How to Buy Heirloom Vegetable Seeds

Many people who are new and not so new to vegetable gardening rely on their local garden centers for their seed and plants for the upcoming spring garden. The cost for these seeds and started plants can run into the hundreds of dollars.

More and more, people are turning to heirloom vegetables with the thought of saving their seed from one year to another and not having to purchase new seed from anywhere. Once they have a successful harvest, they know they will never have to purchase seed again.

With the popularity of the Internet, however, finding those first heirloom seeds is not the task it once was. Read on for some tips.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Seed Catalogs
• Computer
• Internet

1. Ask other gardeners you know if they raise heirloom vegetables. Many save more seeds than they will need. They may be willing to share some with you.

2. Look through any seed catalogs you have received over the winter. Heirloom vegetables are generally clearly marked.

3. Do an Internet search for heirloom vegetable seeds. More and more websites are available for purchasing from or trading heirloom seed.

4. Understand that you may have to purchase seed from more than once source to get the varieties of vegetables that you want.

5. Purchase the seeds you want, using a credit or debit card. Some heirloom seed companies also offer a PayPal or Google checkout option.

Tips & Warnings

• There are a myriad of vegetables that are non-hybrid. The saved seed will be the same plant, year after year.
• By growing heirloom seeds, you are assured that the resulting plant has not been genetically altered. For some people, this is a real plus.
• Do a search at Dave’s Garden website before purchasing any seed online. There is an entire section devoted to seed companies where users can rate and tell of their good or bad experience. By reading the reviews, you can determine if a company is reputable.