Here's one source.

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Burpee: Big Beef

Oldokie, When I want hybrid tomato seed in a larger quantity than the standard garden packets, I usually go straight to Willhite Seed (based in Poolville, TX) first. Their prices are great and usually they ship really quickly. If Willhite doesn't have it, I check the prices at either Johnny's Selected Seeds or Tomato Growers Supply Company.

Because I order Big Beef fairly often, I know that Willhite has it at a lower price for the 100-seed packets than most other major seed companies.

Hope this helps. Their price for 100 seeds is $7.95.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Big Beef F-1 Seed at Willhite Seed

used johnny's the shipping was pricey will try Willihites next time
thanks

I like Johnny's, but I don't use them every year because of the shipping costs. I usually visit Baker Creek once a year, and order from Willhite once or twice a year. The others I kind of rotate through and this year I chose Pinetree.

I'm the same way. Johnny's shipping has gotten so high that I try to order 2 or 3 years worth of their seed so I don't have to pay their shipping every year. I do the same thing with Burpee, whose seeds are ridiculously high anyway, particularly anything that is new or exclusive to Burpee. Sometimes Burpee has free shipping codes, but it never seems like they have them at a time when I'm ready to order. I order from Willhite at least a couple of times per year--usually in winter for the winter/spring planting and in late spring or early summer for fall planting. My favorite thing about Willhite is that I often get my order incredibly fast. If I order on a Friday or Saturday, I'll get the order the following Monday or Tuesday. That's hard to beat. I also usually can get some of the newer hybrids, like Phoenix, at Willhite a year or two before I see them anywhere else. I also like their generous seed counts. Sometimes when I've ordered 100 seeds, the packet will have 200 or 300. I always have assumed maybe they overpacked the packet because their seed failed the germination test, but then I didn't have any germination issues, so who knows?

Dawn

I haven't used Whillhite for years. But, Dawn, I had the same good experience with them. I think they just have an excellent philosophy of customer service and method of implementing it. I haven't used Burpee in over 20 years. Park and Thompson & Morgan were my father's favorites and I dropped them in the 80s.

George

George, I love, love, love Willhite, and partially because they were on local seed racks in stores when I was growing up in Fort Worth, so of course I have a certain emotional attachment to them that likely is part nostalgia. Also, their seeds have never let me down. I even found them on a seed rack in Ardmore once years ago but haven't seen them since. I think they have changed ownership sometime in the last few years and a watermelon disease issue that is widespread in the seed industry almost drove them out of business, but they are still hanging in there and I still am and always will be a customer of theirs.

Once, when I really wanted some seeds in a hurry (and now I don't remember why), I drove the hour or so from our house in Fort Worth and ordered the seeds at a counter in the office. They took my order, pulled the seeds from the warehouse, and I was out of there in about 10 minutes. The people there could not have been any nicer.

I will occasionally order from Burpee to get Brandy Boy and Fourth of July tomato seed and Biker Billy jalapeno pepper, though last year I found Biker Billy on the Burpee seed rack in a store in the D-FW metro area. I've never seen it on a seed rack here. I like some of their new seed varieties this year but likely never will try them. Their prices per packet are so much higher for brand new items than I am willing to spend.

I loved Park and Thompson and Morgan bothlong, long ago and ordered from them regularly for years, but rarely, if ever, buy from them any more. I used to order County Fair cucumber (only pickling cucumber variety I've grown that seems 100% resistant to bacterial wilt) from Park but have since found it at a couple of other vendors. It still is hard to find, so I'm going to order a fairly large quantity of County Fair sometime this month and put most of it up in the freezer. If they ever stop producing County Fair, I'll have to switch to growing cucumbers under row covers in order to keep the cucumber beetles from spreading bacterial wilt and killing the plants. I cannot imagine the beetles won't fly in while I have the plants uncovered in order to harvest, so I hope they never drop County Fair. I also have had pretty good luck with Eureka and H-19 Littleleaf, but they are not as tolerant of bacterial wilt as County Fair is, and here where I live, bacterial wilt on cucurbits is about as common as ticks on a boar hog.

I just don't have the time, patience or money to waste on seed companies whose seed germination rates are unimpressive or whose germination is incredibly slow, or whose shipping costs or seed costs are high compared to others or who take weeks and weeks to deliver your seed order, and then when it finally arrives, half the stuff is missing because it is on back order. I still order from at least a dozen seed companies over a 2-3 year period, but have weeded out tons more that aren't as good as they used to be.

Johnny's Selected Seeds is higher-priced than many others, and their shipping is high, but both their customer service and the quality of the produce is second to none, so I do still buy from them from time to time. I do not mind sometimes paying more for a very high quality product, and Johnny's quality is undeniably high.

Dawn

Johnny's have seed trays with small holes that work well with the tiny planting blocks that I use. They are usually the only place that I can find the row cover in the right width. I will pay a premium to get the things I really want, but I usually only buy their seeds if I am buying other things. I understand that Maine is a long distance from us, but their shipping cost when buying only seed packets is just way out of line IMO. Their service is great.

Willhite is fast and generous, as you mention, but I do sometimes get a back-order.

Johnny's have seed trays with small holes that work well with the tiny planting blocks that I use. They are usually the only place that I can find the row cover in the right width. I will pay a premium to get the things I really want, but I usually only buy their seeds if I am buying other things. I understand that Maine is a long distance from us, but their shipping cost when buying only seed packets is just way out of line IMO. Their service is great.

Willhite is fast and generous, as you mention, but I do sometimes get a back-order.