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| "We specialize in open-pollinated and heirloom vegetable seed varieties that are rare and not readily commercially available." |
Now that the Christmas Season is over, it's time to move into Almost Summer (which is followed by Summer, and Still Summer). You know what that means? Seeds! New Hope Seed Company is the first stop I'll make after I do an inventory of what I have that's still viable.
What I like about New Hope Seed Company (in no particular order & no, I don't work for New Hope):
-- Canteloupe/Muskmelon. Without a doubt the melon varieties available at New Hope are the best I've ever had. Mind you, there are only six varieties but once you found perfection why go elsewhere? Mr. Big Food is a very big fan of melon and both he and I agree that there's no contest; Old Tennessee Muskmelon is in a class by itself.
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| Old Tennessee Muskmelon sherbet |
-- Customer Service. This follows from the melons. There had been a failure of our favorite melon, and seeds were not available for 2011. When I placed my order, I noted in the comments section that I was disappointed. When my order arrived, it contained a packet of those seeds with a hand written note.
[more what I like plus what you might not like below the fold]
-- Variety. New Hope Seed Company offers varieties that just are not available anywhere else. Aunt Hattie's Red Okra is a spectacular plant with gorgeous red pods. Iopride Watermelon is unbelievable. I could go on & on.
-- Tobacco. I discovered New Hope years ago when I was in a snit over Nanny Cincinnati. I was looking for tobacco seed to plant on city property-- namely the patch of earth between the sidewalk and the street. Rare, non-hybrid tobacco is one of New Hopes specialties. There's a wealth of information on growing it on the web site. Try it as an annual. It's a stunning plant, especially if left to go to seed. Plants are also available.
-- Sweet potato plants (slips). Here New Hope functions as an intermediary. A nearby local farm specializes in sweet potatoes which can be ordered from New Hope. Slips ship according to your location. Psst-- Nancy Hall sweet potatoes are delicious.
-- No GMOs.
What you may not like about New Hope Seed Company
-- If you are looking for a one-stop seed shopping experience, this is not the place to go looking. Excluding tobacco and sweet potatoes, they offer just 13 kinds of veggie seeds (beans, corn, eggplant, and so on). This is why I shop New Hope first!
-- If you are a novice gardener, you may be disappointed to see that the seed packets have no basic information on them: no planting dates, spacing recommendations (although packets do include "days to harvest"). This doesn't bother me, and it shouldn't bother you because the information is readily available elsewhere. I'm just noting it.
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I am not the only one who likes New Hope. From a Dave's Garden member review of New Hope:
My order was horribly botched, (my fault), so I wrote to see if I could change it, knowing that it's often difficult or impossible to retract a faulty order once placed. I pretty much expected a range from a polite "No", to the usual, "We're not responsible for your stupidity!" response that's so common these days.
Alas!!!!!!, David replied *promptly* that the changes I wanted had been made, *AND* thanked me for supporting New Hope, in a totally non form-letter sort of way.
***SUPREME***
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I'll have more on other seed sources as I begin planning my garden and buying seed.
I forgot to ask earlier...
ReplyDeleteAbout your tomatoes...do you start them from seed, or buy started plants?
I start from seed. I still have some better boy seeds from five years ago that are germinating just fine, but other than that, I grow almost only heirlooms because most varieties are so darn good. Early Girls are the exception to that-- hybrid or not I have these every year. (I have nothing against hybrids!)
ReplyDeleteHow do you start them? The ones I've tried to start are so wimpy - and the started plants are so cheap...it's hard to justify not buying a sure thing. On the other hand - how else do you learn except by doing?
ReplyDeleteThis year will not be the year to begin for real - I've got the trip to the middle states to be with my daughter, and won't be back until March 1 at the latest. That's pretty late to be starting tomatoes. I should start them now and have them in the ground by then - but if I start them before I leave, they'll be ignored and dead by the time I come back!
Wonderful! I can count the time it takes me to respond as part of my Mississippi Master Gardener time-- even though you are not a Mississippian!
ReplyDelete(Excuse me if you already know all of this.)
Aren't you in USDA zone 9? If so, you can plant tomatoes February-May, and again August-September (more on this below). The key factor is soil temperature. The soil needs to have warmed to 70-80*. Planting them before the soil reaches optimal temperature won't get you tomatoes any earlier.
You need to start the 8 weeks before you want to set them in the ground. So you're right-- because of your trip, you'd be abandoning your seedlings just when they need you the most if you wanted to plant them in March.
Here's what I'd recommend. Plant some store-bought seedlings when you get back home. I'd just get Early Girls. Also at that time, start some seeds which would be ready to plant in May (more or less just as the Early girls are beginning to ripen).
If you want, you could also start some seeds in June-July to be planted in August-September. To be honest, I had never heard of this second planting before I moved to Mississippi, but folks do it here. You can also take cutting of your most vigorous existing plants, plunk them in a glass of water and plant them when they've got a decent root mass.
Just a tip: I graph out (or use a spreadsheet) my planting/harvesting dates. It helps with the feast/famine of harvesting.
About being spindly-- this is a good thing! By the time they are ready to plant, my seedlings are a sorry looking lot of 8-12" plants. Here, it's critical that the plants develop an extensive root system before they begin to flower. To ensure they do, I dig not a hole, but a *trench* about 5-6" deep and 5-9" or more long. Strip off all but the top 2-3 sets of leaves, and bury the rest-- only about 3" or so is above soil level.
One of my favorite varieties of tomatoes is "golden dwarf champion." They do not do nearly as well here as they did in Cincinnati because the seedlings never get spindly! They don't develop a root system that allows them to flourish in the heat.
Just wanted to add this link because he might have something of interest for you. Also appears to have a good blog roll for even further exploration!
ReplyDeletehttp://subsistencepatternfoodgarden.blogspot.com/
I'll probably do exactly as you suggest - buy a 6 pack of Early Girl plants. As I said - I did Ace this year, and wasn't especially happy with them, although it could have been the weather, not the plants. Or something else entirely. But if I go back to the Early Girls alternately, eventually something is bound to give me an indication. I hope.
Maybe I should plant them ABABAB (varieties)...that would take environmental factors out of the equation. Of course, then I'd have to keep track of which were which... Maybe that graph you suggested would help...!
I am/was (depends on what else is happening in life) a HUGE fan of record keeping and analysis. (Probably all of the statistics training!)
ReplyDeleteDid you plants your 2010 tomatoes in the same spot as your 2009? That could explain a lot. Unless you want to go hard core soil analysis along with soil additives, it's best to not plant tomatoes in the same place year to year.
Link bookmarked! Thanks.