Stokes has already sent me their catalog.
They are pretty quick.

I've just ordered online from William Dam. I was originally looking at Heritage Harvest out of MB, but was glad to find something more local that wasn't what I see in every garden centre around. It will be my first year starting seeds indoors rather than just buying started plants, so I'm excited to see how I do! Heritage has a really large variety of rarely seen and hard to find heirlooms and uncommon varietals if anyone is looking for something really neat or different. They are however a bit more expensive and I imagine there will be extra shipping from several provinces away.

if you want to see a very long list of seed companies across Canada, Small Farm Canada has their annual Seed Company Lists out in this last issue.. its amazing to me how many smaller closer companies I have found on their lists.

I have ordered for a number of years from Heritage Harvest and their catalog is very good, yes, as heritage seeds, they are a little more costly and do read each one closely as some packages will have less seeds. The shipping costs are the same across Canada for most of the seed companies, based on number of packages you order typically up to x for one price and then y for the next up in weight.

For closer to home, don't forget to look for your local Seedy Saturday events.

I'm new to ordering seeds and my first experience has been with Veseys. Was pleased to have free shipping (less some berry plants I've pre-ordered). Shipment arrived promptly and was well packaged, even with convenient instructions on them. I don't suggest that they are better than anyone out there as maybe there are better deals, but wanted to say my experience has been good so far.

Hi Helicopilot, Veseys is a good company, they have been around for a long time and I have used for myself for a few things over the years before I started ordering in bulk to get the commercial pricing by working with other bigger gardeners in our area.

The big thing to remember when looking at the seeds to order is to read for zone, days till harvest, if they need early starts and if they are determinant or indeterminant (which means do they put a single hard pick now or are they a steady harvest till frost shuts them down).

Just using a simple example, my shortest season corn that we grow is ready in 92 days and my longest corn that I grow is a 120 days.. One can be planted in cold wet spring soil and thrive, the other need warm soil..

That is where sometimes looking at open pollinated heritage seeds can be worth it, its possible to buy seeds that have a hundred plus years of working in your personal climate zone.. I remember the work I had to do to find seeds that would grow and finish up in Yellowknife compared to alberta and now in Ontario, its been another full learning curve at my new zone..

PS.. Awesome on the free shipping!

https://www.richters.com/

I got a free gift cert. from Amazon last year and ordered these online:

https://www.amazon.ca/Vegetable-Seeds-NON-GMO-Pack-Variety/dp/B015IL0X1Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484587045&sr=8-1&keywords=10000+seeds

They go on sale from time to time for less than $10. I don't really care about non gmo vs. gmo only whats the best quality for the least amount of money...and these seeds were great. Only one bad seed in the entire tomato lot, and watermelon and peppers were amazing. (2 bad seeds in the peppers.)

I picked up the 15,000+ Non-gmo Heirloom Vegetable Seeds 32 Variety Pack $15

I will be picking the 100% NON-GMO Heirloom Culinary and Medicinal Herb Kit $16 next week. Then supplement with seeds from Richters.com

I've ordered from Heritage Harvest for a few years now and I'm always happy with their seeds. 😀

Trimmed with respect to space...

if you want to see a very long list of seed companies across Canada, Small Farm Canada has their annual Seed Company Lists out in this last issue.. its amazing to me how many smaller closer companies I have found on their lists.

I have ordered for a number of years from Heritage Harvest and their catalog is very good, yes, as heritage seeds, they are a little more costly and do read each one closely as some packages will have less seeds. The shipping costs are the same across Canada for most of the seed companies, based on number of packages you order typically up to x for one price and then y for the next up in weight.

I've finally opened my seed packets I had ordered from Vesey's to start my seedlings indoor.

This is my first time ordering seeds from a professional place as opposed to buying them from displays at chain stores. I have to say I was quite surprised by the small amount of seeds in each packets.

For example, I've paid $5.95 for my "Big Brady" tomatoes and the packet contained only 14 seeds!
My packet of organic lunchbox peppers at $7.25 also contained only 14 seeds.

Is that the right amount for the price? I get they supposedly sell better quality and that they are organic and all, but those prices are at least double that of the chain stores and their packs usually contain a couple dozen seeds. I was super thrilled receiving my box of seeds, but now I feel somewhat cheated. Maybe I'll be happier when I get bushelfulls of tomatoes and peppers, but for now, I almost regret my purchase.

Is this the norm with seed catalog places? I'm I over-reacting or over-thinking this?

Hi Helicopilot

Yes and no..

Yes, you will certainly find that the store packages that are selling the basic's tend to put more seeds per package, but when ordering online from the places I do (not sure about Versey's as I have not used them) but its standard, they will tell you weight or seed count per package. So while I can understand the huh.. now you will know that you will need to look at the counts per item, not just for figuring out row planting but to decide if its worth the cost to you.

and the No, is because it is normal, and because typically when you are buying seeds for organic and Heritage, your plan is to grow them out and then seed save from them.. most of the companies know this, that a good percent of the buyers will also be seed savers and they tend to increase the price on them and reduce the seed count on them to try and give us less genetic starting material.

So if you like what you grow.. save seed and then they will give you bushelfulls and you will not need to buy at those prices again 🙂

Ps, never waste your money on organic seeds, just get heritage open and grow them organic, it will save you money in the long run and the plants are the same, its just how the parent plant in the last gen was treated or the soil treated.. it does not cross over to the seed that is saved.

FG

Thanks for the words of wisdom FarmGal! Another "to-do" for next year : learn to save seeds.

Question about seeds. I've heard that plants are being altered so that once grown the seeds produced in the batch will not regrow new batches. A sensible money ploy for "them" i'm sure, but is there truth in it? And if at the moment it is not true, then could it become true down the road? I guess at this point in time if seeds can still be harvested and planted succesfully would it be wise to collect them while they are still able to reproduce? Then there would be the matter of being able to store the seeds so they don't go bad. Plant some, store some?

Hello Liezurly

There is a lot of small seed saving companies and local farmers-gardeners.. Google Seedy Saturday and it will pull up local seed events planned across Canada and if you want a good grasp on a lot of the Canadian smaller seed growers, the Small Farm Canada seed list month is outstanding in sharing them from coast to coast.

On facebook in every area are local seed and garden groups and local plantcyle groups that gift splits, seeds and more.. in Ottawa there is also the travel seed box's, and a number of library programs that loan you seed in the spring to plant and that share how you save seed an you put a portion of it back to the seed library in the fall so that it grows more for the next years folks that borrow and so forth.

For one of the best seed saving books, I recommend seed to seed which I know is locally available in the Ottawa library system, as others have talked about borrowing it 🙂

Now more to the point about your question.. there are many companies that sell seed that is some form of a Hybred seed, that means that this generation will produce to a standard, bigger yields or better rust protection or Z, W, K reason's why its better then its two parent types. The seed is not sterile but it is hybred, which means that the next generation is unstable in how it produces.. some of the plants will be more like the two parent plans, some will be more like the hybred seed sold and some will be a mix of them..

Hope that helps a bit.. Farmgal, who has now be contracted to raise heritage seed for a few years (including extra training on selection and harvest etc) for a seed company.. that then sells it Canada wide from their site, and who is involved in a number of land race breeding programs for different plants in the Ottawa valley.