Jade Green Bean Crop Failure

I'm getting the hint some of Johnny's bulk seed may be recycled ;packets from the year before.

I doubt it. They buy tons of seed as they vend to commercial growers as well as well as the retail trade. That said , the carry over bulk seed must be tested for germination before it can be sold before the year of sale. Even the new seed they buy, they have no idea when it was produced only the results of germination tests. That is true for every retail vendor. One exception is European vendors like Franchi, Bavicchi which have a slightly dofferent testing regimen but must adhere to EU and international standards. Edited to add http://www.mofga.org/Publications/MaineOrganicFarmerGardener/Spring2003/GerminationTesting/tabid/1521/Default.aspx
By the way, the established germination rate for carrots is 55%. http://www.leg.state.nv.us/nac/nac-587.html#NAC587Sec120

This message was edited Sep 7, 2012 2:44 PM

I had no idea carrot germination was so low. Out of that whole package I had probably 2 dozen seeds germinate so the actual germination rate was probably .05% and carrots weren't the only thing I had trouble with. The tomatoes I bought from them were two varieties in a package, the onions were all supposed to be white but had purple and yellow ones mixed in. The broccoli had a variety of kale mixed in it and the list goes on, plus their germination on cantaloupes and cucumbers was next to zero.

This was all from Johnny's?

Disgruntled employee????

Yes, all from them.
We have a vegetable farm, my seed bill is not small. I have half a dozen seed companies I buy from now and probably won't change. One of them offers a 10% discount if I buy a CSS ahead of time and can use it any time in the following year.

I read the following on the home page from the Ed Hume Seed Store:

"Welcome to Ed Hume Seeds Store

This is where you can buy the best seeds for short seasons and cool climates!

Remember, all of our seeds are:

• Packaged fresh from the current crop.
• Easy to Grow.
• Value Priced.
• Not Genetically Modified"

The "Packaged fresh from the current crop" is what caught my attention. A chance meeting of a lady in a Missoula Ace Hardware store was where I first heard of this company. She said she sold Filet Green Beans to a local grocery store grown from seed purchased at this company and was satisfied with their prices on packets. Plus only $2.00 shipping fees! Like Johnny's, they also sell varieties which are recommended for cool climates, just not as many choices, but enough to meet my needs.

Looks like Ed's going to be my new source for seed next year.

Believe it or not, I buy varieties for cool climates for our winter crops! Our winters are like northern spring/summer.

I believe it. Seems to me that Texas gardeners may be facing winter as their primary growing season after three years of summer heat and drought. I read in the 2013 Farmer's Almanac that Texas has the majority of commercial agricultural farms in the US, and with the weather problems we are facing this has had a huge effect on your grocery prices. Our kids in that part of the country say they can't even find corn in the grocery stores now. Wife is making a run south in a week to deliver corn, potatoes and onions which they will process for storage over the next few months. Our green bean and pea failures this year have the grand kids pretty upset, so hopefully we have learned a good lesson about buying seed.

Almanac also says a cold wet summer for our part of the country next year so we will have to adjust for that as well. Do you believe in the Almanac???
So far the Almanac has a much better accuracy than the local weather reports. I love the way they can predict clumps of weather a year in advance and be so right on. I prefer the Almanac predictions for covering late ripening tomatoes and hot peppers, but next season I'm going back to covered cages for both. Covers come off in mid to late June and back on in mid to late August which doubles my growing period with far less effort. The other thing we will have to try is using black plastic to pre-warm the ground for beans and corn.

Try Louisiana purple pod beans. They are pole beans and taste great. Prolific, too. For bush beans, I like Blue Lake, the one with a number after the name. Luciee

luciee, I will do just that. I have planted Blue Lake for a number of years, both pole (with corn) and bush types. I have been working up my 2013 seed orders and will look for some Louisiana purple pod beans. We do freeze a lot of green beans each year and I had an order for some purple pod beans which are useful in timing the blanching process, however I don't recall ever seeing Louisiana purple pod beans in any ot the seed supply catalogs.

I have pretty much decided to stick with companies which do not recycle seed and the other disclaimer which I saw on the Ed Hume web site; No Genetic Seeds...I really didn't know what that meant until a client of mine told me they were seeds which have been altered so you can't save seed for next season's crops. I had heard something about a company was fighting with farmers who had bought seed from them, and wanted restitution for saved seed which the farmers had planted and that's what I though was this genetic seed thing was all about. What I can't believe is this is spilling over to home gardening as well. Anyway, so far I have decided either to purchase my next season's seed from either Seed Savers Exchange or Ed Hume Seed Company. I may also pose the question here weather there may be other companies which only sell just the previous season's seed and non-genetic seed.

The third thing that irks me is a company that does not label their seed properly. The peppers I received in a package marked "Lipstick Pepper" was a long green pepper which tasted like a bell pepper. These peppers were prolific and produced far better than any bell peppers we have tried, so I can't complain there. I will try planting the save seeds next season and see what happens, but I have nixed off this company as well from further purchases.

Strange terminology - it's impossible for any plant or animal to be "non-genetic"...

right...non-genetically enhanced maybe???

Non-genetically-modified or non-GMO.

If you are worried about varieties packed incorrectly, don't buy from Seed Savers Exchange. About 10% of the 100 or so packets I have ordered from them haven't remotely resembled the variety characteristics they claim. So they aren't a primary supplier for me any more.

Most seed companies don't grow their own seed, so it isn't necessarily the seed company at fault. If their supplier labels it wrong or has cross contamination, the seed company isn't likely to know. But as a consumer, if a seed company has an iffy supply chain, that's going to inform my decisions. I've had better luck with Baker Creek in that department.

I save seed for years and years. Unless it's something like lettuce seed that goes bad quickly, I am not the least bit concerned about getting last year's seed as long as the germination rates are acceptable.

I am getting the message here that there may be a lot of unreliability in garden seed company purchases. The wife and I are considering doing a CSA and I don't like surprises. I just don't understand why these seed companies are so careless about their product. Saving seed is definitely and option for some things except sweet corn which was pretty dismal this year. I used most of a half pound of seed with three replantings and still only got about half the normal crop. About 50 percent of what I did get will never mature.