Well, that wasn’t the English Telegraph!

While the times in which we live are full of all manner of technological advances, with advancements come unintended consequences. A newer discount seed company has purchased several reputable seed companies. While I used to buy the English Telegraph from a local reputable seed company, I mistakenly decided to try purchasing the same seed from the company after it had been acquired. Unfortunately, instead of being an extremely long variety with a tapered top and slightly wrinkled skin, it looked more like a very common American variety crossed with a middle eastern cucumber.

 

 

The unintended consequence of seed company consolidation is that, though the specific variety continues to be sold under the new owners, it is only sold under the auspices of the existing seed variety name. In reality, the new company replaces the seed of the newly acquired variety with cheap bulk seed, then sells it to the existing and new customers – hoping that it is close enough to the previous variety to go unnoticed. In all aspects, the new seed company is committing fraud and lying to the consumer. This is the ongoing “quiet death” of many heirloom seed varieties.

 

 

 

In contrast, seed companies that really care do the work to select the most desirable traits in order to bring heirloom vegetable varieties back to their former glory. They go through years of work prior to releasing something that is both highly desirable and helpful for the grower.

The Not So “Bushy” Cucumber

When one thinks of the word ‘bushy’ they may think of a plant that is shorter or more compact. At least that is what I think of if someone says the word ‘bushy’ to me. However, that was not my experience with the Bushy Cucumber.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While not a cucumber variety that wants to take over the world, like the Yamato or the Gagon, Bushy is not exactly the most compact either. Perhaps the best way to describe the Bushy cucumber variety I grew was ‘semi-compact’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is the length of the vines of my Bushy cucumber because the original Bushy has always been this sprawling? Is it because growers just didn’t maintain the plant and cull the longer-vined plants out of the population? Or is this just one of the many casualties of the seed cultivar consolidation?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s seed cultivar consolidation? It is when seed companies run out of some of their seed varieties and substitute them with others. Then, if no other company or supplier keeps the seed variety going, the out-of-stock variety is no longer commercially available. Then within several years, the cultivar no longer exists. While this was a big problem decades ago, supply and demand issues as well as inflation and a desire for greater profit margin make it much more common.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In any case, Bushy was a good pickling variety with mildly short internodes. Very productive, but perhaps not as ‘bushy’ as one would expect.

Dealing with Disappointing Vegetable Seed

One of the really difficult things to deal with when gardening is anticipating that a seed will grow and produce a specific way and having the seed produce something completely different. Especially if what the seed produced is less desirable than what the grower was anticipating. If a gardener planted seed anticipated growing a nice large red sandwich tomato, and ended up growing some yellow cherry tomatoes, they may be quite miffed. How can a seed supplier advertise one type of tomato, provide something completely different? Should gardeners and growers just take this in stride, or should they complain? What is the “right” thing to do? Should I just ignore the problem? Should I contact the seed company about the problem, or should I do something else?

 

 

This seed was no longer germinated at over 80%, from 2021.

 

 Although things like this can be frustrating, they are not uncommon when dealing with heirloom vegetable varieties. Not only do vegetable varieties change over time, but the incentive to maintain cultivars often wanes over the years. Unfortunately, while I would prefer to work with the very best genetic traits that are typical of a specific cultivar, I am sometimes provided with what seems to be the very worst seed. If no other source for the variety can be found, I have to consider the time and energy I have to clean it up and compare that with the opportunity I have to work with other varieties that may have much more promise. While everything in life cannot be quantified, because life is short – and despite disappointments – if I continue to work on varieties with the most potential, things will eventually work out.

 

 

Yet again in 2022, Newer seed germinating poorly.

 

 

So – what would most gardeners do? Beginning gardeners may do nothing, but most would likely experienced gardeners would just lose trust in the company they purchased from. Next season, they would purchase their seeds from another supplier.

Entrusting Stewardship of a Carosello Variety

When I began gardening as a hobby, I never thought I would be growing gourmet cucumbers. In Tucson, I was just happy to grow anything that would taste decent and wanted to share what I enjoy with others.

 

In 2021 I entrusted stewardship of the Light Carosello Leccese with Uprising Seeds. I felt that, given their more northern latitude, a very short season variety would fit their needs much more than a longer-season variety, such as the Barattiere or the Long Dark Armenian cucumber. They were able to grow it out and it did well for them. While this is just one variety, it was very nice to have at least one company shouldering the responsibility of stewarding at least one of my higher-quality carosello cucumber varieties.They are already selling it.

While I am still very unsure about how this kind of competition will affect my hobby business, it is wonderful for my well-being.

After years of working to preserve and share these varieties, I am beginning to understand why heritage seedsavers cherish their heirloom varieties. The hope that what you have worked for will endure. Because of how much I love delicious rare cucumber varieties, I would never wish to be the last person to grow them.

With all the cucumber cultivars that I work with, it is a relief to know that some of these may continue to be produced for longer than I'll be around.

Again, hopefully the link works. In any case, here is their current offering:

https://uprisingorganics.com/collections/melon/products/carosello-leccese-light

The Long Wait for Italian Seeds

On October 25th, 2019 – having noticed a slight decrease in the germination and vigor of my seed supply, I reached out to a reliable Italian seed company to restock some carosello cucumber varieties that I did not have the time or energy to grow. If I had the time and energy to describe all I did to purchase these seeds, you would wonder why it mattered so much. For anyone not familiar with the process of getting everything in order and working with bureaucracies, the process can be daunting. But after over 114 emails and many days of work and effort utilizing a friend to translate for me – along with a good deal of divine intervention, I finally received the seed package in June of 2020. It was, at least partially, worth the wait.

Acquiring high-quality foreign seed requires so much time and patience. But for me, it is the price I pay to ensure that I can continue to provide high-quality carosello varieties to others.

3 of the Best Places to find Reviews for Reputable Seed Suppliers

Though I could provide gardeners with plenty of experiences that I have had with purchasing from seed companies, I don’t need to. There are plenty of people out there who feel strongly enough about their experiences with specific seed companies to leave a review. Though one may go on a company’s website or Facebook page and see wonderful experiences from customers, this often does not tell the whole story. Here are three sources that I feel are reliable for Gardening Seed Reviews:

1. Dave’s Garden Watchdog Reviews: Long before Yelp and Google Business, people were turning to Dave’s Garden to leave reviews of seed companies. When you look up a company on a search engine you may want to search “The Scoop on (insert company name)” and you’ll pull up a Dave’s Garden Watchdog review. They are generally pretty standard reviews. Most of these reviews will tell you not only how they felt about their experience, but why.

 

2. Yelp: Not all seed companies are on Yelp, but as Yelp is the leader in company reviews, they often provide as much insight as Dave’s Garden into how people feel about a specific company and why. 

 

3. Finally, the most recent way to review companies is through their Google and Google Business reviews. With Google being the dominant search engine, it is usually easy to find a review on a specific company. Google Business pages allow for a company or its customers to recognize a business by providing the business information, hours of operation, pictures, and reviews. Unfortunately, Google Business reviews allow the individual to designate stars without giving details – something that I believe will eventually lead to problems – but at least it can provide some additional information.

 

Finally, what can an individual do if they cannot find any reviews on a company? In that kind of situation, it really helps to do one’s homework. This happened with myself when working to make a purchase from the Ukrainian company, Oro Seeds. I emailed the company, made a connection with the owner, ordered from them and received my seeds, then I reviewed them from my Facebook page so that others could know that Oro Seeds is a reputable company.

 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I will relate an experience I had when contacting seed company Z about their seeds. When kindly requesting some form of reference, the owner became very defensive, saying that he had written a book that I need to read, he questioned my intelligence and, over the course of several emails – he told me that I was both uneducated and knew nothing about where specific varieties of vegetables come from. I was very kind to the owner the whole time, but by the end of the communication, I chose to block him from sending me any further emails. As a result, you can probably guess which seed company didn’t receive my business. 

 

In short, it is wise to research a seed company before purchasing from them. Reading through the reviews and doing the homework needed to determine where one’s money is going will provide a fine reward when it comes time to grow.

Seven things to Consider before Purchasing that Seed Packet

Oh, the enticing allure of seed catalogues and seed packets. One of the things I love most about seed packets are the pictures. The pictures many seed packets have are incredible. They either show perfect specimens of a vegetable on the vine or being displayed on some platter or cutting board. There is very little else that appeals to my eye like a well-grown vegetable. But as much as I love looking at beautiful vegetables, I enjoy reading the seed packet description even more. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but when it comes to the varieties I grow – I would actually prefer those 1000 words over the picture. Though others may scoff at the description, sometimes the description can tell a gardener much more about the variety of seed in the packet than the picture does.

Why I have problems trusting seed packets.

At times, the pictures on seed packets can be deceiving. Especially if the company selling them neither grew the vegetables or even took any of the pictures of vegetables that they sell seeds for. Perhaps the best advise for seed buyers is “Caveat emptor”, or "Let the buyer beware" in Latin. In this day in which so many things can be purchased online, it helps to have some additional support in knowing what one is dealing with “the real thing” before purchasing seed. Gardeners who are vigilant should be able to avoid being scammed.



The main reason why I bring all of this up is because I deal with this kind of problem all of the time. The seed I deal with always has a name, a description and a picture. More often than not, the name is the most descriptive thing. However, even the name is sometimes wrong and leads me to feel like I am (at least in part) wasting my time growing out so many cucumber varieties in search of something that actually matches its picture and description.

Misleading Seed Packets from a different angle.

Here are some basic things to consider when purchasing seed:

1. What is the seller’s intent? Is the seller more concerned about making quick money or is the seller attempting to sell a high-quality product.

2. What percentage of the varieties that the seller offer have they grown?

3. What kinds of genetic maintenance has the company done to ensure that the variety that is being offered is both what it is advertised as and continues to exhibit high-quality genetics?

4. Who is the seller’s intended customer? Is the seller more focused on large farm operations that require seed that produces identical vegetables which conform to mechanical picking, shipping and shelf life requirements or does the company care more about genetically variable seed that is grown on biodynamic soils and is valued for beauty and flavor over being completely identical. Note: I have come to find that highly biologically active soils naturally produce more consistently stable fruit. Many problems with variable fruit shape and size may be alleviated as the gardener works to maintain high fertility in within the garden.

5. How long has the seed company been around? Does the seed company have a reputation to maintain?

6. How dialed in are the seeds to the climate that is important to the gardener? If the seeds are from a completely different climate, or have been grown for generations in a completely different climate, they may not do well in the opposite kind of climate.

7. Ratings: Though ratings won’t tell a gardener everything, they will tell them a lot. Do growers generally trust the company? If not, why? Did the company respond appropriately to any complaints? Are there themes that would lead one to trust the company? Though there are many places to view ratings of seed companies, Dave’s garden would probably be a good place to start, as they have a whole section devoted to seed company reviews. Not that I would advocate changing anyone’s seed suppliers, but before purchasing seed from even some larger well-known company it may be a good idea to get “the scoop” on their ratings at "The Garden Watchdog" found at the Dave’s garden site.

"Would you be okay with these results?" Feel free to comment below.