Choosing Seed Companies to Order From

How do you pick what seed company to order from? According to Seeds of Diversity there are around 120 seed companies in Canada! So how do you narrow down where to order from? There are four ways you can narrow down to which company you should order from.

First way geography. I'm from Canada and I'm trying to eliminate ordering from the USA. I am a commercial grower and I find Canadian seed companies don't always have what I want so I have to order from the States. I'm sure you have heard of the adage "support local". If you can order from your province or state I would encourage you to do so.

Second way price. A lot of people think prices are pretty uniform across seed companies. That would be a very wrong opinion, it's the wild wild west when it comes to pricing. To complicate matters every company has their own way of grouping seeds: packet, seed count, grams, ounces, kgs, lbs, etc. It can get very complicated when comparing seed company pricing. So make sure you check out various companies before putting in an order. Another thing to consider is that some companies have set it up that the more you buy the cheaper the seeds will be. I have kept seeds for over 5 years and they have germinated well, just keep them dry, in the dark, and cool (don't freeze!).

Third way shipping. Checking out the cost of shipping is vital before ordering from a company. Some companies have very reasonable pricing. Some make you scratch your head ($60 US, which converts to $82 CND). I really like it when companies bake the shipping into their product pricing. Some companies will ship extremely quickly and some will take months to ship.

The fourth way is does the company have what you want! I know what I want and will get what I want even if that means ordering from 9 seed companies. Now most people don't need that many seeds and will never need to order from 9 seed companies. If company A has most of what you want and company B does not, well than order from company A.

What are your favorite seed companies to order from?