Budget source for seeds?

Ok, my 2010 seed order is now over $200. Yes, I'm ordering from the prime catalogues (Cooks garden, Johnny's etc) but I've got to get the cost down. I don't mind paying a premium for some of the newer varieties but figure I can find the old standbyes for a bit cheaper.

Bulls blood beets for example, there's gotta be a source cheaper than 2.95 a pack. I know some seeds stay good for three years but I will never grow all of the 385 seeds that come in a pack so smaller quantities are fine.

Any suggestions?

I guess it all depends on what you wish to plant. I plant a little better than 2 acres for less than 100 dollars and most of plantings are hybrids and I only save a few seeds of hard to get OP's. A packet of seeds can be very few, so I buy in ounces and lbs. As you noted most seeds are good for several years so I buy most on a two or three year cycle . Of course if you really want cheap seeds, the cheap seed racks locally are good sources if you can use the limited varieties available. Beets for example, only Detroit Dark Red.

I know this sounds biased, but there are two other companies in Maine that have cheaper pack prices. I order the bulk of my seeds from Fedco Seeds and Pine Tree Seeds. I also order from the same companies you do, but the bulk of my orders go to the two I just listed.
I will list the web sites and you can look through them and see if they have what you need.
Quality is top notch.
Fedco's catalog has a quality all its own with pics and comments. Papercopy of their catalog is a joy to read.;)
http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds.htm
https://www.superseeds.com/
Cyndie

I have purchased from Diane's Seeds and Victory Seeds at reasonable prices.

These have excellent service and prices with reasonable shipping. They have good seed counts too.

http://www.heirloomseeds.com/

http://www.victoryseeds.com/

This one also offers some hybrids.

http://www.willhiteseed.com/

Every year I try to support the small family seed companies so we will continue to have many open pollinated choices. Every year the garden gets bigger and even with seed trades I still have to place multiple orders. I'm learning about seed saving so hopefully I'll only have to by the OPs once. I'm seeing several companies charging $2.95 - $4.95 for a few tomato seeds. That's greed and I won't do business with them. Ditto for those that want $8.95 shipping when others only charge $3.00.

If you want smaller quantities per pack, I would also recommend Pinetree (as did Cyndie). I seem to have an addiction to trying a large number of varieties of things, so like having smaller quantities in many cases. On the other hand, I've concluded that what is really killing me in terms of my seed orders is the shipping, so I'm making a great effort to limit the number of places I order from, and I think next year I will try to order less and buy more of what I need locally, although I'm not sure how well that will work for me because there isn't much of a selection around here. If you sign up for e-mails from the various companies they occasionally offer free shipping, which is a huge plus.

Sandy

Once I know what I'd like to grow, I always go through the Pinetree catalogue and if they have whatever it is that I want I order it from them. This year they're carrying some things I could only get elsewhere last year. They provide fewer seeds than some other companies, perhaps, but I don't plant that many of each item anyway.

Crosman Seeds in Rochester, NY, is a delight to deal with. Nothing fancy but their seeds are reliable and 22 packages plus postage cost me a bit under $25. They have an online catalog with a printable order form but I called them and placed my order. I talked to them late Tuesday evening and had my seeds early Friday. Prices range from 59 cents to 99 cents a pack and there are more than enough seeds per pack to keep me busy with plants; veggies, herbs and flowers.

Yolie

I have ordered from Pinetree several times, and I have been happy with the seed quality. However, they are slow to ship. Last year I placed my order in January, and did not receive it until the end of February. I know it was a very busy year for seed companies, so perhaps they are better prepared this year.

I have gotten my orders already and they were under two weeks from the time I placed them. I think a lot of seed companies were caught off guard by the popularity of growing vegetables last year.

My "wish list" was around $400, I made some tough choices and shaved it down to around $100. I grow both vegetables and unusual native flowers, which runs the price up a bit. My favorite local seed supplier, D.V. Burrell, went up from $1 to $1.50 this year - still pretty cheap but it is a 50% increase! Both Burrell's & Johnnny's have already arrived. I'm still waiting on Thompson & Morgan and Plants of the Southwest. I am going to use a lot of old seed this year - I know I am going to have viability problems - I think I'm going to have to adopt FarmerDill's rotation schedule for seed buying. I think I am going to try more seed saving, too.

I purchased some seeds from Bunton's Seeds. I was looking for a specific variety of okra and they had them. Of course, I couldn't just order one little package of seeds! I also purchased some cantaloupe seeds, cucumber seeds, and some pole beans that I haven't been able to find locally. They shipped the day after I placed my order!

For heirloom tomatoes http://stores.ebay.com/Blue-Ribbon-Tomatoes__W0QQ_fsubZ2 (20 varieties for $10 or 100 for $50), http://sampleseeds.com/ (15 - 20 seed packages for $1 and a veggies for a bit more). I ordered from Blue Ribbon Tomatoes last year with a lot of success. You can request varieties on her list. She sent me some rare and interesting varieties these last two years. This year I am also trying sample seeds. Have heard very good things about it. Both ship for less than $2. Victory Seeds and Heirloom Seeds are also low cost. Baker Creek is a bit more, but they ship all orders for $3 and each packet has about double the seeds of others. There is also an organization that sends you a sample amount of seed with a small donation (about $5). I will try to find the link.

You are very, VERY bad people, and I don't think I'm going to be able to like you!

$20 at Willhite (first time order)
$35 at FedCO (first time order)
$30 at Pinetree (And old favorite that I've been ignoring like the plague - like the plague I tell ya!!!)

Well, Sequee, since your spending $85 dollars on 3 orders has a lot in common with my spending $100 on 4 orders - I'm assuming I'm a bad person because I'm encouraging your bad habits? I am beginning to suspect this is an "enabling" site for garden "addicts". Once the days get longer, I assume we will all be outside puttering with plants and not spend so much time on line encouraging each others virtues and vices.

If you consider the cost of vegetables, $100 for seeds is a small investment. Most people spend this amount in 2-3 weeks on fruits and vegetables for a family of 4. For those eating super healthy and buying more gourmet veggies, like celery root and fennel, this could easily be the produce budget for 2 people in one week. Trust me, I know from personal experience. This year, the cost of my seeds were much more than this due to buying a wider array of vegetables. I will save at least half of these seeds for next year. Figure $75-100 for seeds and $40-50 for amendments for $500-1000 is worth it. So, don't feel so guilty. Even if it is a hobby, $100 is NBD.

Dlbailey ~

I store them in canisters in a closet or cupboard. We have really low humity, as low as 15-20% on most summer days. Storing them this way hasn't been a problem if I am just saving them for the Fall and following Spring. Most people seem to have more elaborate methods of storage. This is the easiest for me. The germination rates are still about the same as the first year. A few times, I've forgotten seeds in the patio or garage for several months and they were still viable.

I recently had this discussion with a friend. We have high humidity and temperature swings. He said he has always stored his in an ice chest with a dessicant. He says there is less extreme temperature fluctuations and it is also rodent/bug proof. I've talked to others that store seeds in the freezer. I always have excess vegetable seed and want to keep it viable for the future seasons. Looking for the best means ~ thanks.

My means aren't the best in terms of preserving rare seeds or for several years. If you want to do this, storing them in cold, low humity, no excess moisture situation is what you want to do. What I do just works for my objectives, saving enough seed to plant next year. The seeds I sow are heirlooms/OP but not extremely rare. If the germination isn't high enough, I always have the option to sow or buy more. Of course, this is a very dry climate for about 7 months of the year. I am not sure if this will work in a humid area.

The problem here is that I already have more seeds than I can possibly use - ever! And I'd decided to use up some of the older seeds again this year. (I did fine with that last year - doing a few trades and one round robin.) Alas - the snow storm did me in...too much time to browse! At least I only ordered one tomato...with well over 500 varieties, I'd be hard-put to justify more. The "Egg Yolk" will work well into this year's theme, though, and I did get some interesting items at some very good prices. And I will happily share with a few seed buddies.

I store my seeds in packets tucked into closed glass jars with desiccants and stored in the darkest areas of the basement. I have no idea how long they would last that way, but so far it seems to work.

Basements are severely lacking in this area of the south but that consistent temp could probably be found in a sealed ice chest. And dark would be a good idea too. Thanks...

I store my seeds in sealed zip log baggies and then I place them in the fridge, I have heard that this way they will last a lot longer, I have had really good results with some seeds that were dated for 2004 and are still viable, my problem is that we move a lot so I did loose some nice seeds that I got from trades due to the fact that I had to store them in a really hot trailer for about 4 months in between moves. I am planning to be saving tomato seeds, cucumbers, squash seeds, and pepper seeds this year, that way I don't have to buy these for next years use.
I have used heirloomseeds.com I think they have good prices and also don't charge you an arm and a leg for shipping.

Did you try to germinate the seeds you had in the trailer? You might be surprised at the results. Seeds are alot hardier than people expect. I found a container of seeds in a barrel at a Thrift Shop a few years ago and the shop-owner said he uncovered the barrel in the metal warehouse and didn't know how long they'd been out there - at least 10 years. I bought the whole lot of them for a doller and got surprisingly good germination from them.

Pod, due to the high water table in our part of the world we don't have basements. Also, there's a rather large layer of rock under much of Texas, another reason to have no basements.

Sequee, Oh yes I actually did do the sprouting method, placed the seeds in a damp towel and enclosed the towel in a zip lock baggie, some of my seeds did definetely survive but some of them got to fried I guess, so they did not sprout at all, those I ended up having to throw out unfortunately.

Hurts, huh?

Oh yes, but thank's to very generous people here at Daves and other sites I have a great seed collection again.