Garden Catalogs

County Agent News

Dan Folske

December 14, 2009 

Garden Catalogs

            I think the calendar is wrong! It’s 25 degrees below zero and the garden seed catalogs are showing up in the mail. In the past week I’ve gotten a new Gurney’s, a Morgan County Seeds, a Johnny’s Seeds, a Vermont Bean Company, and a Totally Tomatoes. Those seed catalogs used to be a little glimmer of hope about the coming of spring when they arrived after a week or two of sub zero weather in late January! At least by then the days are getting longer instead of shorter like they are now.  

The names on the catalogs can be a bit misleading too. When I opened the Vermont Bean Seed Company catalog the first page features sweet corn! And the Totally Tomatoes 2010 has almost as many pepper varieties as tomato varieties! In fairness I suppose that I have to admit that Totally Tomatoes does list a lot more tomato varieties than most other companies and peppers seem to go well with tomatoes in many sauces and recipes.

 I’ve heard people complain about seed prices before and the new Barlow Hard Red Spring Wheat released by NDSU last year and increased in the county this year has the price set at $12.35 per bushel for Registered class seed. I know some producers think that is too high, but lets check a few prices from the seed catalog, cover crop and farm seed section. Here is Glenn HRS, a popular spring wheat variety: $8.95 per pound or $55 per 50 pounds ( the 50 pound lot also has an additional $37 shipping fee bringing the total cost to the equivalent of over $110 per bushel). That Conlon barley which you grumbled about when you only got $2.95 per bushel, well Johnny’s has seed to sell you at only $2.95 per pound! Well, I suppose they do have a little more marketing and handling cost they need to recover.

 It is interesting to note that garden and vegetable seed companies have moved up their advertising, promotion and seed sales in a way that is similar to the large commodity seed companies. I used to get most of my office calls relating to varieties and seed in February, March, and April (with some even in June) now those calls often start in November or even October and many producers have ordered at least some of their seed before Christmas. 

            I’ve rambled about the seed catalogs long enough but it is below zero so maybe I’ll look over those pepper varieties while I wait for it to warm up.