When choosing seeds what you DON'T want to do is walk into a nursery and pick up any variety or the cheapest seed packet. All seed companies are not the same! You need to put a little thought and planning into your seed selection in order to have success.
Some of the things to look for in a seed company are:
- Genetic integrity (the seed is true to type)
- Good germination rates
- Companies that provide detailed descriptions about varieties
- Companies that sign the Safe Seed Pledge which means no GMO seeds
- Price of seeds and shipping
- Number of seeds per packet (While you may need lots of carrot seeds for succession planting you don't need lot of one variety of pumpkin or cucumber)
- Growing info for crops
I prefer to order online for a number of reasons:
- More varieties to choose from
- I enjoy reading seed catalogs. They contain a wealth of information
- I have had better success with good quality seed from reliable companies
Some of my favorite seed companies:
- Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
- Pine Tree Seeds
- Seed Saver's Exchange
- Johnny's Selected Seeds
- Territorial Seeds
- Fedco Seeds
After you determine what vegetables and herbs you want to plant, you need to determine what crops you will start from seed. Seeds can be direct seeded in the garden or started indoors. Depending on your planting zone, certain vegetables that need a long growing season should either be planted as transplants or started indoors and transplanted outdoors after danger of frost. Crops such as peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and onions are in this catagory. So decide what seeds you need to direct seed or start indoors. Then determine what transplants you will purchase. If you are not set up to start seeds indoors then plan on purchasing transplants.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Variety:
Hybrids vs. Open Pollinated or Heirlooms
Open Pollinated are genetically diverse and have more variability. this is why you may have success with them one year and a failure the next. OP tend to be less expensive than hybrids because the breeding process is cheaper for seed companies. If you want to save seeds from a certain crop you will want to purchase OP or heirlooms. Not all open pollinated seeds are the same from different companies. Companies can have different strains of the same varieties. That is why if you have success with one variety of OP seeds but switch companies you may not have as much success. That's why keeping notes is so important.
Heirlooms are open pollinated but usually specific to a region, have a history of seeds being saved and passed down, and have stories about the heritage of the seed. Sometimes, as is true with tomatoes, you have unique flavors, colors, and shapes not available in hybrids. Heirlooms can be more difficult to grow but are well worth the effort.
Hybrid plants have two separate distinct parents. These parents must be crossed each time to get the hybrid variety. Hybrids are also know for having more vigor. If you save seeds from hybrids you will not get the same variety and it will be less vigorous. If you aren't saving seeds hybrids are a good option because they can bred disease resistance into the genes of hybrids.
Days to Maturity DTM
Days to maturity has two meanings. For vegatables that are seeded directly in the garden the date refers to time of planting the seed until maturity or harvest. This includes beans, corn, peas, lettuce, peas, spinach squash cucumber, melons beet, kale, and collards which should all be seeded directly into the garden
For crops that are typically planted as transplants it means from the date of transplant until harvest. This includes tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower.
Days to maturity is extremely important if your growing season is short. For example, smaller watermelons such as Blacktail or Crimson Sweet may ripen before a frost but larger melons such as Georgia Rattlesnake may not ripen before a frost especially if you plant late or have a cold spring. The same is true for pumpkins, winter squash and cabbage. In my area we have cold springs and then it just gets hot so spring crops like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower tend to mature in the heat and have problems with aphids. Planting smaller cabbages or heat tolerant varieties meant for summer harvest helps with this issue.
With tomatoes this is very important. The large beefsteak varieties will be the last to ripen and can ripen very late in the season especially if you have cooler than normal weather. Look at other tomatoes to get an earlier harvest such as paste, salad or smaller slicing varieties. A combination will give you more continuous harvests.
Disease Resistance is usually coded within the growing information for each type of crop. Choosing a variety based just on disease resistance is not helpful. You only need to worry about diseases you actually have in your area not every disease. HR means high resistance IR means intermediate resistance. No variety is completely resistant and if disease pressure is very high in your area you will probably still have problems. If, however, you know you have problems with certain diseases it will be beneficial to try disease resistant varieties. Good cultural practices combined with disease resistance varieties will ensure more success than disease resistance varieties and poor cultural habits and poor soil management.
Other helpful information included in seed catalogs and on seed packets:
- The soil temperature when seeds will germinate
- Days to start indoors before last frost. Great to know for planning your calendar
- Description of the crop and positive characteristics
- Uses of the crop for example pickling, slicing, roasting etc
Choose companies dedicated to producing good seed of trial proven varieties. Cheap seed is a bad investment and does not save you money or time but instead is guaranteed to frustrate your gardening experience.
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