Many years ago, if you ordered a package of seed, you got enough to
plant a 100 ft row. Then they began selling by the ounce 1, 1/2,
1/4oz and etc. Then by the Gram (which most of us never understood)
and NOW!! it is by the "offering" (sounds religious to me).


You still get generous packets If you use retailers that cater to small
market gowers. Willhite and Twilleys are two of my favorites. Open
pollinated seed are very inexpensive. A 1/4 ounce packet of watermelon
seed from Willhite is $1.40. Thats about 200 -300 seeds depending on
the cultivar. Tomatoes come in 1/16 oz packets for $1.40 which run a
couple of hundred seeds. Hybrids are of course much more expensive and
run abou $5.50 per 50 seed (watermelon) and abou $ 5.00 per 100 seed
(tomato). Seedless watermelons are a different story, those run about
$20.00 for 50 seed.