports where folks got from 100% germination down to zero, that's right, zero germination, with most being in the 80-90% range. Which says that if 10 folks sow seeds of the same variety from the same supplier with the same packed for date, or even known seed age, there could be a HUGE range of results. And the packed for date only tells you when the seeds were packed, not when they were produced. The only place I know of where ALL tomato seeds sold are less than 2 yo is Sandhill Preservation. Seeds being sold by commercial places will have different seed ages for different varieties as they rotate out and replace seed as needed and some but not all places do germination tests before they sell the seeds. So I agree with the others who have posted about the fact that there's no way to know how many seeds will germinate or how many will grow into great plants in the garden and bear well. But when it comes to seed starting I tend to agree with Randy that you should oversow. He says 4 seeds to get one good seedling, and I agree. I usually sow 5 seeds for each variety to get two good plants to the garden. There are just so many variables that enter into all of this that it makes no sense to me to skimp on how many seeds/variety one sows. Is oversowing, as some define it, wasteful? I dunno, I don't 'think so as all of us sit in front of our not cheap computers with added software, etc, and spend on this and that,etc., but do have priorities when it comes to how we spend our money. I don't buy tomato seed b'c it comes to me, and I won't trade tomato seed either, except for certain situations, but I know, knowing me, that oversowing a few seeds for anything I don't consider to be wasteful and that's because gardening is my life and my love. And if it's considered wasteful to use more seeds than some think necessary then save your own seeds. Go to the top of this first page, click on the FAQ link and scroll down to the excellent article on how to prevent Cross pollination. Whether it's a waste of money to try and ensure that you have enough good transplants to set out that you hope the critters and diseases and all else don't get them is, I think, a decision that each person has to make depending on what their goals and expectations are for growing tomatoes. Carolyn, who gulps at the prices of some seeds these days but she wants her Savor F1 melons and will pay the price. She does think that some sources for tomato seed have prices she would never ever pay, as in too expensive, and here I speak of OP, not F1 hybrid varieties, but again,it really is a personal choice what one pays for seeds/plants of anything. And a personal choice as to how many seeds of anything are to be planted. With experience some of these questions are answered, so it pays to get older and wiser re gardening in terms of experience. Yes, I'm on the downside of the life cycle, but still hanging in there.LOL

It will realisticaly take up to a week for a RR to get from landing in one persons home to getting to the next persons. Keep in mind that if you start one for say 'winter sowing' in late November but include 30 people on the route then it may not arrive to the last persons home until mid June. The most successful Robins seem to include no more than 10 to 15 people, no-one has to wait too long and generally it has not moved from one season to the next. Specialized seed Robins can use as few as 6 or 8 people and can be great successes.