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).

I got my seeds from Burges and was shocked to find my watermelon had 6
seed in the package, the Cantaloupe (1 pkg had 6 and one had 7).
Cucumbers had 7(plus 1 not developed seed).

I bought a package of seedless watermelons at a local discount
store,it had 7 seeds.

I don't know why I am posting this, except I need to vent my anger,
and let people know it was not always a ripoff. QUESTION? Are their
seed companies that sell by something other than "Offers"?

Also, let't talk about Heirloom seed, (saving your own). Where is a
good source?

Have a good day! (Soy) Rogerx

Rogerx wrote:

Also, let't talk about Heirloom seed, (saving your own). Where is a
good source?

Most people don't use anywhere near a full packet of seeds, and the
marketing weasels have figured this out. Also, hybrid is expensive to
produce, so they're enhancing profits by charging more and giving you less.

Forgive the American bias (I can't help it; I was born with it): There are
a lot of good resources on seed saving. Look at the web site for the Seed
Savers Exchange: www.seedsavers.org
U.S. based, but international membership.
There are a number of good books on saving seeds. My favorite is "Seed to
Seed" by Suzanne Ashworth. Widely and reasonably available new and used.
There are all kinds of online swap groups; one is Yahoo Groups seed
exchange group. Again, mostly U.S., but members all over.
I'm sure other resources will pop up here.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Rogerx wrote in
:

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).


See if you can find La Rosa seeds. They don't have a large range, but at
least they put a decent amount of seed in a package.


--
*** To reply by e-mail, make double u single in address ***

In article ,
Rogerx wrote:

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).

I got my seeds from Burges and was shocked to find my watermelon had 6
seed in the package, the Cantaloupe (1 pkg had 6 and one had 7).
Cucumbers had 7(plus 1 not developed seed).

I bought a package of seedless watermelons at a local discount
store,it had 7 seeds.

I don't know why I am posting this, except I need to vent my anger,
and let people know it was not always a ripoff. QUESTION? Are their
seed companies that sell by something other than "Offers"?

Also, let't talk about Heirloom seed, (saving your own). Where is a
good source?

Have a good day! (Soy) Rogerx

Start raising and saving your own seeds whenever possible. ;-)

Later this spring, I anticipate having a ton of brocolli seeds thanks to
all the beautiful little honey bees!

I feel your pain and empathize. :-P

There is nothing wrong with the cantaloupe seeds you can get from the
grocery store. Pick out a nice, juicy ripe one right on the edge of
spoiling, scoop out the seeds and wash and dry them, and store them in
paper envelopes. Winter squash and pumpkin seeds are also good. I've
never seen any summer squash or cucumbers tho' that are ripe enough to
harvest seeds from, but you could raise a few each year and let them go
to seed.

You can do that with tomatoes too.

HTH?
--
K.

Try saving your own seeds from a seedless watermelon. They have to be
crossed pollinated by hand and then protected to prevent accidental
pollination by insects. Also, the parent crops need to be grown to
produce seeds to continue cross pollination. And hybrids that produce
seed almost always revert to their parent plants. A very labor intensive
process. Just look at an auto repair bill.

JAB

Rogerx wrote:
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).

I got my seeds from Burges and was shocked to find my watermelon had 6
seed in the package, the Cantaloupe (1 pkg had 6 and one had 7).
Cucumbers had 7(plus 1 not developed seed).

I bought a package of seedless watermelons at a local discount
store,it had 7 seeds.

I don't know why I am posting this, except I need to vent my anger,
and let people know it was not always a ripoff. QUESTION? Are their
seed companies that sell by something other than "Offers"?

Also, let't talk about Heirloom seed, (saving your own). Where is a
good source?

Have a good day! (Soy) Rogerx

You can also create your own seedless watermelons out of any
watermelon...

All you have to do is to catch the bloom on the first day and place a
seeding hormone (comes in a paste form) on the pistil in the female
flower and then bag the bloom to preven any insect pollinization.

I don't know the name of the hormone off the top of my head, hopefully
someone here does. I learned about this technique from my botany
proffesor back in community college when I worked for him in his
greenhouse.

kat

In article ,
jbert wrote:

Try saving your own seeds from a seedless watermelon. They have to be
crossed pollinated by hand and then protected to prevent accidental
pollination by insects. Also, the parent crops need to be grown to
produce seeds to continue cross pollination. And hybrids that produce
seed almost always revert to their parent plants. A very labor intensive
process. Just look at an auto repair bill.

JAB

Rogerx wrote:
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).

I got my seeds from Burges and was shocked to find my watermelon had 6
seed in the package, the Cantaloupe (1 pkg had 6 and one had 7).
Cucumbers had 7(plus 1 not developed seed).

I bought a package of seedless watermelons at a local discount
store,it had 7 seeds.

I don't know why I am posting this, except I need to vent my anger,
and let people know it was not always a ripoff. QUESTION? Are their
seed companies that sell by something other than "Offers"?

Also, let't talk about Heirloom seed, (saving your own). Where is a
good source?

Have a good day! (Soy) Rogerx


--
K.

Sprout the Mung Bean to reply...

There is no need to change the world. All we have to do is toilet train the world and we'll never have to change it again. -- Swami Beyondanada

,,Cat's Haven Hobby Farm,,Katraatcenturyteldotnet,,

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...user id=katra

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.

Katra wrote:
In article ,
Rogerx wrote:


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).

I got my seeds from Burges and was shocked to find my watermelon had 6
seed in the package, the Cantaloupe (1 pkg had 6 and one had 7).
Cucumbers had 7(plus 1 not developed seed).

I bought a package of seedless watermelons at a local discount
store,it had 7 seeds.

I don't know why I am posting this, except I need to vent my anger,
and let people know it was not always a ripoff. QUESTION? Are their
seed companies that sell by something other than "Offers"?

Also, let't talk about Heirloom seed, (saving your own). Where is a
good source?

Have a good day! (Soy) Rogerx


Start raising and saving your own seeds whenever possible. ;-)

Later this spring, I anticipate having a ton of brocolli seeds thanks to
all the beautiful little honey bees!

I feel your pain and empathize. :-P

There is nothing wrong with the cantaloupe seeds you can get from the
grocery store. Pick out a nice, juicy ripe one right on the edge of
spoiling, scoop out the seeds and wash and dry them, and store them in
paper envelopes. Winter squash and pumpkin seeds are also good. I've
never seen any summer squash or cucumbers tho' that are ripe enough to
harvest seeds from, but you could raise a few each year and let them go
to seed.

You can do that with tomatoes too.

HTH?

What about the seeds inside of summer squash and zucchini? Can you use
those? Is there any special handling required to save seeds overwinter?
I plan to begin saving my own seeds starting this year because of the
high seed prices. I figured it CAN'T be as easy as simply saving seeds
from veggies you've got or everyone would do it. Am I hearing that it
IS, in fact, that easy?

Cheers!

On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 14:18:53 -0500, Doll is Mine
wrote:

Katra wrote:


There is nothing wrong with the cantaloupe seeds you can get from the
grocery store. Pick out a nice, juicy ripe one right on the edge of
spoiling, scoop out the seeds and wash and dry them, and store them in
paper envelopes. Winter squash and pumpkin seeds are also good. I've
never seen any summer squash or cucumbers tho' that are ripe enough to
harvest seeds from, but you could raise a few each year and let them go
to seed.

You can do that with tomatoes too.

HTH?

What about the seeds inside of summer squash and zucchini? Can you use
those? Is there any special handling required to save seeds overwinter?
I plan to begin saving my own seeds starting this year because of the
high seed prices. I figured it CAN'T be as easy as simply saving seeds
from veggies you've got or everyone would do it. Am I hearing that it
IS, in fact, that easy?

Cheers!


In some cases it is quite easy, in others, it is not. With hybrids,
saving seed means you have some interesting surprises the next season.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/Garden/07602.html

Boron

Katra wrote:

You can also plant garlics from the clove heads at the grocery store,

An obsession of mine: different garlic varieties do differently well at
different locations. You may likely do OK with store bought, but there's a
universe of wonderful garlic out there that isn't mass-produced. Why not
get a few bulbs from somebody near you and raise your own?


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

In article ,
Gary Woods wrote:

Katra wrote:

You can also plant garlics from the clove heads at the grocery store,

An obsession of mine: different garlic varieties do differently well at
different locations. You may likely do OK with store bought, but there's a
universe of wonderful garlic out there that isn't mass-produced. Why not
get a few bulbs from somebody near you and raise your own?


Gary Woods

I've had trouble growing garlic... I need to try a special bed for it
with better drainage.

I seldom eat fresh garlic too, so I'd not want to grow much.
If I eat fresh garlic, I smell and taste it in my mouth for HOURS and it
makes me nauseated after awhile.

I know this is sacrelige, but I prefer garlic powder......

--
K.

Sprout the Mung Bean to reply...

There is no need to change the world. All we have to do is toilet train the world and we'll never have to change it again. -- Swami Beyondanada

,,Cat's Haven Hobby Farm,,Katraatcenturyteldotnet,,

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...user id=katra

Doll is Mine writes:
I plan to begin saving my own seeds starting this year because of the
high seed prices. I figured it CAN'T be as easy as simply saving seeds
from veggies you've got or everyone would do it. Am I hearing that it
IS, in fact, that easy?

It often can be. Let a couple of onions go to seed, and after the pods
have matured and the seed fallen you'll have onion seedlings coming up all
around next Spring! Lift them and arrange in neat rows as you desire. LOL
The same goes for some flowers, too. You can harvest your own sunflower
seeds, and marigolds are easy, as well. I've harvested lots of snapdragon
seeds and not one sprouted, so that is one flower not to waste time with!

You could let mustard go to seed and harvest the ripe pods, if you want
mustard seed. Beans are another crop where you can allow a few of the
latecomers to mature and dry out. With potatoes just buy small ones and
wait till they shoot then plant them.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)