What's your favorite source for seeds, plants and trees?

I'm going to be working on creating threads for our favorite seed, plant and tree sources. It would be most helpful if you chimed in and shared your favorites and why.

Is there a specific item you like to get from that source?

What have your experiences with them been like?

If you had a problem, how was it handled?

Thanks in advance fellow permies!

http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/

http://www.seedsource.com/

http://www.nativeseeds.org/

https://www.superseeds.com/

I've got quite a few I buy from. It all depends upon what I'm looking for.

Nichols
Johnny's
Native Seed Search
Victory
Baker Creek
Purcell Mountain
Evergreen
Kitazawa
Territorial
Prairie Wood
Irish Eyes
Maine Potato Lady
Sandhill Preservation

I've ordered a little from many others, again depending upon what I need.....
Pinetree
Seeds of Change
Adaptive Seed
High Mowing
Southern Exposure
Seed Savers Exchange
Holmes
Harris
Osborne
Seedway
Rupp

I've listed them in no special order. Just the way they popped up from my memory.

My favorite seed sources are:

Amber,
Daddy,
Sisters,
Brothers,
Loren,
Penny,
Susan,
Mark,
Holly,
Sage,
Steve,
Gregg,
Andrew,
Alan,
Ken,
local farm stands,
health food store,

Pretty much anything grown in my village by my neighbors. If I can't find it locally, then anything grown by my Internet buddies.

I'm all about localized seed, small scale production, and dis-intermediation. I pretty much only buy or swap for seeds that people grew themselves. I'm not much interested in buying from seed resellers. The more localized the better for me.

Joseph, that's awesome! Totally awesome.

I only have a few items that I'm growing that came from other local people.....
...a few varieties of bananas
...white pineapples
...pipinola
...papaya
...6 taro varieties
...a black & white Lima bean that nobody knows it's name or where it originated
...a local sweet potato
...and new this year, four different landrace pumpkins.

I'm growing most of my own bean & pea seed, but keep the varieties pure because I sell the excess seed. I'm growing my own seed potatoes and sweet potato starts, though I am buying in a few varieties to add to the inventory. This year I plan to save seed from tomatoes, onions, winter squash, pumpkins, corn, and peppers. Like you, I need to develop some landrace strains that can survive the local conditions.

My very favorite sources for seeds, plants, and trees, are definitely fruits/veggies, plants and trees. First choice is to propagate from seeds in the food I eat, and from cuttings from local food forests, wild spaces, and backyards(with permission!) It's so much more satisfying than paying for something.

I've never asked permission about the public food forests, but I collect cuttings in them with the mindset that I am pruning a (generally a somewhat neglected) tree in a conservative manner. If someone has obviously done a bang-up pruning job already, I don't take anything further. I've only received positive feedback thus far.

However, when I can't get something by scrounging, I'm fortunate to have some great permaculturey vendors in my region. Some favorites:
http://www.treeeaternursery.com
http://www.twiningvinegarden.com
http://eco-sense.ca

These are all two-person homestead type operations. Eco-sense has a very broad selection of permie-type plants, and twining vine is notable for nut trees among other things. Treeeater sells a bit of everything with some interesting weird cultivars and tends to have the best prices.

We have some good regional seed companies as well, that I feel good about buying from, but I usually have more things to grow than practical without getting that far down the list!

What may be the best tree seed company in the world is F.W. Schumacher in Sandwich, Massachusetts.
https://treeshrubseeds.com/ They have a lot of fruit and nut tree seeds in bulk. Their best deal might be the Improved PawPaw mix. (PawPaws are true to seed and they sell a mix of seed from grafted improved varieties.

Harvest Nursery for my trees.
Rare Heirloom Seeds/Baker Creek Heirloom seed company for my seeds.

Hi Christina,

Annuals

For garden veggies we purchase from:
Baker Creek Hierloom Seeds - www.rareseeds.com

We have also purchased dryland corn and beans from:
Native Seed SEARCH - www.nativeseeds.org


Perennials:
For bulk supporting tree species seed(hedgerows, windbreaks, n2 fixers, coppice fuel) I first look at:
Sheffields Seeds - www.sheffields.com

For a diverse selection of fruit trees, shrubs and vines (these are bareroot, not seeds)
Rain Tree Nursery - www.raintreenursery.com

For perennial vegetables that are hard to find in the states:
Seedaholic - www.seedaholic.com/

For Hybrid Chestnuts and Hazel Nuts
Badgersett Research Farm - www.badgersett.com

For major bulk ordering of seeds and bareroot:
Lawyer Nursery - www.lawyernursery.com

For native species (Bareroot) I look at my local conservation district of NRCS plant sale.

I live in West Virginia, and that factors strongly into my choices; the best source for people in the Willamette Valley in Oregon will be very different from the best choices in the very different climate here. For vegetable seeds, therefor, my top choice is Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, because they're in VA, similar conditions and therefor an emphasis on similar challenges. They also focus on open-pollinated seed, offer seed-saving supplies and information, give accurate rather than glowing descriptions of their varieties, and the business supports a commune. Another frequent choice is Pinetree Garden Seeds out of Maine, for low prices and small quantities of seed. I've been ordering from High Mowing even though I don't like their emphasis on organic and hybrid seeds (I grow organically but don't think the organic origin of my seeds is important), and their Vermont location means an emphasis on early, cold-tolerant crops--because they currently have no shipping charge, so I can order a packet of this or that special variety without spending more on shipping than the cost of one or two or three packets of seed. I got my fruit trees from Cummins Nursery in upstate New York. The older proprietor worked for decades in the experiment station in Geneva, where he developed some of the rootstocks used in his nursery. He was willing to give me extensive email advice for a small order. All the trees have done well (especially Goldrush apple. Everyone needs to plant this tree).
I also order ornamentals, from Jung's and Bluestone (but the latter has gotten too expensive).
And here's the big thing: Dave's Garden website, which has the Garden Watchdog as one subsite, is for rating experiences with mailorder plants. So if you're considering a new source, check them out on this site and see what others have said, over years about their experiences.

I respect the plant breeding work of Carol Deppe. She offers seeds via Fertile Valley Seeds. From her bio, "Oregon plant breeder and author Carol Deppe holds a PhD in Genetics from Harvard University and specializes in developing open source crops for organic growing conditions, sustainable agriculture, and human survival for the next thousand years."

I especially enjoyed her line of Oregon Sweetmeat Squash, and this year I am excited to try some of her flour corn as well.

I am in Central Florida-and there are a few somewhat local sources that sell heirloom bulk seeds so that is nice.
However I do order a good bit from:
Southern Exposure
Baker Creek
Victory Seed
and a few ebay sources.

Burpee, Baker, and Seed savers, however, last year I used Johnny's.

In the UK - the agroforestry research trust is a good source, you usually have to order popular plants in advance for next year. http://agroforestry.co.uk/
Identify good unusual edibles at http://pfaf.org/ - they have a rating system for edibility and medicinal uses.
Ebay is often a good place to find unusual plants too

https://www.facebook.com/Uprising-Seeds-286010166968/?fref=ts Uprising Seeds for west of the cascades.

I agree with Diane-Carol Deppe, Fertile Valley Seeds.
John S
PDX OR

Carol is amazing, and so are her books and seeds. For a more complete catalog, that supports all the good stuff, check out Bountiful Gardens. They are a non-profit that teaches suustainable no-input gardening to subsistance farmers and gardeners. They were charter partners of the Open Source Seed Initiative, and work with Carol to list several of her varieties. They send only one, newsprint, catalog a year, and their packets are 100% recycled. Every variety in the catalog is non-hybrid so you can save all of their seeds. The herb and grain listings are particularly fine.

I'm in Western Oregon, and Burnt Ridge Nursery has been an excellent source of trees and shrubs for us. They have many natives, and lots of varieties of fruit and nut tress for the PNW. their prices are way better than Raintree or One Green World, too.

http://www.burntridgenursery.com/

Also a fan of the seed Saver's Exchange, Adaptive Seeds, Native Seed Search, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Carol Deppe, JL Hudson, and one I don't see mentioned on this page - FEDCO, the seed co-op out of Maine. Their catalog is a really interesting resource.

http://www.fedcoseeds.com/

For non-gmo seeds in high-contamination-risk crops, the Seed Saver's Exchange is a very useful resource. There are people growing tested, non-GMO ehirloom corn varieties. Also Baker Creek tests their corn, and FEDCO tests their sweet corn and beets, I believe.

I can also second Kim's recommendation of Burnt RIdge Nursery, although I also like Raintree and One Green World.
John S
PDX OR

I think FedCo's catalog is the most interesting in the business, though I notice the varieties that do well for them in Maine often aren't those I would use in the west. I know people love the Baker Creek catalog, and it is true they have lots of varieties, but I don't know any farmer's market-level growers who still use them. Too many problems with mislabeled varieties, crossed-up varieties, and similar quality issues. Those things can cause a grower to lose the whole season.

Seeds from

Baker Creek http://www.rareseeds.com/
Oikos http://oikostreecrops.com/
Territorial Seed co. http://www.territorialseed.com
Fedco http://www.fedcoseeds.com I haven't ordered from them yet, but plan to this winter.
Bountiful Gardens http://www.bountifulgardens.org

Trees and plants from
Raintree http://www.raintreenursery.com/ Reasonably priced rootstock for apples, cherry, etc.
Oikos http://oikostreecrops.com/
One Green World http://onegreenworld.com
Bountiful Gardens http://www.bountifulgardens.org
Stark Bros http://www.starkbros.com/
Fedco http://www.fedcoseeds.com I haven't actually ordered from them yet, but plan to this winter. They sell scion wood for a lot of different apple varieties. I've been scrounging locally for scionwood, don't know why I didn't think of buying it.
Badgersett http://www.badgersett.com/ hazels, chestnuts and pecan/hickories
Indiana Berry Co http://www.indianaberry.com/
Indiana tree nursery Every state is different, but most provide bulk buys of trees. I bought 100 each, wild plum, wild hazel, and hawthorne. Cost me about 20cents apiece. Planted what I wanted and my wife took the rest to a womens function at church and let those who wanted some take what they wanted. None came home. I probably planted 200 trees which have almost all survived. Cost me about $60.

Stark Bro. is real good about replacing plants that die the first year.
With Badgersett, one year their shipment scheduled for May didn't happen until mid July in the middle of a drought. No survivors. They did ship replacements the following year.
Other than that, all of these companies seem to provide good quality products.

A standout in my area has been my triple crown blackberries. They are trailing, thornless, big and excellent flavored. I ordered one packet about 7 years ago and have been giving away seedlings every year for most of the time since. Two years ago I gave away over 100 healthy new plants and this year have to take steps to reign in the insanity. Way too many blackberry vines. I planted them down in a moist area near my pond and they took off. They have grown well on the hillside also, but not as well as by the pond.

Raintree is a wonderful resource for nursery stock. They have clear and realistic notes on what climate each variety actually needs in order to mature fruit, which have what potential pest problems, and which can produce in places as marginal as Alaska. They also pioneered several less-known fruit plants, some of which have become well-known in the years since they inroduced them, like hardy kiwis, aronia, and goumi. Perhaps if lots of us ask, they will bring back the inexpensive bundles of plants for hedgerows--rugosa roses by the bundle made a perfect shelterhedge, and it was a great way to start a cheap nut-bearing filbert hedge. Every order comes with a detailed owner's guide to planting and care, about 25 pages.

This is my favorite place for seeds and advice. They are wonderful, welcoming in person, absolutely the best. (I used to live near their base of operations) <3

'Bountiful Gardens is a project of Ecology Action, a not-for-profit dedicated to ending world hunger by teaching sustainable agriculture. Ecology Action works with projects all over the world that are locally staffed and locally adapted.

We developed the biointensive and GROW BIOINTENSIVE® methods of sustainable organic gardening and mini-farming to grow the most food in your backyard while protecting and improving your soil.

We have practical tools for self-reliance and self-sufficiency. Our methods include double-dug beds, intensive planting, companion planting, composting, carbon farming, calorie farming, and open-pollinated seeds. We are CCOF certified organic, members of OSA (the Organic Seed Alliance), Open Source Seed Initiative and the Safe Seed Pledge. We offer untreated open-pollinated, gmo-free, heirloom seed of vegetables, herbs, trees, and grains. We sell practical gardening tools. We also support biodynamics and permaculture.

It doesn't take much to get started, no gizmos or expensive equipment. If you have some soil, all you need is simple tools, seeds, and the information to use them.'

https://www.bountifulgardens.org

I'm in Europe. I found these guys quite helpful a couple of years back: http://seedfreedom.info/campaign/international-solidarity-caravan-for-seeds-2014/

I swap and share a lot

http://www.cropscheme.org/seed%20catalogue.pdf

In PNW, ditto Carol Deppe, Adaptive Seeds and Burnt Ridge, from my experience ;)

I'm in europe and order seeds from Kokopelli and Spicegarden.

All of these companies provide excellent customer service.

Veg seeds and eatables
Bountiful Gardens - Focus is on small production low maintenance plant varieties
Adaptive Seeds - PNW company. I've found many varieties for our cool nights at elevation. Cool season and short maturing tomatoes and peppers.
Wild Garden Seeds - A new find. Focus is on genetic diversity.

Medicinal herb seeds
Horizon Herbs - This guy knows herbs! I buy from them so I don't have to worry about whether I am buying true to type medicinals.

Tubers and roots
Southern Exposure - Has hard to find perennial alliums (walking onions, true shallots, potato onions and leeks)
Fedco

Trees and live plants -
Oikos Tree Crops - Great selection of wild-ish edible plants and tubers and many seedling fruit trees being selected for reliable fruit type. Many varieties (10+) sunchokes. Exciting varieties of potatoes that make true seed.
St. Lawrence Nursery - (going through a change in ownership so limited supply of select apple) But! I'm hopeful that they will have their full selection available soon. They have goodies like blight resistant American chestnuts, hazels, wood and nut production Walnuts, Heirloom fruit trees of every sort, bramble type berries, NF bushes...all grown outside in zone 3 NY. Very hardy.

Grains old and heirloom
Kiva Seed Society - I haven't ordered yet because I have the wrong conditions going on here to increase seed stock for grain from a single packet.

Mid North Coast NSW Australia. elevation 500m. Sub tropical climate

My long time favourite source for vegie seeds is Eden Seeds, Beechmont Qld. All Rare Herbs, Mapleton Q. have a fantastic range of both culinary and medicinal herbs (seeds and plants). Trees we get from Daley's Fruit Trees, Kyogle. Our favourite local nursery is Total Gardens, Coffs Harbour.

We are preparing to send an order to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds who can ship to Australia without quarantine hiccups, I sooo want to try some of those "rainbow" coloured vegies!

This is our 3rd year up here and I keep a lot of my own seeds so I hope these varieties are becoming locally adapted. We harvest way too much so usually take a "Food is Free" tub in to the tiny café in our tiny village of Ulong every Sunday breakfast where the locals meet.

It's autumn here and will be a dry winter as we had a very dry summer. Usually about 50in rainfall, this year (without doing the adding up) maybe 20in so swales and mulch are very important. We had enough showers for good grass cover but a lot of farmers are cutting back cattle numbers as we will run out of feed any time soon. I guess Britain and Europe got all the Earth's water this year...

Barb & Tony

I have my favorite in England: Ther real seeds catalogue
good varieties that they personnaly test, good germination + real advises and tips for your own savings of your own seeds.
http://realseeds.co.uk/

Alex Apfelbaum wrote:I'm in europe and order seeds from Kokopelli

Jenny Barnes wrote:In the UK - the agroforestry research trust is a good source, you usually have to order popular plants in advance for next year. http://agroforestry.co.uk/

I used both.
I had a lot of zero germination on some unusual stuff from ART.

I've used many of the sources already listed. Just want to add: www.restorationseeds.com
for OP, GMO-free, and mostly organic seeds. Great place for initial seed orders, then you can begin saving them.
Good customer service, and they fill their orders quickly.

Also, if you're looking for something rare or difficult to find, try B & T World Seed. www.b-and-t-world-seeds.com
They will hunt it down for you if they don't have it in stock.

My very favorite and where most of my plants and seeds have come from is a spring plant and seed exchange that I have had at my house almost annually for the past 15 years https://permies.com/t/32716/ozarks/Yearly-perennial-Plant-Seed-exchange and also other exchanges hosted by friends in the community for many years before that and locally grown plants that folks bring to the farmer's market in town.
A university sponsored seed exchange fills in the gaps http://www.ozarkfolkcenter.com/calendar-of-events/details.aspx?id=131759 happens here locally once a year on a large scale also, all open pollinated seeds to share and trade.
My favorite mail order seed company is Richter's...I catch myself ordering almost every year whether I need any more herbs or not.

I save so much of my own seed, I guess that my own cupboard is my favorite source this spring...lot's of goodies in there

Saunya Hildebrand wrote:I am in Central Florida-and there are a few somewhat local sources that sell heirloom bulk seeds so that is nice.
However I do order a good bit from:
Southern Exposure
Baker Creek
Victory Seed
and a few ebay sources.

Where are the local sources for heirloom in bulk? I'm fifteen minutes west of disney Also, to answer the thread's question: I try to stay exclusive with Baker Creek for they do some testing on their seeds to ensure nongmo quality etc.

All seed companies are required by law to test their seed every year for germination vigor. Federal law also specifies the percentage of seeds that must pass--different for each vegetable. A reputable seed house will exceed federal standards, and will not mix low-germinating lots with a higher lot just to eke themselves over the required percentage. This is often the case with big box-store racks.

I'd like to address the issue of "heirloom" seed, since it came up. There is a lot of misinformation out there. Since I work in the seed trade, I'd like to clarify the issue. The word heirloom means that the variety is 50 years old or more. Some people use the word to mean non-hybrid seed; the actual word for that is "open-pollinated." Old varieties were open-pollinated, meaning they can reproduce themselves and the progeny will be like the parents. Many farmers and gardeners, as well as some university and industry breeders, are still selecting new open-pollinated varieties by the same traditional plant breeding methods that have been in use for hundreds of years. All open-pollinated varieties can be saved for seed--the seeds from that variety will produce more plants like the parent. (unless you grew it too near another variety, and they crossed.)

Hybrid seed is the product of a controlled cross between varieties; the first generation of such a cross will be very uniform and vigorous, which is why hybrids are used a lot in commercial ag. The seeds of those plants however, will not reproduce true to type--the progeny (the F2 generation) will be all over the map. (For the resasons, consult any book on classical genetics.) By law, all hybrid seed has F1 after the variety name, and says hybrid on the package. Seed companies are not trying to evade this requirement either, since they can get much higher prices for hybrid seed. The opposite is sometimes true--there are some older "hybrids" that have actually been stabilised as open-pollinated varieties but the comany doesn't say so because they don't want to lose their monopoly. Since you can't save reliable seed from hybrids, you are dependent on the company that sells the seed. Other than that, there is nothing horrible about individual hybrid varieties--it is just no may to run a culture, when all the genetics for food crops are trade secrets.

GMO seed is produced by laboratory means, and some of the traits don't come from either parent variety , but from other organisms entirely. GMO seed is not available to gardeners--it is grown by farmers who sign a contract witht he company and pay a very high price for the seed The worry is the uncontrolled spread of pollen from those farms that do plant GMO crops. Many of the few crops that are available as GMO's are insect-pollinated (canola, zucchini, alfalfa) or wind pollinated (corn, sugar beets). It is very hard to keep that pollen from straying into non-GMO varieties and polluting their genetics.

Most of the seed in catalogs and on seed racks is open-pollinated, for the simple reason that open-pollinated seed is cheaper, since the plants themselves take care of making seed, without expensive hand-pollination, inbred parent lines, and all the other expenses needed to produce hybrids. The hybrids on a seed rack or catalog (like Celebrity or Big Beef tomato, or Silver Queen corn) will be identified with F1. Most varieties in the grocery store are hybrids, so saving seed from them can be unpredicatble. You don't need to buy from special "Heirloom" companies just to get seed you can save. Each seed company has a particular strength. Seed Savers Exchange and Bountiful Gardens pioneered the popularization of heirlooms and organic gardening in the 1980's when it looked like hybrids and chemicals were going to take over the market. Johnny's and FedCo aim primarily for the small farmer or market gardener who needs varieties that are competitive in the marketplace. Regional companies like Southern Exposure, Victory Seeds, and Adaptive stock varieties that perform best in their home climate. Some companies have particular political or social goals: FedCo is a cooperative, while Bountiful Gardens and Seed Saver's are non-profits. Baker Creek actually has a pretty poor reputation in the trade and among farmers for both quality and accuracy. Their seed is certainly no "purer" than anyone else's. The other companies mentioned here have consistently high standards, and several of them are partially or fully organic seed. Of the companies above, only Johnny's and FedCo carry some hybrids, clearly labeled as such. The others are entirely open-pollinated.

I'm sorry to sound pedantic in a forum that is intended for swapping favorites, and I wouldn't take issue with anyone's direct experience. But the words aren't a matter of opinion--they have specific meanings, and the way to keep from being manipulated by advertising is to know what the meanings really are.

Thanks for this post Jamie.
This is really true. There are a lot of open-pollinated sources.

I can mention that I received recently a packet that was F1, and it was not mentioned as F1 on the catalogue.
I guess this is an error, but I would not have chosen it if I had known.

And this French compagnie sends F1 packets as gifts!
I guess they want costumers to try them and buy more F1 in the future,
which means they earn more money on hybrids.

Speaking with local old people, I noticed that a lot confuse between hybrids and GMO,
so I explain what is an hybrid by an example with 2 pure breed dogs they know, and say that the 1st generation is F1!
A variety is like a breed of dog.

Yes, that is the same example I always use. And mules are a classic example of a hybrid between species rather than varieties--great vigor and utility in the F1 generation, but sterile.

Before leaving the subject, I wanted to say a bit more about testing. Germination testing is done by all seed companies. It tests seed viability by sprouting a representative sample and counting the percentage of vigorous seeds with normal roots and tops.
There is another kind of testing: a lab test can be done to test for GMO contamination. Unfortunately, it requires hi-tech equipment and is very expensive. Since it would drive up the cost of seed to the consumer, most seed companies don't do it. The reason is that unless everyone does it, companies are faced with a choice between selling that seed at a loss just to keep their customers, or raising the price and losing customers. the Safe Seed Pledge says that "we do not knowingly buy or sell genetically-engineered seeds or plants." So, at this point, leakage of stray pollen into traditional varieties is not addressed, and nobody is sure whether it is a small problem, a large problem, or not a problem. My guess is that it is at this point small but steady.

GMO varieties are prohibited in certified organic seed, so there are no certified organic GMO varieties. However, testing for contamination by GMO pollen is not required at this time, to keep organic seed affordable to farmers. FedCo tests random lots of seed corn, on a rotating basis. (and loses money on that seed, from what I hear.) Some small growers who are worried about contamination hand-pollinate thier corn, an exptremely time and labor intensive process that involves bagging each ear and then unbagging each briefly to hand-pollinate it. Hand-ollination and testing are both things to look for in catalogs.

By the way, I just checked the Baker Creek catalog, and they say nothing at all about GMO testiing. So their calling it "pure" seed means just that it is not a GMO variety. Since there are no GMO varieties available to home gardeners, that is not much of a claim. Of their 40 corn listings, none are identified as certified organic, even those grown by farmers I know to be certified. (They may prefer not to identify organic seed since most of the rest are not.) Of the 40 varieties they carry, 5 are newer open-pollinated varieties--which is great; wonderful new varieties are being bred. It is, however, misleading to say over and over that all of their seeds are "Heirloom." They are not the only ones to muddy the waters with misleading rhetoric, but they seem to be among the most successful at it.

And the seed  porn catalog has arrived.  Baker Creek has amazing seeds and the best catalog ever!  I also buy regularly from Strictly Medicinal for herbs.  Last year I made a new plant buddy friend online from Vermont who has a little Permaculture operation and nursery there.  His name is Buzz Ferver.  I bought lovely little plum trees and Sea Buckthorn male and female, several varieties.  Very happy with.

Jamie Chevalier wrote:There is another kind of testing: a lab test can be done to test for GMO contamination. Unfortunately, it requires hi-tech equipment  and is very expensive.

Last time I had seed tested for GMO, the cost was $15 per sample. That seemed very affordable to me. Something that any seed company could aspire to. And the test only required a couple tablespoons of seed.

Yes, there is a new testing protocol that has brought the price way down. I have not submitted samples to different labs to see how accurate it is--the only way to find out.

This makes me even more curious why Baker Creek, which pours so much money into color printing, events, concerts, and costumes, still has no mention of testing for GMO contamination. All you see are claims of "pure" seed--which has no legal meaning whatsoever. Contrast this with Uprising Seeds policy of testing every batch of corn and discarding any that do not come back as 0% comtamination. Or with FedCo's policy of testing. Or with all the companies that identify which seeds are certified Organic, which at least theoretically excludes GMOs.

if you don't know about a seed company or nursery google for garden watchdog it is part of Dave's garden.

Yes, but in my experience the comments on garden watchdog are only as knowlegable as the people who post them, and so issues like open-pollination hybrids, and testing are rarely understood or addressed. Most comments I've seen about companies only adress how timely there order fulfillment is and whether the plants grew well, not either genetic or testing issues.