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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
eva_woo@businessweek.com

10/23/2007 11:34:09 AM

Minnesota

People will give you seeds here. Store bought ones are not nearly as good. We are given seeds, traded for, purchased, given when joining organizations. I suggest you look into who Howard Dill's is.

10/23/2007 1:04:02 PM

Pocatello (cliffwarren@yahoo.com)

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 3:33:33 PM

southwest MO

I'm missing the link between all the lovely pumpkins at Cooperstown and the seed companies?? They could not be further apart... What is your story going to be about?? I think we had better wait for paps to weigh in here and make some sense of this...lol

10/23/2007 4:06:43 PM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

I believe he sees money in them there pumpkins....

10/23/2007 11:18:43 PM

Woodinville, WA, PNW zn 7b

It is simply finacially impossible for any seed company to make and prove up the huge number of crosses, and then mass market them. This kind of innovation can only be accomplished by a network of hobbiests and enthusiasts.

See companies need 100,000 seeds to offer in a catalog nationally. In one good pumpkin say there's 600 seeds, and that's a discreet genetic combination. Each pumpkin is a wild card.

This whole thing works off the grid. It's a triumph of internet neotribalism.

11/10/2007 11:53:49 PM