Hit the Dirt; Seeds For Success Prt. 4

Welcome again to hit the dirt in the exciting conclusion of Steve Solomon's article seeds of success an insider's look at the mail order seed business which appeared in the January February 1998 Schuh of Harris Smith where Steve tells us how the government isn't doing much to protect us consumers and how we can better protect ourselves to continue but merely growing out trial samples and picking the best righties are not always sufficient for quality control. Growing seed like producing any other agricultural crop is always flukey primary growers frequently experience unanticipated misfortunes sometimes creating thorny ethical problems for themselves. Planting may encounter bad weather and end up terminating so poorly that there's no seed to be sold. Perhaps all that's lot of the variety is low germination seed from years back that should not be sold. Should the disc grow or discard the old seat and turn away orders. At the risk of losing his merchant customers to the competitor's varieties. Or should he sell the old seed into which customers retail seed merchants can have similar conflicts when a primary grower

notifies them after their catalogs have gone to the printer that a seat order can't be filled. Do they sell we carry over from inventory substitute a similar variety. Make refunds and thousands of little orders. Perhaps the workers overseeing the stock seed production field failed to discover some home gardeners squash and the seed ends up containing a high percentage of OC types. It may take a few years for the company you recover the varieties purity. Meanwhile there's a suspect lot in the warehouse. Should it be sold and to whom as what. I remember how surprised but pleased I was when a polite and honest Japanese primary grower once wrote and blandly advised that his ruby ball cabbage contained 17 percent off types. Next year we'll be back to normal he promised. But I still want the grower to fill my current order for Ruby ball. Allowing for errors misfortunes pitfalls and mischief. How good a job can garden seed companies do if they try hard. If seed merchants buy commercial quality varieties at least for refined species perform their own variety trials and

grow out most of the seed lots The obtain from primary growers. In other words make considerable efforts to keep their suppliers trustworthy. Most of the seed they sell will perform as expected. That's the best gardeners can expect from the seed suppliers corners might assume consumer protection laws would ensure that all seed that is legal to sell will actually sprout and grow effectively. Regrettably this is not the case. See the law does prohibit adulteration requires labeling of larger bags with the date and results of a recent germination test and the lot number of the sea demands a high degree of physical purity. No stones or chaff. A mandate the seed. Absolutely not contain certain pernicious weed seeds like thistle or bind weed. The law also concedes that for the convenience of the trade small packets under £1 garden seed packets may be sold without all that information stamped on the envelope. In that case however seed must germinate above standards called minimum standard germination set for each species. If we can then that. Seed still

may be sold and without listing the actual germination percentage but the packet must be clearly stamped below minimum standard germination the irony here is that minimum germination levels mandated by the federal seat act or for Canada's number one seed are far too low to be effective or useful seeds so weak that they will barely come up in the field. Despite the best possible sprouting conditions can still be above the minimum standard determination. And even if they do germinate seeds close to the minimum standard so lack vigor that after sprouting they will grow scantly for several weeks usually have trouble with every pest and disease and ultimately give significantly lower yields. Herds the merchants justify selling low germination garden seed by saying the gardeners always plant too thickly anyway. Perhaps gardeners habitually oversee the furrow not because they don't know better but because they learn that the only way to be sure of having enough plants come up. What's a serious gardener to do. As a general strategy I pick seed retailers with an emphasis

on quality varieties whopper a substantial trial gardens in a climate similar to my own and if possible I'd lean toward companies that also supply a commercial clientele. Those are the companies that buy seed only when it is well in excess of minimum germination standards. That test germination levels of all new arrivals and that discard any seed lot in their warehouse. Sure its germination level decline appreciably if a high degree of uniformity in peak yield is important to you. Avoid the old generic parietal names and go for the latest and best the catalog has to offer from a quality conscious company. Gardner should expect decent fuel germination and uniform results from over 95 percent of their seed packets. Gardner should keep in mind that seed growing is not like manufacturing screws and bolts. Now every attempt to grow seal to hide your mentation vigorous product seed is a living entity. It occasionally deteriorates mysteriously and suddenly when a seed company is short of good seed there's no way to manufacture more until another entire growing cycle has passed. In our relatively free economy we get precisely what we demand

to improve the gardens you trade become a responsible customer. Always take advantage of the company's offer to replace or refund when Compaq fails to perform satisfactorily. Save up the disappointments and send them all in. When planting season is over complaints with the better suppliers know something a slipped past quality control. They let the poor companies know some gardeners out there are critical and don't give up on a company that sells you an occasional poor performer. That can happen even with the best. And so Steve ends the article with some pretty good advice. I know that when I first read this article I found it to be quite an eye opener. I answered a number of questions I had about just where my garden C came from. I hope you have found it informative as well. This is Keith Goldfarb. See you next week and hit the dirt.