There are several plants and herbs I would like to grow in my home garden, but I do not know how to start growing or find the seeds. I wonder if it is good to buy seeds online, especially for those I can't find easily. Have you bought seeds online? Do you have any favorite online sites for buying seeds?
Really there are foreign vegetables I have seen at local grocery stores I actually like. The appearance alone looks yummy, this set of vegetables are quite expensive locally. If possible to buy the seeds online and start a garden of such plants I will gladly do so. But will such seeds still be viable after undergoing packaging and staying for long without air.
I have bought seeds online from Amazon.com. I bought over a year ago heavenly bamboo. There it sat in its plastic package for over a year. This year I planted it. After a little coaxing with water and never giving up it's sprouting now. The sprouting took about 2 wks. Now it's growing proudly. Out of a dozen seeds I see 2 growing so far. At amazon.com the seeds were free shipping so I took a chance, plus the seeds were cheap. At my supermarket I go to locally, they have seeds in packages which is pricey, but they are right at your fingertips. If you have a Walmart near by, they too have seeds in packages which is the cheapest I found so far. At my other supermarket they got seedlings starter plants too very cheap like a dollar something so you can look for these in your neighborhood too for getting started in growing your garden. It's a good idea to check what grows good where you live, what grows good harmoniously together and plan your garden so it will be a lifetime of enjoyment. Good luck and happy planting. Many options to save money and have a very nice garden for enjoyment and to grow food to which will save you so much money too.
@tonyb Yes, I also wonder about that. I bought seeds from the supermarket before, some do not sprout at all. I am not sure if I was not patient and persistent enough, or it's simply the seeds were not in good condition. Those seeds I got from my friends always grow well. @krissttina-isobe That's really encouraging! I didn't know the seeds can be stored for so long. I still have a few packets of seeds that I bought from supermarket. I really need to plant them soon. Yes, I started to learn gardening, and there are lots to learn. I try to grow food too, so we can enjoy healthier food and also it's fun to just pick the vegetables in our home garden.
I have recently started home gardening too. I started growing chillies whose seeds were the easiest to get as I use them daily. I visited someone's home and loved the variety of veggies that they had grown. They were kind enough to give me some of the seeds of various plants. I tried planting them but strangely not a single type of seed ever sprouted! One fine day I was about to throw a handful of greem gram sprouts but instead threw them in an empty flowering pot and lo behold! They started growing from the second day and never stopped. Similarly, I threw few other legumes in other pots and now they are all growing at an amazing speed. So now instead of veggies I have legumes growing! The seeds can be borrowed from friends who have similar plants, that if course is free of charge. Otherwise you can buy it from the local shops.
Yes @kaka135 that's the experience I don't like to have buying seeds online and to find out that it's no longer viab le due to the condition it has passed through. It's great to know that it's possible to store the seeds for a long time and still have them germinate at the other country. Knowing this I'm going to see how I get these foreign rich vegetables on my garden
I have not purchased seeds online yet, but with a new garden I am going to follow this thread closely. I have been looking at some of the big seed companies online and making notes of what I want to get for my own garden. I am not sure it is worth it to buy seeds online unless you are looking for something exotic because shipping costs are so high. Is there much of a difference between store bought seeds and those you buy online?
You can find a lot of rare seeds online especially in eBay. I bought seeds like Red Lady Papaya, Blueberry and some other usual vegetables seeds. All of them grown well except Blueberry. Later I read somewhere that Blueberry needs acidic soil to grow healthy. But there are a lot of scams around vegetables and fruit seeds. I have seen images of baby like guava seeds which is off course a scam. I usually go to a nearby plant nursery and buy plants from there. Growing from seeds demand a lot of patience and care.
I also get most of my seeds from eBay now, and I love buying seeds there ! For many years, I got seeds either at the local farm and garden center, or online; but once I discovered the huge variety that is on ebay, I get almost everything there now. The online seeds catalogs always charge a lot for shipping, and even when it is a few packets of seeds, they are going to charge almost $10 to send it to you. On ebay, you can often get free shipping, and if not, then either free or discounted shipping when you buy several packages of seeds. I also get some seed packets at the dollar store, where they are usually about 4/$1. They just have common varieties, and none of the heirloom seeds like on ebay; but you can't beat the cheap price. And at the end of summer, they often mark the seeds down to half price, and then I can stock up on seeds for the next year. I have been planting beets, spinach, and some of the early starting seeds, and by next month, I should be able to put out things like melons and squash. I love having a small garden ! !
There are seeds available in online sites like Flipkart, amazon, snap deal. I have never brought in online as I always buy seeds from flower market here on every Friday. I will get fresh seeds, plant saplings. Maybe you should try it. Happy gardening
@Decentlady That was certainly a great experience and nice feeling to see the seeds sprouting, right? I am glad to have some neighbors who do gardening at home, and we always share what we have too. But I am thinking of growing some plants where I can't find them in my neighborhood. I am thinking of planting lavender now. So I wonder if it's good for me to buy the seeds online, though I haven't have any ideas how to grow them yet. @Rosyrain I have no idea, perhaps they are the same. I am thinking of buying seeds online because I don't see the seeds I want selling nearby, such as Lavender. @luckycharm @Happyflowerlady Thank you for sharing! I will check out ebay. Though I always worry about shipping cost, I think seeds won't be too heavy. @harijobs Yes, I am getting fresh seeds and saplings from my neighbors now. I am just thinking of growing something I can't find here. Thanks for sharing!
I remember my father doing that years ago. If I remember clearly, nothing was wrong with them. I don't see the harm with buying them online as long as the reviews are good. If they don't function properly it may be something on your end or you were just unlucky.
Actually no. I don't have much luck with growing things from seed. I know it is the cheapest way to grow things, however, I think that I will leave that to those who are more skilled and patient with such things. I might try growing some potatoes from eyes though. It seems like a smart thing to do.
I have an update on my seeds I bought from amazon.com. Now there are 7 more that popped up. Though they are small they are trying to get bigger. It's so much fun to see them growing. The other one that was first is 6" tall. The others just popped up so they are not even an inch tall yet. So out of 12 seeds 8 have taken.
Amazon and Ebay is the worst place to buy seeds online. There are so many fakes there. I purchased jalapeño seeds there but when the plant started to grow fruits, I realized I got scammed because it is not jalapeño but a damn bird's eye chili. Tradewind fruit is the best place for buying seeds because they don't scam people. You get what you order.
No, I've never tried. But I think this is the kind of purchase that should always be made in physical stores because I think the product in question should be seen and felt so that there is a security in making the purchase. In the last case, if it's necessary to make an online purchase, that has to be done in sites recognized in the branch.
No we generally do not buy seeds online or offline because we exchange them with neighbors and other people interested in gardening on regular basis and who know the best seeds for the particular season's seeds when we plan to sow them. You know, it's wise to sow seeds which are suitable for a particular season. Like we have four different weathers in our country so if we sow the same seeds in every season the chances are we shall get no result as the plants will never surface..
I cannot say that I do, but I do not buy seeds much, but if I did I can definitely imagine looking around online and seeing some better deals. I would like to talk to someone beforehand, but you can ever do that via online shopping so who knows.
@kaka135 There was a great website I found while surfing the net one day. It was all about bees and their dilemma facing extinction. They were offering free seeds that grew into pretty flowers that bees love to come and visit to collect pollen. Being a great lover of honey I took up the chance to claim these free seeds. The seeds came within a couple of weeks and I planted them straight away. The flowers grew big and strong so I would not hesitate to order seeds through the post as long as it was from a reputable company.
@Decentlady Let me share a secret with you to get chilli seeds for free. If any of your chilli gets too old and you wish to throw it away, throw it in your garden and you will soon see new plants within no time. You can later transfer them on different spots because plants such seeded develop in clusters.
