Vendor that sells bulk quantity of "sophies choice" and "break o day" tomato seeds?

[hmacdona]

Could anyone recommend a vendor that would sell bulk quantities of "Sophie's Choice" and "Break O Day" tomato seeds?

In the current swap that I'm hosting it seems that virtually everyone is looking for both of these varieties.

I have emailed Tatiana and Tomatofest. Just waiting to hear back. I've been searching the internet, and it seems most of the other vendors are selling in packs of 15, with a fairly high price point.

Unfortunately my sophies choice tomatoes didn't make it through the bad weather this year, so I don't have enough seeds for sharing.

Would love to be able to purchase a large quantity of both and fill some of these wish list items. Some of these folks have been looking for these seeds for a couple of years.

Thanks in advance for any ideas on a vendor to contact. Or if there is anyone reading this that is in the seed business, feel free to contact me directly as well.

.....Heather

[Nightshade]

Hazzard's has a fairly large seletion of heirloom tomato seeds in bulk

http://www.hazzardsgreenhouse.com

they start on p. 28 in the veggie section

jan

[hmacdona]

Thanks Jan.

I had already checked out Hazzards website and they don't carry either of these varieties.

Appreciate the thought though

[TZ-OH6]

My Sophies Choice from Tomatofest grew out to be 5 ft tall indeterminants...those few seeds that germinated I should say.

[Blueaussi]

Have any of you ordered from Hazzard's? I did a quick look through the flowers and herbs as well as the vegetables, and there are some excellent prices on varieties that I need larger numbers of seeds.

[hmacdona]

Thanks TZOH6 - I appreciate the heads up.

I heard back from Tatiana and I'm able to get my bulk supply of "break of day" from her. Still need to find "Sophie's Choice".

Blueaussie, I have ordered hundreds of dollars worth of seeds from Hazzards. Tomatoes, Peppers and Flowers. All had great germination and so far all but one of the tomatoes I ordered came true. The only tomato that didn't seem to come true was yellow pear, but I'm not going to worry about that one Great prices and quantities as you mentioned. I grow plants from seeds for 3 households, so their quantities appealed to me a lot.

[carolyn137]

I don't know what you mean by bulk amounts of seed and since you have what you need of Break O Day, I'd suggest checking Southern Exposure Seed Exchange for Sophie's Choice, which was one of the first places I sent that variety after introducing it.

I don't understand why folks are having problems finding seeds for those two varieties. I know Sandhill Preservation offers both and they offer tomato seed that's never more than 2 yo which I think is somewhat unique in the tomato seed world, and I know several other places that offer Break O Day, which I like very much, and some offer Sophie's Choice.

If SESE doesn't have the seed amounts you require for Sophie's Choice you might wish to check with Glenn at Sandhill.

I trust both of those seed sources for seed purity, although no place has a perfect record when it comes to OP seed, over quite a few other places.

Did you check Victory Seeds as well? it's another place I trust.

[hmacdona]

Thanks Carolyn,

I was looking to purchase about 1000 seeds of sophie's choice. I will be buying 500 of the break o day from Tatiana.

I think some vendors had them sold out quickly this year, although I think Sophie's choice has been a little tougher to get than break o day. It doesn't seem to be carried by as many vendors.

I did check out Victory seeds...they do not carry them. At least not at this point.

Sandhill isn't accepting seed orders until after December 25th unfortunately.

I haven't tried Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I will check them out. Thanks for the suggestions. I really appreciate it.

......Heather

[carolyn137]

In the current swap that I'm hosting it seems that virtually everyone is looking for both of these varieties.

****

Heather, I guess I'm not really understanding what's going on.

If you're doing a seed swap I'm assuming that's something you're doing locally and if you're all in about a zone 3 area then why the need for seeds until way into next year?

And if it's just a seed swap and you swap maybe 10 seeds or so, 1000 seeds of anything seems to me to be an awful lot.

What am I missing here?

[hmacdona]

Hi Carolyn,

The seed swap I'm hosting is an international one. It's for named varieties of tomato and pepper seeds. So far I have 102 people participating, and since I'm still allowing signups until mid October, I fully expect a number more. I have posted this swap in the discussion section of t-ville as well (as per Mishka's suggestion earlier this year).

Given the volume of people involved, and since I continue to see this seed type on all of the wish lists so far, I want to have plenty of seed to distribute. In the swap I hosted last year, I didn't receive any sophies choice or break o day from the participants to distribute, so I'm sort of expecting the same thing this year. I have a tendency to get carried away when I'm hosting a swap (it's so much fun though). I get ready by stocking up on many of the more interesting varieties through a few seed vendors.

If there's any leftover, it will be distributed this year as well in a newbie seed offering that I have been doing periodically. So far I've been doing the newbie seed offering on another Canadian forum, but now that I'm a member here, I'm sure I'll be posting one here as well.

Make sense?

Thanks again for your suggestion. I sent an email to SESE to see if they can accommodate a bulk request.

......Heather

[Blueaussi]

Thanks for the information, Heather.

[carolyn137]

The seed swap I'm hosting is an international one. It's for named varieties of tomato and pepper seeds. So far I have 102 people participating, and since I'm still allowing signups until mid October, I fully expect a number more. I have posted this swap in the discussion section of t-ville as well (as per Mishka's suggestion earlier this year).

******

OK, got it.

And I'm feeling a bit embarrassed b'c I'm the one who is always asking folks to do less seed trading in order to support the small family owned companies who do so much in terms of preservation of varieties by making seeds available commercially.

I may actually have seen the title on your thread in the Discussion section, but skipped over it when it said seed trading.

Oh well.

[hmacdona]

Your messages to support the smaller seed companies are good ones. I find it interesting when hosting a swap. More and more I'm finding the seeds sent in are seeds purchased from smaller seed companies. Many of the participants do like I do....they write the name of the company on the pack they sent in and that in turn gives exposure to that company when the seed pack is passed along to another person.

This year alone, I've learned of at least a few more small family companies and made a point of buying from them. I'm sure many others have done the same. I would have never heard of these companies if it weren't for trading partners and other gardeners passing along these best kept secrets.

It's a shame that many of these companies don't pop up when doing google searches. I'm no techie, but I've heard that there's a service you have to pay for to have your company appear near the top of google search queries. I'm sure many of the family owned companies can't afford to pay for these searches.

So keep passing along your supportive messages for buying from these companies. Sometimes that's the only real exposure they get.

Thanks again....Heather

[Nightshade]

I'm glad you're rounding up your seeds Heather. i can't even imagine how organized you have to be to co-ordinate 102 swappers wish lists!

When the hubbub quiets down would you share the names of some of the smaller seed companies you've found? Thanks.

Bluaussi, I have used Hazzards as a source for different kinds of seeds and have been happy with their quantity and service.

jan

[remy]

Hi Heather,
Maybe I could help some with Sophie's Choice. I don't want to deplete my supply too much, but a couple hundred I could do. Maybe we can work out me being in the swap for varieties that I don't have(I didn't read your swap post. I'll have to go find it to see how you were doing it.) Or if that's too much of a pain for you we can figure a bulk price for the seed.
Remy