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Re: Thompson & Morgan's Poor quality seeds

Judy, 
In defense of T&M, and as a former seed industry professional, what you and
everyone else is seeing is the difficulty in trying to inventory an
incredibly wide seedlist at high germination.  It's extremely difficult,
especially when the supply of many of these unusual varieties is erratic. 
Seed supply depends on demand, on the weather, and on the capabilities and
experience of the seed grower.  

For example, I have been told that there was a period of time in the late
70's and early 80's when the entire available U. S. supply of lemon,
cinnamon, holy, and anise basils came from a single lot of seed, grown by
what was then Arco Seeds on the request of Park Seed.  The minimum
production acreage was about a quarter acre, and at that time, no one knew
how much of these novelty basil seeds to expect from a quarter acre
planting.  What they got was at least a ten-year supply.  I was still
purchasing from that same seed lot as late as 1989, and the germ was still
decent.  

Seed storage is the only way to offer a broad seed list.  That means that
at some point in time, someone must decide that a given seed lot is too
weak to sell.  If there are no guidelines for a particular species, that
decision point becomes a credibility issue.  For the seedhouse, this is
also a economic decision: to get rid of a given seedlot means a net
decrease in the value of the company, since it decreases the value of the
inventory.  And yes, bad product means bad reputation, and this ultimately
decreases the value of the company, too.  

For reliable herbaceous perennial seed, I buy from Benary (Germany), from
Jelitto (Germany), and from Germania (Chicago).  These are all wholesale
houses, but will generally sell retail, but in commercial sizes.

For reliable vegetables, there's no better seedhouse than Johnny's (Maine).
 I also buy trial "play" packets from Pinetree, from Stokes, from Park,
from Shepherd's, from the Cook's Garden.  Johnny's quality has been better
and more consistent, at least in my hands.  But it is fun to try new
things, so I do.

For reliable annual flowers, I also depend on Germania, even though I have
to buy commercial sized packets and store them from year to year.  For most
things, cold and dry works fine.  I dry most seed over silica gel, then
seal them in foil pouches, and store the pouch in a refrigerator.  I
typically germ ten year old (or longer) seed stored this way, and get very
high germ.  But, please realize that these are not storage conditions that
work for all seeds.  I am a northern temperate zone gardener, and these
conditions work well for those crops suited to this climate.    

We should always encourage the seed suppliers to provide the highest
quality possible.  This means that we should be willing to pay a premium
price, too.  The two concepts go hand-in-hand.  In the seed world, you
should get what you pay for.  
----------
> From: Judy Showers <jshowers@epix.net>
> To: seeds-list@eskimo.com
> Subject: Thompson & Morgan's Poor quality seeds
> Date: Monday, March 31, 1997 2:31 PM
> 
> Just wanted to let you all know that I wrote an email letter to T & M, 
> explaining "our" situation and inviting their customer service dept to 
> personally get on this seeds-list discussion group and try to prove to 
> us that their seeds are really not old and that we are all not crazy.  
> Judy Showers
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