Mountain Valley Seed Co.: An Overview and Review
A Somewhat Meticulous Scrutinizing Of A Seed Company
It's seed catalog season, and I often find myself almost skipping to my P.O. Box to see which one has arrived, yet one of my favorite seed suppliers doesn't even send me a catalog.
Since 1974 Mountain Valley Seed Co. has been providing fellow
passionate growers with a wide range of high quality seeds at
wholesale prices. Our business has grown, but we are proud to still be
a "little guy" and remain one of the few truly independent seed
companies in the nation. We are still catering to the local grower,
still operating as a small company and still supporting all of our
local growing movements.
I honestly can't remember where I heard of this marvelous purveyor of endless seed joy, but I imagine it was probably on the Market Gardener Forum over on Garden Web. I have spent many an hour over the years lurking and absorbing information from all of the wise sages that post market garden how-to tidbits that flow like soil-encrusted digital manna from all over the globe. My gratitude for their freely offered wisdom is almost as endless as the zucchini that dots my plants every year. Almost.
That said, I see that Mountain Valley now how free shipping on orders over thirty-five dollars and a flat rate for orders under that. The holidays have came early people! I love that I have the option to order a ninety-five cent packet of Lima beans or five POUNDS of Romaine lettuce seeds. Who knows, a person might need over two million lettuce seeds!
The first time I ordered from MV seeds was at least five growing seasons ago, as I got the bright idea that I could provide some in my local community with tomato plants. Sure, those big box store plants look pretty, but I had heard too many sob stories from locals that bought those beautiful, bushy, nitrogen-overdosed plants, only to have them stunt, not produce, or all out die as soon as they were planted in the Earth. Our growing season here in North Idaho is usually short, fickle, and our weather can be a tad extreme. Temperatures often will fall below 55 degrees at night even if it is 100 degrees during the day. I have spent years trying varieties in the search for tomato plants that would thrive and yield in our challenging climate. MV is based in Utah, which as a inland mountainous state should have empathy with our climate-plight, and I have always been pleased with the varieties of tomato they carry. I completed the tomato plant sale challenge, but that is a blog post for another day!
The greatest praise that I can heap upon MV Seed Co. is that I have ordered from them multiple times, and I have NEVER had to speak to a human. My experience with them usually goes as follows:
- I place far more than I need in the shopping cart. twenty-five thousand Basil seeds on sale for four dollars? Heck YAH!
- I sing a moment of praise to their company and business model as I observe my shipping costs.
- Enter my payment information and complete the transaction.
- Wait impatiently for the few days that it takes the seeds to get to the farm.
- Rejoice when everything, and I mean everything that I ordered arrives to my domicile in a complete and orderly fashion.
With the exception of the packets, all of the seeds that I have ordered come in resealable Mylar packages. I love this! Seed packets and I have a habit of breaking up frequently, as I seem to love tripping and spilling them all over the ground. Not so with the zipper top Mylar packages. I can fall down all day and not lose a single seed! Genius!
Also, the germination rate on the package is very accurate, I have never had any trouble with germination of any of the seeds that I have bought from Mountain Valley. I have also saved and grown seeds from the heirloom varieties that I have purchased from them.
This great, independent company also carries herbs, flowers, sprouting, and long term storage seeds. Microgreen seeds, cover crops, books, and supplies are also stocked. I haven't personally ordered any of those things, aside from some herb and flower seed, as I tend to make due with what we have or scrounge locally supply wise for what I need for the farm. That said, if given the chance or financial surplus; I wouldn't hesitate to get as much as I needed from Mountain Valley.
In closing, it's worth a trip to their website, if only for a bit of plant perusing. I also dare you not to break into a guffaw or at least a smile when you behold the pictures from their annual Ginormus Pumpkin Regatta.
Hat tip to haphazard-hstead for encouraging me to write this post!
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Thank you!!
Now I need to grow a pumpkin kayak of my own.
I didn't even know that was a thing, but it is so going to happen!
That's a great review! I do like that seed companies do germination testing. And they care about cross-pollination that can turn a good variety into something else. And when they focus on a region with particular challenges, like northern Idaho, that really helps a lot. I feel you on the cool nighttime temperatures even in summer. With the exception of the last two years, even in Oregon's Willamette Valley, we can hit the low 40s (F) even in July and August. That doesn't make an eggplant happy, lol.
Good for you in growing tomato seedlings for your community, too! I bet you are not using systemic neonicitinoids like the big box stores! Lowe's and Home Depot have said they will stop, but they have such long contracts that it is taking a few years to unwind, even though they know it is a problem. Your seedlings are a lot healthier for the pollinators! : )
Thanks for the reply!
Your poor eggplants, lol! I keep my tomatoes in high tunnels throughout the entire growing season due to being paranoid about it even being warm enough at night for them to set fruit.
There is a complete lack of systemic neonicitinoid use here at my place, and strangely enough my plants thrive and yield abudantly;o) That's good to hear about the big box stores, as I am very fond of pollinators, especially my honey bees:o).
I've been trying to plant my eggplants in places where they can get radiated heat in the night, like from a fence. That seems to help. But I plant a lot of cabbage as a backup for a cold summer, lol. Go, pollinators!
It is amazing the difference it makes when planting things next to structures of some sort! I inter-cropped a bunch of food crops in my flower beds around the house this year as an experiment. The squash that grew next to my porch railing and hyssop plants was monstrous! Props to you for planting back up plants, lol! I understand that strategy;o)
The old-timers in my neighborhood used to talk about planting for a tomato-summer or a cabbage-summer. The tomato-summer garden would do well in a hot summer but just sit there in a cool summer. The cabbage-summer garden would just sit there in a hot summer, but do well in a cool summer. So they had their bases covered -- plenty to eat, but would it be tomatoes and squash - or cabbage and greens? We don't have to be so strategic these days, but they really had to plan for anything.