John

I can honestly say I do not recall ever getting a dud from Burpee.

You guys are making me fell inferior on my germination techniques. I'm not saying that I've had ZERO success with Burpee seeds, but my results have been less than stellar. Jalapenos and serranos were "ok." But the habs, poblanos, and cascabellas were abyssmal -- I got a whole 2 plants out of the whole pack of habs and ZERO germination on poblanos and cascabellas.

Kevin

It doesn't account for getting the wrong variety of plant...

Also I've found when I buy plants almost straight off the nurseries delivery truck I seldom am dissapointed.

BUT if I buy plants even the next day I sometimes get weird stuff.
I think too many people pull the tags out of stuff to read it and don't put it back in the same pot,intentionally or otherwise.
I have a nursery 200yrds up the street and the freeway offramp is down the street.I see a lot of the delivery trucks drive by to deliver.
I walk to the nursery right after they deliver and get the best plants of what I want.

I stopped buying plants because they bring in mites or whatever and A LOT/MOST of the stuff I grow is from seed trades all over the world.
Some of the stuff is or was hard to find and mites plagued me for 3-4 seasons that originally came from a nursery plant.
They killed a few plants that I had grown for 5+ years.

I rarely buy plants and isolate them with a hot shot no pest strip before I put them anywhere near my garden or grow shelf.
I guess it boils down to if you got plants or seeds from a company - it's either the p.o. or the companies fault.
If you got them from Homey Depote or another source it is out of the control of the company that produces the product.

As a side note,China is REALLY BIG on production of clones for Hybrids.REALLY big-cheap labor etc.
I'd bet a LOT of the hybrid plants these days are from clones.
It's much faster to make clones then re produce crosses by growing 2 plants...

China now is like Japan was in the 60's.
Japan USED to produce a lot of cheap junk,now they lead in some areas tech wise.
China isn't selling as much junk as people think.

I use mostly Chinese made LEDs.I find no difference in their $.49 LEDS and the same thing that is U.S. made for $2.00.

Doesn't mean I agree with child labor or outsourcing.

I just can't afford U.S.,possibly Union made stuff.
Would you rather pay $1.00+ a seed for super hot seeds or trade with me for the cost of postage?
I have to pinch my pennies till Lincoln screams to make my $ buy what I want...That includes food etc.

Got a little side tracked but a lot of seed companies buy seeds from growers.

One example is Redwood city seeds.

They buy seeds from a grower in Maxwell Ca. area that grows acres of each variety next to each other for seeds.
No real isolation.
If you get seeds from the center of the acres they grew of whatever variety ,you get pure seed,from where 2 varieties are next to each other you might get a cross.
Since they mix all the seeds from their harvest together ,chances are greater you get a true seed-percentage wise.
Without going through my past research,there are a LOT of seed vendors that buy seeds out of Maxwell Ca.

I only grow non bell peppers,they are self pollinating so even with other stuff near buy the bee has to get past the plant probably already pollinating itself.

Send me an E mail,I might be able to help you out with a trade or SASBE for several different Cayenne pepper varieties from different countries.

One I recently came across is from Germany.
It has a med.(by my standards) heat,nice taste,dries well but has a little thicker flesh , is hotter when cooked.
Very productive and easy to grow.

I'm not a big fan of Cayenne in general.

A few have a taste that does set them apart from the generic cayenne types sold by seed companies.
Try the Malaysian varieties among others.
Most Cayennes are pretty much the same in heat but like the different Paprika peppers they vary in taste a lot.

To me most Cayenne taste too much the same,nothing special.
Some are a lot different and,to me have a better taste with the same generic heat.
I don't consider Cayenne as being all that hot in general.
But that is my taste preference in general.
BUT some different ones are a lot better tasting than others.
I like using them in spice and rub mixes for the BBQ or smoker.
Depending where they are from they might be just Cayenne types and called a pimento , pimienta or Paprika...

Vendors sell the same thing according to what name they think will sell the most seeds for them.
Check out the Pepper Joe or Remiers site if you want to see creative advertising among a few other seed vendors that are only into getting your hard earned $.
A lot of Cayenne powder is actually from Indian peppers that aren't called Cayenne.

Been there ,done that...
If you have the growing space,I'd check out some of the stuff that isn't called Catenne but is basically the same thing but might be more prolific or better tasting (depends on your tastes and your customers taste).

I just end up drying them and let them SIT in a jar while I actually USE my other peppers. I think I can actually get by with growing 1 cayenne plant every three years.

Kevin