Tomato seeds from India?

[tnkrer]

Last time I visited India, I heard a bunch of people doing container gardening on their terraces and growing tomatoes among other vegetables and fruits. (This was in a city where there was no possibility to grow in the ground) I was not doing gardening at that time, so did not compare notes with anyone.

[Yentlsil]

Havent seen that movie... Will look it up though

[Wi-sunflower]

I have a customer in Bangalore that has ordered quite a bit of seed the last couple of years. I believe they are growing for a commercial outlet (market ?) They wanted good tasting heirlooms tho some they ordered were not heirloom but Brad Gates' varieties and Fred's. Almost 1/2 were smaller varieties. This is what I sent last time --

Rose heirloom

Purple Calabash heirloom
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
Large Barred Boar
White Queen beefsteak

Evan's Purple Pear

Snow White Cherry
Red Fig tomato seeds,

Blush
Indigo Rose

Japanese Black Trifele

I also have someone that inquired about a large amount of seeds for a commercial grow, but I didn't have nearly enough seed for him.

Carol

[AZGardener]

Interesting Carol. I wonder what type of setup they have then? I appreciate everyone's thoughts, just wanted to throw the idea out there to see if its worth anything

[Wi-sunflower]

I know the person I couldn't supply said they have a staked system that used 15,000 plants / acre (or maybe it was Hectare). I believe he said they did 10. I questioned the amount of seed he wanted but it sounds like they do something quite intensive.

Carol

[Irv Wiseguy]

I bought a packet of Burpee Brandy Boy seeds. The packet has Origin India stamped on it. Does that count?

Irv

[AZGardener]

Wow- That's pretty crazy.... I wonder if they actually grow them in India or if its where they process/package them?!!! Hmmm....

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Irv Wiseguy

I bought a packet of Burpee Brandy Boy seeds. The packet has Origin India stamped on it. Does that count?

Irv

Does it count?

All I can say is that there are many large commercial seed vendors in the US and elsewhere who contract out seed production in other countries such as China, Thailand, and yes India as well.

The labor costs are much less in other countries than in the US, even if they use male steriles, as many do now, instead of having to manually remove the pollen bearing anthers so that self pollenization cannot occur and then the desired pollen can be manually applied to the stigma.

Carolyn