Cheap Garden seeds Vs: name brand packets?

You can save $20 to 40 by buying the Off brand garden seeds.

But do they Grow as well?

Ive always avoided the cheap seeds.

Yes they do

I have too. Sometimes the brand names aren't that great either.

I used to buy seeds from Gurneys. But, I got some from them they didn't do that well.

Gurney's is way too high now!!!!

A lot of seed catalog prices have went up considerably.

Mostly I've been buying seeds from local supermarkets. They mostly carry Northup King which haven't been too bad. My green beans did lousy last year. Same with my acorn squash, but that was because the deer ate most of the flowers.

Well, I got some of the dollar tree seeds This spring. Four packs for a dollar. None of the carrots came up. I understand carrots can be fickle though but it may have been my fault. Also none of the Swiss chard I got there came up either.

The biggest disappointment with them though is that there just weren't very many seeds in the packs.


Our feed store sells some seed from TriStar I think the name is. Anywaythey are cheap and you get a lot of seeds. There packs are usually under a dollar and there are at least a couple hundred seeds in there. Probably less on bigger seeded things like squash but a very large pack for the money. I got my squash,cucumber and okra seeds there.

Many large scale seed companies (generic and name brand like Burpee, etc) treat their seeds with neonicitinoid pesticides. Some of that is changing with public awareness, for example, Lowe's has pledged to not carry seed or bedding plants that have been treated with neonics. Effects on humans aren't well documented, but neonics are a systemic pesticide (all parts of plant, including pollen are toxic even if only seed was treated) that are largely responsible for bee colony collapse and massive drops of native insect population, and in turn many bird species. Obviously your home garden is nothing compared to the effects of neonics in big ag.

We buy our veggie seeds from Fedco and Seed savers exchange, and my wife saves a lot of seeds for this reason. Sure it's pricier, but still far cheaper than buying vegetables of comparable quality.

Most feed stores carry bulk seeds, often from Rupp. You can buy the seeds by measurement much more cheaply than the prepackaged seeds and you see exactly what you are getting.

Keith

I bought a bunch last year after the season was over, name brand stuff from Fleet farm (I think) and it was all super cheap. I put them in the basement in a cool dark place, we will see how germination is this year. Maybe something to consider, buying after season this year for next year.

My brother also bought a bucket of various seeds in 2013, I am planting those as well this year, we shall see.

Are almost all of the seed companies in Illinois?

Gurneys is SD.
Not sure where Burpees is at.

I bought a cheap packet at wal mart and after opening the pack I found I paid a penny a seed.
just

From Experience cheap seeds work just the same as the expensive brands.

Morgan County Seeds in Missouri - just got my seeds this week. Am happy with my order. A lot of the Amish around here order from them......

Not many from Illinois. Several from Wisconsin.

Quality seed is a very important ingredient in success of getting a plant to sprout and grow.

I had a interesting fu pa with some seeds last year. Planted cucumbers and was doing ok, Market More I think. I started seeing round yellow funny looking fruits on the cukes vines, I thought they crossbred with my yellow summer squash. I tossed a few in the compost pile. Then I googled searched and found the were legit and called a Lemon Cucumber, started eating a few and found them quite good. A seed mix up I guess, had good regular cukes in the same patch also.