Heirloom seeds

Rare Seeds is one of my favorites, always very generous sized packs. Also, from the others I have checked, you can't beat their shipping prices.

A new source for me this year was on Ebay, seller rsedwards64. He had a lot of heirlooms, very good prices (all Buy It Now) & good shipping rates. Everything has sprouted quickly - I have a 72 cell "greenhouse" with tomatoes from him, at least 3 seeds per cell, all looking great.

belfrybat wrote:I got 6 different heirloom tomato varieties from www.wintersown.org free -- just sent a SASE envelope. They also have a mixed veggie pack. Also there is a person on the Homesteading forum (http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/) giving away tomato and bean seeds just for postage. He sent me 6 different beans since I already had a bunch of tomato seed sprouting. My problem is going to be growing them all since I want to try every variety. I thought 87 squares was overkill, but now I'm running out of room!

Yes, it's amazing how we can end up with so many tomatoe plants. But you can't plant just one seed to a cell, and there are so many varieties to try. I guess I'll have my tomatoes in my old garden, since I do a lot of canning.

timwardell wrote:I too enjoy the flavor of heirlooms over most hybrids. I get my seeds from:
http://www.seedsavers.org/ - great seed saver organization
http://www.tomatofest.com/ - they grow 600 varieties of tomatoes!
http://www.seedsofchange.com/ - certified organic seed

I just went to tomatofest - I'm in major trouble now.

Wild Bill wrote:I see a few new ones in that list.

Have you grown the green zebras before? Do they make good fried green tomatoes? :-)

Orange Banana sounds good... I'm wanting to try Kellogg's Breakfast which is an orange type of tomato.

You sound like me, I just keep adding more tomato plants to grow. I can't stop at just a few. lol

I'm trying orange banana this year too. I've grown Kellogg's Breakfast before. It was a little too tart for my taste.

dixie wrote:I just went to tomatofest - I'm in major trouble now.

I know what you mean. I lost 2 hours of my life the day I found that site. Soooooo many varieties so little space in my garden.

dixie wrote:

Wild Bill wrote:I see a few new ones in that list.

Have you grown the green zebras before? Do they make good fried green tomatoes? :-)

Orange Banana sounds good... I'm wanting to try Kellogg's Breakfast which is an orange type of tomato.

You sound like me, I just keep adding more tomato plants to grow. I can't stop at just a few. lol

I'm trying orange banana this year too. I've grown Kellogg's Breakfast before. It was a little too tart for my taste.

Im growing banana legs this year, I'm excited about that one, and am looking for green sausage (a green banana). I planted seeds for kelloggs also, but you said you thought they were too tart? are they more of a slicing tomato? This is my first year with several varieties.

Ok, I've started the following varieties by seed:

Brandywine, Sudduth Strain
Brandywine
Stupice
Black Russian
Red Lightning Hybrid
Delicious
Burgess Climbing Trip-L-Crop
Pennsylvania Pink

and probably a green type as soon as I can get one from my local seed store. I'll also grab some Park's Whoppers Hybrid from transplants.

I'm lucky enough to live just down the road from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Petaluma CA - aka www.rareseeds.com. However they are not open on Saturdays so I haven't haven't been lucky enough to visit. I got a bunch of seeds for Christmas, from there (10+ packets) that caused me to look into SFG - how as I to plant all the new seeds in addition to my old favorites in the space I have. So now the new watermelons, cukes, squash, and others will have to go vertical. I'm game

There was a great article in the March/2010 Vegetarian Times about biodiversity and the need to utilize heirloom seeds. Here are the links they shared:
(They are all links, you just need to click on them.)
seedssavers.org
rareseeds.com
heirloomseeds.com
heritageharvestseed.com

I have never planted heirloom, only store bought seeds/plants. Does anyone have any recommendations for some tomato varieties that are really acidic?

Mortgage Lifter is a bit acidic... at least it was for me.

If you're passing through southern Missouri east of Springfield on US 60, turn north at Mansfield (Laura Ingalls Wilder's home is located there) - and follow the signs to visit Bakersville, a recreated homestead and home of Baker Heirloom Seeds. (Their website is rareseeds.com)

We stopped there last fall and picked up our garden seeds for half price. They have a vegetarian restaurant, several flocks of heirloom chickens, and you can tour their gardens. But their seed store was the best for me. I spent hours looking over their wonderful selection. They also have music and garden festivals every month, but we didn't happen to be there on the right weekend.

We've had good luck with all of their seed, and they had many, many varieties we'd never heard of. I love their metki painted serpent melons.

The only downside in visiting at the end of the season was they were sold out of several of the varieties we wanted to try, but they had so many it was easy to choose a substitute. They have many more varieties in their store that I don't see offered online at their website. They are very anti-GMO, but not all of their seeds are organic.

I ordered 6 new open-pollinated tomato seed packs this year to add to my list. I plan to save seed from them for next year.
I understand the idea is to grow them at least 5 feet away from another variety so my SFG is set up for that this year in groups of the same 3 plants per section.
Maybe we can get a seed swap going for next season.
By the way, TerritorialSeeds in Oregon has many Heirloom varieties of seeds.

AngieMom, I was really confused by your post when you said you lived near Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Petaluma, CA. I thought, "No, Baker Creek seeds is in Missouri. What gives?" I looked at their website, and just realized they have two retail stores - one in MO and one in CA. Duh!