dottie said:There are so many suppliers of heirloom tomato seeds these days, and I have never had trouble with any of them. I like to save my own seeds each year so that I don't have to keep buying the same kind and can use my money for trying out new varieties, and if properly cleaned and stored, they last for a long time. Unfortunately, the heirloom seeds and plants are often more expensive than those of regular tomatoes, but there's really no valid reason for it. An heirloom tomato has as many or as few seeds as other tomatoes - it just depends on the variety - and they are as easy to grow as any other tomatoes. I agree that the heirloom taste better and have more interesting names, and that's what I always grow, but I think sometimes the public is duped into thinking they are getting a bargain when they pay $3.50 for one tomato plant just because it is labeled "heirloom."

I do think that seeds of certain varieties can be limited for some companies as well as the home gardener depending on production. This could be a reason for increased price. I grow many varieties every year but usually only two plants of each variety so if something happens to both plants I am out of luck for saving seeds of that variety. This season I had to pull both of my Earl Faux due to Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus so no seeds from that variety this year.

I find that the Hybrid seed is more expensive and that is probably because the seed can't be saved and they have to put more work into creating it.

I don't purchase tomato or pepper plants so I don't know anything about the difference in cost between a hybrid and a heirloom. I will pay more attention next year.

I've never checked the price on big pkts of unusual tomatoes. I'm still trying out pretty ordinary varieties . I get only OP varieties ... except for Sungold F1. I suppose they're still heirlooms even if they are popular, widespread, and commercially propagated.

Whenever possible I get a big pkt instead of a small one. The cost difference is small for common varieties if you shop around, but you get 5-10-20 times as many seeds. Then I can trade around for small pkts of MANY varieties.

Heather has run a Fall tomato-and-pepper swap for the last severqal years. You can send in 40 pkts and get back 40 pkts - so now I have a collection of more than 50 kinds of tomatoes, which is at least 30 more than I'll need for the next many years. But I like looking them up and taking notes. I focused on extra-early and cold-tolerant varieties (including cherry tomatoes) for two years. Now I'm checking out determinate, smaller, grow-in-bucket varieties.

But my space is so small I can only try a few per year, and that assumes I have time to start, pot up and baby them right when they need it, and not "when I get around to it".

And when under-50F nights last well into June and then return in August, I see more green marbles than ripe fruits!

Hurray!!! Hurray!! My seeds came today from Wild Boar Farms. I am happy to have them. Of course I am saving them for starting next spring. I have already decided where they will be planted. I intend to plant two of each of my varieties that I chose.

I've saved seeds from Rose and Black from Tula and will try to get some from Caspian Pink, which is finally giving me some good tomatoes, but not much seed cavity to speak of.

Heather is running her fifth tomato and pepper seed swap now.
The thread "Heather's 5th Annual Tomato & Pepper Seed Exchange" in Plant and Seed Trading forum

To sign up or get detaqils, go here or send me an email address to forward to Herather.

http://www.tomatoville.com/sho...
http://forums.gardenweb.com/fo......

I had to wait until October to order my tomato seeds from Heritage as there was a note all summer that seeds would be available un October. So today I did my order. Would have loved to order so many varieties but don't have endless room. So ordered AMAZON CHOCOLATE and 5 of The New Dwarf varieties. I had plannted to order four as I had scoped them out during the summer. But they had new varieties listed so I just couldn't resist getting five total instead of my original four total. Of the dwarfs I got DWARF MR SNOW, PERTH PRIDE, ROSELLA PURPLE, SUMMERTUME GOLD and TASMANIAN CHOCOLATE.

So I am on a tomato seed roll here as I just now finished going to Gourmetseed and ordering Money Maker and Italian Market Wonder tomato seeds. I also ordered Gemini F1 Hybrid Cucumber seed while I was at it shopping there. Can't wait for next year as I plan to be growing some tomato plants from seed for the first time ever.

I just ordered more tomato seed. I ordered Neves Azorean Red, Dixiewine and Mexico vaieties from Marianna's Heirloom Seeds.

Rita, you are on a tear, aren't you? All those are new varieties to me. Let me know next year if they prove to be keepers or not. I haven't had time to look at the seed catalogues yet to see what new varieties I might try, but it sounds like a good winter's day treat.

Oh yes. Deffantly will be doing tomato taste tests to see what are goinna be multi year keepers!

Here is my compleate tomato seed list-
Purple Dog Creek
Cowlick's Brandywine
Black and Brown Boar
Pink Berkeley Tie Dye
Pink Boar
Red Boar
Sweet Carneros Pink
Money Maker
Market Wonder
Amazon Chocolate
Dwarf Mr Snow
Perth Pride
Rosella Purple
Summertime Gold
Tasmanian Chocolate
Iditarod Red
Neves Azorean Red
Mexico
Dixiewine

I am done. Not ordering any more tomato seeds.

You have ventured out into totally uncharted territory for me! I recognize none of those, but I'm betting that there are lots there that I would enjoy. I'll do my research on them and see what tempts me.

That is what I do. I look for what I believe might be the best of the best. At least best for me. So I end up with ones that are not so well known. I really can't wait to try them.

I want to put a plug in for a local seed company, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds http://rareseeds.com/
They have this new location in a former bank so it's called the 'Seed Bank" http://rareseeds.com/petaluma-...

Baker Creek carries one of the largest selections of seeds from the 19th century, including many Asian and European varieties. Make sure to read the 'About' page as well as watch the nice video in that second link. There is a free catalog to send for or download. They are also the creators of the magazine 'The Heirloom Gardener'. This is what I was attracted to:

"All of our seed is non-hybrid, non-GMO, non-treated and non-patented.
We do not buy seed from Monsanto-owned Seminis. We boycott all gene-altering companies. We are not members of the pro-GMO American Seed Trade Organization! We work with a network of about 100 small farmers, gardeners and seed growers to bring you the best selection of seeds available! Many of our varieties we sell were collected by us on our travels abroad.
We offer over 1300 fine varieties! Unique seeds from 70 countries!"

They are a great co.
Been ordering from them for years.

I also love Baker Creek. Great varieties, and beautiful, large photos in their paper catalog.

When they say "at least N seeds in each pkt", it's always true. However, sometimes I get 2-3 TIMES as many seeds as they promised. Nice guys!

I just ordered a bunch of tomato seed.

From TomatoFest: Gary's Favorites Collection, including:
Aussie
Black Cherry
Black Krim
Brandywine Sudduth's Strain
Dagma's Perfection
Flamme (maybe the same as Jeune Flamme?)
Green Zebra
Kellogg's Breakfast.
I also ordered a pack of Limbaugh's Legacy Potato Top, because I remember a good gardening friend talking about them, and how they are her favorite tomato.

From Tatiana, I ordered:
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Cherokee Purple
Costoluto Genovese
Gary'O Sena
and KBX, which is a potato-leaf variation of Kellogg's Breakfast. I also ordered a couple of packs of pepper seeds.

I know it is December, and it is currently snowing and blowing outside, but it feels just that much closer to spring now that my seeds are on the way!

By the way, I WOULD like to know of good sources for pepper seeds. A friend sent me a selection a few years ago that included one called Pizza Pepper, and another called Fish Pepper. I think that Pizza Pepper was my favorite of all the many varieties I've grown, and I'd like to find a good source for it! I usually grow a variety of non-bell sweet peppers, and then some hot peppers for my husband. I make homemade hot sauce for him, and he hoards the stuff like it is made of gold!

Angie, you are totally ready for sping with your nice list of tomato seeds.

This year I ordered quite a few seeds from High Mowing Seeds. I've sprouted two types of habaneros, jalapenos, two types of green/red pepper. I also started some paste,rose tomatoes, and some peacevine and sakura cherry tomatoes. Plus numerous other things