After ordering over $200 worth of seed last year from Johnny’s and still haven’t gotten their 2021 catalog, I went on there today to request one. At top of page it says only selling to Commercial Growers, home gardeners can order Tue-Wed. Further reading says they will intermittently suspend ordering from gardeners. I can take my business elsewhere for most seeds.
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Guess that shows you they, too, are after the money, and not the hundreds of little customers!
(So quit wearing their shirts and hats and stuff!)
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I just got a catalog. Anybody want it? I gave up the veg garden last fall.
I wonder if this has anything to do with the current CRANKSHAFT thread
?
I guess I’m not up to speed. Tried to search “CRANKSHAFT” on the site but didn’t help.
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Commercial orders are more consistent and reliable so it is probably easier to say open for them, plus I’m sure they are a big part of Johnny’s bottom line. Home gardeners come in waves, particularly last year and this year due to all those taking to gardening (or at least buying up seeds) during covid. Baker Creek is currently not taking orders for a few days, Southern Exposure only takes orders up to a certain volume each day, Fedco is opening on Saturday morning and going until they hit a certain number than closing sales until opening again on the next Saturday and many other smaller to large sellers are trying to manage.
Personally, I’d rather they do it this way than just stay open and get so far behind on orders you never know when you’ll get your seeds. One small vendor I bought from in early December just shipped my seeds last week! This was for some super hot peppers, the rest of which I already sowed the last week of December.
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I learned many, many years ago to place my seed/plant orders early. I like to start ordering on “Black Friday” (to catch any possible sales) and ideally I like to have all my orders placed by that first week of December. I usually always get everything that I want doing it this way.
I did end up placing an order with England’s way later than I like to order because I didn’t originally plan on ordering from them. There were only few things that they were sold out of. I expected that and as a matter of fact, I was impressed that I was able to get so many of the things that I wanted reserved. I was expecting much less to be available.
Order early if you want the best selection. Pandemic or no pandemic. Best practice, in my opinion. 
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Ah! Thank you.
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I just ordered tomato and pepper seeds from Johnny’s…no problems at all.
By the way…Johnny’s is located here in my town…Albion, Maine. They were established here and still have all of their research and growing fields here. Their distribution warehouse, store and offices are in the next town over though.
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Stokes has done this also. I need to get on ordering seed too!
For most of my seeds, I ordered early. Also, thinking pandemic issues, I saved more seeds this year. I have a stash of old seeds. Usually a bit anxious about germination on those but they usually do OK.
I was lucky to put my order for Johnny’s a few weeks ago, got the order. Baker Creek… didn’t have some favorites this time, I have old seeds for sone of those and need to save the favorites this year. I ordered from Seeds and Such - apprehensive about that one due to some negative reviews but I did like the selection so we will see.
This might be a good time to see if neighbors and friends have extras for swap.
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I’ve had excellent luck with Pine Tree seeds.
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They’re still selling to home gardeners, they’ve just asked that they order at a different time.
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I saw Fedco was similarly swamped and had paused ordering to catch up. Fortunately, I already have enough seed left over from last year for most of what I want to do. I got a few packets of Italian chicories from Seeds from Italy. They’d already sold out of a few other things I wanted, but I’m happy to have the chicories to try out.
Chicory…I bought 5# back in the summer and haven’t planted any yet…thought I’d kill 2 birds with one stone, attract deer away from my apples and I also like chicory leaves for eating and cooking.
I ordered a few things from Fedco in Dec. Ordered from Jung’s in Wisconsin 10 days ago and got part of my order, the plants will come in March.
I probably am skipping Burnt Ridge this year…I had stuff on their website in a ‘shopping cart’ and when I went back to check out, there were price increases, so I deleted my order.
They’ve always had good stuff…but I also shopped there because I got both good stuff and good prices. When Fedco became cheaper, they got the order.
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Try Hoss or Twilley’s instead. They get in the newer commercial varieties, and are still willing to sell smaller amounts.
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I ordered from Baker Creek just before Xmas. They had pretty much everything i wanted (about 10 seed packets). They came quick.
I keep an old fishing tackle box with my seeds in it. I still have stuff from 10+ years ago. Not a bad idea to get a surplus of seeds around.
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Not your average chicories
And they send big seed packets, too. Standard packet for scale. And a lot of seeds in them, too. About equivalent to a Fedco C size packet or better (for the closest equivalent variety) at the same or lower price. And, hopefully true to type: I’ve had bad luck with mislabeled chicories before where a buyer clearly got the wrong subtype or where there’s more than one variety a region is known for.
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i placed an order w burnt ridge this year but am not at all certain I will in the future myself–I got like 50 rootstock and a pound of chestnuts and it was $36 to ship.
I get shipping and packaging is costly but given not a single thing was tree-sized I will just say I am “skeptical.”
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Yes, shipping has gone up…be a good time to own stock in trucking and shipping companies…high rates and still low gas prices.
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