[CH] The seed debate

Dave Anderson (Chilehead@tough-love.com)
Tue, 14 Sep 1999 13:45:51 -0700 

I've been sitting on this for a couple of days, but decided to respond 
to all of you.

Roy Stiel sent me a copy of the dreaded e-mail which was from 
another non-customer named Byron Bromley who was just 
repeating his Totally Tomatoes tirade.

Roy also sent me a list of questions:

"Does this guy sound familiar? If not, I can't imagine why he'd say 
this can you?"

Byron has sent out more  mis-information than the entire combined 
Chile-heads group. He sent out some more the other day when he 
mentioned certified disease free seed from Stokes. No seed 
company makes that guarantee.

"Is this true? Do you buy the same defective seeds and sell them 
to unsuspecting customers?"

Not to my knowledge, but I've never been able to find out which 
"diseased seed" varieties Byron purchased, nor has he been able 
to document the "diseases".

Totally Tomatoes is owned by Horticultural Services and Products. 
They also own Vermont Bean Seed, R. H.Shumway and Jane 
Seymore seed companies. Of the approximately 50 Varieties of 
seed which I sell, 8 were purchased from HPS. Three hybrids are 
actually produced by Seminis Vegetable, but I'm not large enough 
to purchase seeds from Seminis. I hope to be someday.I have no 
idea if HPS actually grows any plants for seed. Most seed retailers 
do not.

"And are the handful of guys on the list backing you up really your 
employees, or family members or you."

 My only employee is my step-daughter and she doesn't have a 
computer. Some are satisfied customers and I've never met any of 
them face to face.

Seems like I see the link to your company every where I look. 

That's probably because I've been selling Chile seeds on the 
internet longer than most. Interestingly, I began  with one seed 
variety, Habanero, which I purchased from Stokes Seeds. The 
second variety which I added was Charleston Cayenne from HPS. 
Charleston is in my best selling seed collection and I've never had 
a complaint about it.


Dave Anderson
Tough Love Chile Co.
http://www.Tough-Love.com
Chilehead@Tough-Love.com