RE: [tomato] Tomato Blight reply
Catharine Vinson (Tomato@GlobalGarden.com)
Mon, 13 Dec 1999 16:11:57 -0500
Pete's relayed comment:
Also, were the seeds you started certified seed or
seeds that you saved from a previous crop? Often seeds saved
from previous seasons are inferior to commercially grown.
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If the writer is using "certified seed" to mean seed obtained from a
commercial seed company subject to all the inspections, etc. required on
a state and federal level there is some truth in what he says.
But with all kinds of caveats. Commercial seed is not, in my opinion,
better OR worse than seed a gardener saves from his own garden. Whether
you obtain seed from a big commercial seed house, a small commercial
seed house specializing in (fill in the blank), a seed-saving
organization, an individual seed saver, etc. etc. it behooves you to do
your homework and some "due diligence". Seed saving is both art and
science and it pays to be choosy when it comes to what you're going to
put into your garden. Seed can carry disease; how it's grown, collected,
processed, stored is a factor in both vigor and viability of the seed.
Catharine/Atlanta, zone 7b