Harris Seeds

General Fruit Growing
1

I’m aware a lot of people buy seeds from Harris Seeds, but I had a bad experience from them recently.

I ordered just a small packet of tomato seed from Harris in Jan. The seeds were for the Kansas State experiment station to graft. They graft tomato plants for a fee, but you have to provide the seed for the topgrowth and seed for the rootstock. They request about 30% extra seed in case they don’t get good germination.

I gave them the 100 packet of seeds. They only got 34 of them to germinate. Other tomato seed they grafted for me produced good results for them, so it was definitely the Harris seed was the problem. These people who graft are pros, not some Joe sixpack. They graft thousands of tomato plants for growers every year.

I pointed out this issue in an email to Harris. I did get a response asking what lot the seed was in, and offered to send out more seed, which of course would be of no use, unless one could turn back time. There was no offer to refund my money.

Just wanted to mention that Harris may have a problem with their seed, so order at your own risk.

2

I’ve seen a number of other complaints including seemingly endless backorders and unresponsiveness, so I’ve stayed away.

If I was you I’d take the seeds if that’s all they are offering. Tomato seeds will be good for many years. I’m getting 90% germination on 4 year old seeds, really no different than seeds from last year. As long as they don’t make you pay for shipping of course.