You Get What You Paid

Big John Lipscomb

There are so-called seed companies out there that will sell you seed real cheap. Hybrid seeds are cheap seeds because they are used to grow most of the world’s cheap and sterile food that is processed and packaged and shelved onto grocery store shelves. At El Dorado Heirloom Seeds we find it rather odd that a person would take the time and effort to grow a fresh vegetable garden full of this kind of food when they can for the same effort and time and a few pennies more, grow a garden full of original vegetables full of nutrition and original beauty by using the same seed varieties that all of our ancestors used hundreds of years ago- called heirlooms.

Of course as with the cheap hybrid seeds there are also cheap heirloom seeds. Those seeds sold in bulk by marketing companies disguised as seed companies are merely peddling old heirloom seed and not fresh (last harvest) seed. This is important because the germination (sprout) rate for vegetable seeds decline as they age. Even our brand new last harvest seeds have a 98.7% germination rate. It is not 100%, nothing in life is and although some might claim that, it is as silly to believe as a green moon. To establish our germination rate we plant 100 random seeds from all 200 varieties of heirloom seeds that we carry. Then we wait and see the percentage of all 20,000 seedlings. It is a serious undertaking and it starts in February in the heated greenhouse. Many of our seed varieties did provide us with a 100% germination rate but some did not. Overall, it was 98.7% which is a record germination rate for us and we’ve been growing organic heirlooms for two decades- since 1991. So try to avoid fake seed companies that sell seeds in bulk and limited variety and in some cases packed inside coffee cans and sewer pipes and take gardening serious because it is the foundation of our civilization and deserves more respect than what some are giving it. Happy gardening!