On 8 Mar 2011 16:27:00 GMT, General Schvantzkoph
wrote:


You may be able to get a good variety of tomatoes at your local
hardware, farm supply, nursery, Lowe's or Home Depot. My Lowe's carries
Burpee and Ferry-Morse seeds. I don't think I have every had a problem
with either of them. Shipping costs will eat up your seed budget faster
than the seeds do.

Stay away from the Big Box stores, they destroyed the entire New England
tomato crop two years ago by sell late blight infected plants.

Were people buying seeds or plants? I rarely buy plants. Sometimes
DH will buy one, to get a jump on the season he says. Last year he
bought a fair sized Better Boy. My late starting BBs fruited about
the same time. Right now my tomato seedlings are just starting to
get their second leaves. They will probably go in the ground mid to
late April depending on the weather. Right now our ground is so wet I
think I would mire in up to my ankles. About 3 inches Saturday and
Sunday and more predicted for tomorrow. I probably should start
hardening off some of the onions and cole crops.

Last year I planted from seed and also from several local nurseries, I had
a fantastic crop. A couple of the larger nurseries had a large selection
of unusual varieties which is what I'm looking for. The smaller garden
centers generally don't have a lot of interesting plants, mostly the
modern hybrids like Big Boy, Early Girl and Romas, but if I find an
heirloom there I'll buy it just to spread the wealth around.

Around here it is almost impossible to fine unusual varieties so I buy
seeds. They do not even have the seeds for many of the ones I want.
Of the seeds I started this year I could probably find Better Boy,
Early Girl, and maybe the Brandy Boy. The others are not available
around here even as seeds. I figure the odds are better by starting
my own seeds than buying plants. There is one nursery up the road a
bit that I might buy a tomato plant from if they had something really
interesting. One of the vendors at the farmers market sometimes has
some plants but not usually a variety I want.
--
USA
North Carolina Foothills
USDA Zone 7a