A Seed's Life

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The Business of Seeds

Give yourself another point if you answered false to question #C. It's a safe bet that no home garden seed company grows all of its own seed - it's just not economically feasible. In fact, very few grow any of their own seed. There are exceptions: Territorial Seed Company in Oregon grows about 12% of its seeds; it also conducts cooperative trials with extension services across the country. Johnny's Selected Seeds, which mails out about 1.7 million seed packets each year, grows around 20% of its vegetable seed stock. (For information on these and other seed companies, please see " Selected Seed Suppliers ")

But by far the majority of seed is grown not by your local or mail-order seed company, but by breeders growing their own introductions or, more often, by contract growers who sell to a handful of major worldwide seed distributors, who in turn supply the retailers. The seed you buy could have been grown anywhere in the world, from your own neighborhood to fields halfway around the globe.

The end result is that the quality of a specific variety of seed, such as Brandywine tomato, can differ from one seed company to the next, depending on where, how and by whom it was grown. (Add another point to your score if you answered false to question #7,) Quality can also vary from one packet to the next, as certain strains of a variety may produce a higher grade of seed than others.

Making The Grade

Seed is graded for not only germination standards, but also size and density. "We don't want small cole crop seeds, because the seedlings tend to be less vigorous," says Joel Reiten, farm and research manager for Territorial Seed Company. When Territorial buys from wholesalers, says Reiten, it only buys larger seed - 10% to 20% above federal germination standards. It's this kind of selectiveness, common among many big mail-order retailers, that sends the lighter, smaller seed to the bargain racks - and many gardeners scurrying to their mailboxes for the latest seed catalogs. "Critical gardeners are more likely to buy their seeds by mail-order," notes Rob Johnston Jr., founder and chairman of Johnny's Selected Seeds.

Glass jar with airtight, clamp-down lids are best for long term seed storage.

That's not to say that quality seed can never be found at seed racks (which is good news, since rack sales account for a whopping 50% to 80% of seeds purchased by home gardeners). But, cautions Johnston, "you're not going to get the adaptability from a seed packet at awed rack unless you have a local company that knows what it's doing."

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