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New York, Ny

Hi I am a business journalism student at NYU now working parttime for BusinessWeek.com as a reporter.

I went to a giant pumpkin grower festival in Cooperstown, NY and was really impressed. i felt compelled to do a story and use all my pictures taken there.
I see passionate growers exchanging seeds here, seeds that took them good deal of time and energy to come up..seems that some went so far as to read research papers on genetic studies..

i have few question here:

--did people buy seeds with certain genetic feature for gardening (not jsut pumpkin) from seed companies?
--Do you still buy seed from them? or exchanging seed among peer growers is good enough...

--are you aware of any seed companies seeking out amateur grower and try to buy his/her proprietary seed?

-what kind of impact the amateur growers and the competitive gardening sport have on seed companies, who used to have the monopoly over seeds?
--
your reply will save me and my story and all those lovely pictures of giant pumpkins.

any of your thoughts,comments are welcome...

(disclosure: i originally came from China which is a huge market for outstanding seeds from U.S...)

eva

eva.woo@gmail.com
eva.woo@nyu.edu

10/23/2007 11:30:23 AM

Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Genetic history is definitely scrutinized before selecting seeds to grow. Most seed companies however do not keep track of genetics...buy AG seeds from MacKenzie seed co., you just get AG seeds.

I dont buy AG seeds, just trade.

I would say that most seed companies make their money from large scale sales to agricultural businesses. Those that make their money selling to home gardeners, dont likely make much of of Atlantic Giants, rather more common seeds like tomatoes, cukes, etc.

10/23/2007 12:18:06 PM

Cincinnati,OH

Giant pumpkin seeds are mostly traded. The seed companies could never mass produce seeds of such high quality and make a profit because of the amount of effort and attention required to select the right seed and grow it to such incredible sizes.

10/23/2007 12:34:10 PM

Greencastle, PA

There are some competitive growers who have founded their own companies. Beachyseeds, founded by Tom Beachy is one example. Don Langevin and Joel Holland also sell their seeds. However, those are pretty small operations compared to the seed companies you may be familiar with.

Howard Dill used to have a PVP on the Atlantic Giant, but that expired in 2004. Double check the date of it's expiration, I may be wrong.

By the way, why is NYU suddenly obsessed with giant pumpkins? Don't you have more important things to think about, such as how cool you are and who's paying for the 151? ;-)

10/23/2007 1:30:15 PM

New York, Ny

interesting info. about seed business. thanks jordan and Ron.


heyyou
i do have other important things to think about. like i just did this story on online censorship if u r interested
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2007/db20071019_510047_page_2.htm

but my latest hobby is watching and writing about giant pumpkins, for sure.

10/23/2007 2:37:25 PM

Cornwall UK.(50N 5W)300ft.

Competitive gardening is a very specialist hobby with different plants having their own clubs/societies with a handful of experts at the top generally providing plants or seeds to a limited market.
Big seed companies sell mass produced seeds to the masses.

The exploits of competitive growers probably act as an advertisement for seed companies encouraging casual gardeners to buy a packet of seeds over the counter.

Almost every year someone turns up at BP,seeks out every hot seed,plants a field full to supply the world and is never heard of again.

Seed companies do end up selling varieties bred by amateurs
but they have to be new and different to others that already exist.
Growers come and go but the seeds are always there.We are all standing on the shoulders of 100's of generations of growers.

I have heard a tale that one top grower did an article for a big magazine (for free)he asked the photographer how much he would get for the photo and the reply was £10,000.00.
I am impoverished from years of Pumpkin growing so you can't use any of this unless you pay me lol.

10/23/2007 3:11:57 PM

Pocatello (cliffwarren@yahoo.com)

Looks like this thread is duplicated over in "Seed Exchange", but this thread is taking off, so I'll repeat myself here:

Whatever we're doing, we must be doing right! That is, the increase in weights continues unabated, and at least some of that increase is due to the creation of super seeds. So far, seed selections and production has been due to grower instinct, the collective inspiration of many individuals is creating an incredible thing we know as the Atlantic Giant seed.

Almost all of the giants that will be grown next year will come from seeds that were grown this year or previously, by other enthusiast growers. There are seed companies, such as Howard Dill's or PandPseed, but even for these, the majority of the seed stock is directly from these growers and is even named as such. For example, if you want a Bobier or a Richards seed, these tend to be available through PandPseed.

Most seed distribution is through informal trading among growers.

Are you looking for growers to produce seeds that can be marketed in China? Very interesting project.

10/23/2007 3:53:15 PM