On the sprouts-broccoli-onions ... let me suggest .. without contradicting
anything you said ... that the local garden centers have the plants
available at the time that is best for your area. I'd call my favorite
garden center and ask them when is the earliest they'll have them available.

On the Irish potatoes, that's somewhat different from your original
question, as they're not shipped as plants. True, it's good to start from
certified, disease-free seed potatoes each year. You find these in unusual
places locally sometimes, like full-service grocery stores and farm stores.
Or you can mail order them safely. By the way, check out the online
accounts of growing potatoes in a bushel basket, progressively filling the
basket with dirt as the season progresses. Harvest becomes the act of
turning the basket over and gathering up the potatoes; it's a good thing.

On the sweet potatoes, you can produce a limited number of slips by placing
a sweet potato bud side up in a jar of water and placing the jar in a sunny
location. That works very well; the trouble with getting sweet potato
plants by mail is that they're shipped in a bundle without growing medium
and thus they need to go in the ground almost immediately upon arrival;
which requires the cooperation of the weather, which cannot be counted on.




"Dwayne" wrote in message
...
Sunflower makes a good point. In my case however, I don't have a good
source of indoor light, and don't have the room to build a good lighting
system for small seedlings. Mine all get tall reaching for more light, it
is too cold to take them outside during most days, and I planted most of
them too soon and the roots got all balled up in the pots.

I an going to give it another try this year because Brussels sprouts,
Broccoli and onions are supposed to be planted early here for the summer
crop, and plants arent available that soon. I cant get sweet potatoe
slips
here and ordering them cost almost as much as buying the sweet potatoes,
so
I have to grow my own. Regular potatoes are an exception. I tried to use
my own compared to the certified seed potatoes you can order and had about
1/3 to 1/2 the yield from mine.

If any of you out there have any ideas that will help us, jump right in.
Thanks. Dwayne





"Sunflower" wrote in message
...

"Joseph A. Zupko" wrote in message
t...
Anyone experience with buying veggie plants through mail order? What
places
are more reliable?

It's *very* expensive compared to buying the starts locally. (Most local
tomato plants average $1.59 for a 6 pak, or $1 for a 4" single pot) It's
also very easy to start whatever you want in flats yourself and save
time
and money and expand your selection dramatically. Most mailorder places
don't have a great selection of plants, wheras they do offer nice
selections
in seed.

There's a lot of reasons to NOT do this that I can think of, and I'm
trying
hard to think of why you would want to choose mailorder over local, even
if
you don't want to start seeds yourself.

Sunflower
MS 7b