News about Johnny's Selected Seeds (2024)

New York Times | It May Feel Like Winter, but It's Time to Shop for Seeds • The 2021 garden season officially begins this month, with the arrival of seed catalogs. Here's what to expect after last year's chaotic spring.
…Resilience: It's a vegetable-seed industry buzzword, and a mission — to breed genetically resilient varieties that stand up to pests, diseases and the rigors of a shifting climate.

Each resilient variety becomes a tiny, critical ingredient in a resilient seed system that supports agriculture, the foundation of a resilient food system.

And in the tumultuous 2020 seed-catalog season, resilience proved a valuable human trait as well, for seed company staff and their customers. Insights gleaned from that chaotic year of record sales can smooth the ground for the 2021 garden season, which officially begins this month, as new catalogs start appearing in mailboxes and online.

"When many of us came back to the office Monday, we were astonished to see how many orders had come in," said Joshua D'Errico, marketing coordinator for Johnny's Selected Seeds, which has 47 years of sales history for comparison. "We thought it was a blip, but it wasn't…"

…Seed companies have worked overtime, skipping summer breaks, to refine and strengthen their systems. Now, before we start madly browsing their catalogs, it's our turn as home gardeners to fine-tune our processes. Here are some thoughts on how to shop smart, plus some favorite catalogs. Each one feels as welcome as a reunion with an old friend…

Central Maine | Maine Gardener: Keep up your fresh food supply by growing it inside
Microgreens are eaten in multiple ways: sandwiches, salads, stir fry, soups and tacos. Johnny's Selected Seeds offers more than 100 varieties of microgreen seeds — either as single species or mixes.

Ag Week | The pandemic propelled gardening to new heights. Will the trend last? • In today's "Growing Together" column, Don Kinzler explains why gardening has served as a trusty friend during COVID-19.
Gardening made history this spring, evidenced by Burpee Seed Co. selling more seed in March than any time in their 144-year history. Johnny's Selected Seeds noted a 270% increase in normal spring sales. Stokes Seed Co. sold four times its normal quantity of gardening products.

The coronavirus set off a global gardening boom that's been compared to the Victory Gardens of World Wars I and II, in which American and British citizens grew food to support the war effort and to feed their families. As this year's pandemic caused localized shortages of food and fresh produce, even though temporary, more people desired to have greater control over their food supply through gardening•

Daily Bulldog | Webinar on new vegetable varieties for home gardens
…"Exciting New Vegetable Varieties for Home Gardeners" will feature Mark Hutton, UMaine Extension associate professor and state vegetable specialist; Becky Sideman, UNH Extension professor and sustainable horticulture state specialist; Heron Breen, area coordinator in charge of trials programs for Fedco Seeds; and Lauren Giroux, director of product selection and trialing at Johnny's Selected Seeds…

Times Colonist | Helen Chesnut's Garden Notes: Late fall a mix of hard labour and rewards
Late last month I noticed a cluster of flowering Orange Button plants at a plot corner. This is an imposing calendula, with double layers of vibrant, deep orange petals surrounding broad purple-black centres. The imposing blooms are borne on 45-cm stems and, like so many of the flowers in the Johnny's Selected Seeds catalogue, are excellent for cutting.

New York Times | D.I.Y. Microgreens You Can Grow on Your Kitchen Counter • Think of the rewards of cultivating the tastes of summer all through the winter. You can do this.
…Start With These Varieties
The diversity of organic microgreen seed offerings in catalogs like Johnny's Selected Seeds and High Mowing Organic Seeds can be intimidating. Start with something in the mustard family (Brassicaceae) that promises a quick payoff, Ms. Spring suggested, like radish, arugula, or mizuna (a mild-flavored mustard).

"Our favorites are basil, cilantro, 'Red Russian' kale, and the arugula and mizuna," Ms. Spring said.

Broccoli and chard are popular, too. Catalogs also offer mixes — like a spicy one of various mustards, selected to germinate and mature on a similar timeline…

Sonoma News | Kate Frey's favorite flower and vegetable varieties this season
…Another outstanding melon variety and very early to mature (71 days) was the hybrid Galia variety, 'Diplomat' (F1), from Johnny's Selected Seeds. Many of us think of cantaloupe melons as having thick orange flesh and a sweet flavor. The galia-type melons, very popular in Europe and the Middle East, resemble cantaloupe melons except they have green flesh and are highly aromatic, fragrant and sweet with an almost tropical flavor. The flavors of banana, lime and pineapple come to mind. The perfume is so pronounced you don't need to cut the melons to smell it.…

Bangor Daily News | How to choose artificial lights for your indoor plants
…You want to choose a grow light labeled as "full spectrum," but the range of color temperature that is best for your plants will depend on your goals, according to Johnny's Selected Seeds. The cool color range — 5000 to 7000K — will promote vegetative growth and choos[ing] a color temperature in the warm range between 3500 and 4500K will promote fruiting and flowering.

Telegram.com | Worcester Living: Father and daughter continue family tradition at Harvey's in Westboro
…"We grow crops naturally in deep sandy loam, everything from asparagus to our Harrowsmith Select gourds," said Harvey, who developed the organic seed mix 'Harrowsmith Select' available in a packet of 30 seeds sold online by Johnny's Selected Seeds. The gourds are described as a blend of diverse shapes and bold fall colors.

Harvey has been giving it his all on the farm since he was a youngster. At 5 years old, he got interested in backyard gardening and by the time he was a teenager he sold corn at a small stand aside the farm property. After college and being drafted he returned to the farm.…

Growing Produce | What to Look for In Greenhouse Vegetable Varieties
…Know Your Growing Habit Goals
…[F]or crops like tomatoes and cucumbers, you want varieties that grow and mature quickly, then produce at a steady rate for a long time.

"Many greenhouse tomato varieties are intended to be grown over a very long season, up to 10 months," says Pete Zuck, Product Manager at Johnny's Selected Seed. "So they can be very long-lived if maintained properly."

Having compact, uniform habits are a plus, Zuck says. That allows for higher plant density, which equals high yield per square foot.

"The leaves tend to be shorter, and the plants may produce fewer suckers than a typical tomato," Zuck says. "So they should take up less of the valuable real estate in a greenhouse, plus they should require less pruning and maintenance."…

Bangor Daily News | Everything you need to know about roasting pumpkin seeds
…There are several ways to remove the shell from a pumpkin seed prior to roasting, if you prefer. You can shell them one at a time by pressing on either side of the seed until it pops open, or you can boil a large batch of them, which will encourage the shells to slough off. You can also grow varieties of pumpkins and squashes that have hull-less seed within them, such as the 'Kakai' and 'Naked Bear' from Johnny's Selected Seeds…

Bangor Daily News | How to grow pumpkins to carve next year
…The first thing you will want to do is pick a pumpkin with a short growing season. Judy Florenz, volunteer with the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest, chair of the program committee and one of the directors of the festival, recommended varieties like 'Howden', 'Cargo', or 'Racer' from Johnny's Selected Seeds…

Washington Post | This year's unsolicited seed scare highlights the work of legitimate seed growers
…"It's a small but wonderful group of people who know how to produce seed, because it's an art as well as a science," said Bonita Nicolas, quality assurance manager at Johnny's Selected Seeds in Albion, Maine. "It takes equipment and patience and a lot of expertise."

…Johnny's is known for selling superior strains of vegetables to home gardeners and to fresh-market farmers. Although it has fields for its stock plants and for testing varieties, the bulk of its seed production is contracted out to growers around the world. The company offers almost 1000 varieties of vegetables, herbs, flowers and cover crops…

Capital Press | Demand for winter vegetables takes root during pandemic
…Demand for winter vegetables is growing as more consumers seek to buy local food during the pandemic.

Consumer interest in winter vegetables — such as Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, garlic and winter squash — has typically been far outpaced by demand for imported warm-season vegetables such as tomatoes. But this year, experts say, the winter vegetable market is gaining traction.

"Winter vegetables are the fastest growing greens segment. The market for these crops, especially radicchio, chicory, spinach, and purple sprouting broccoli, is expanding faster than any of us can keep up with," John Navazio, a national plant breeder for Johnny's Selected Seeds, said in a statement…

Brattleboro Reformer | Henry Homeyer: Notes from the Garden • Getting ready for winter
…I grew about a dozen kale plants this year. The workhorse are those that end in "bor" — 'Winterbor', 'Redbor', 'Starbor' and others. I get seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds of Maine to start my own indoors in the spring, or find them at my local garden center growing in 6-packs. Most of the kale I grow is for winter use because it freezes so well. This week I put up 8 quart freezer bags of kale, and I still have more I may process later…

Bob Vila| 11 Easy-to-Grow Vegetable Varieties for Fall • Just because the days are shortening and pumpkin-spiced drinks are appearing everywhere doesn't mean you have to close the gardening shed for the season. The tail end of summer is the perfect time to plant a fall vegetable garden…

Leaf Score | The Place for Green | The Best Seeders for Your Organic Farm or Garden…
…Exclusively offered by Johnny's Selected Seeds, this Four-Row Pinpoint Seeder is designed for dense plantings, specifically in raised beds or a greenhouse setup. Esteemed organic gardener Eliot Coleman influenced the design, and it boasts a simple construction that requires minimal configuration…

The Freckled Californian | Growing Peppers ~ My Tips for Zone 10 & My Favorite 2020 Peppers…
One of my favorite seed companies, Johnny's … has a great selection of sweet peppers … I was trying to find some sweet peppers that would grow well in Southern California. Johnny's was kind enough to send seeds my way for me to trial in the garden and the epic sweet pepper summer began! …

My 2020 Sweet Pepper Trial Results

I grew the following peppers using the tips and guidelines I've discussed above. You can find most of these peppers at Johnny's Selected Seeds …

Award for most prolific — 'Cornito Giallo'
Lots of wonderful, smaller sized sweet peppers that ripen to a golden yellow. Supposedly the smaller version of the 'Escamillo' pepper.…

Flavor Winners — 'Sweet Chocolate' Bell Pepper & 'Carmen'
… I left my 'Carmen' peppers on the plant until they were a bright red, and they were the sweetest of all the peppers I grew. They did happen to ripen around the same time as our intense heat, so that might have accounted for the extra sweetness…

Mother Earth News | Seed Sales Surge • Updates on seed sales, online homesteading education, mutual aid networks, and more.
…Joshua D'Errico of Johnny's Selected Seeds says new gardeners are citing their fear about losing safe access to healthy food as a reason for securing seeds and for investing in local food options, such as community-supported agriculture (CSA) systems. D'Errico says, "Our direct-to-market farmers are reporting that their online CSAs are selling out, which helps, in part, to replace their lost sales to restaurants and at farmers markets." In an effort to bolster the success of new gardeners' efforts, Johnny's is offering growing advice and support to gardeners who started during the pandemic to help them get through their first growing season and to help growers of all kinds keep planting in the years to come…

The News & Advance |Don Davis: Time to plan your colorful fall garden
… Another colorful kale is 'Scarlet', an heirloom with tightly curled frilly leaves and red veins. You will find it in the Johnny's Selected Seeds catalog along with the hybrid 'Redbor', which has ruffled dark reddish-purple leaves that curl downward.

Seeds for red-leaf or loose-head lettuces are widely available. You also can get various kinds of red butterhead, romaine, batavia and bibb lettuce seeds from cat alogs such as Johnny's.

Democrat & Chronicle | How to Grow Garlic in the Northeast Area: Garlic planting is around the corner: here's how to do it right
…Although we still have six weeks before planting, I'm writing this now because you'll want to find local varieties that will grow well in this area. The type you find in supermarkets was likely grown in China and may have been treated with a sprout inhibitor. Even if you can get it to grow, it will not do well here.

Check with a grower at your local farmer's market to see what they're selling. If it grows well for them, buy a few bulbs and plant those. Johnny's Seeds in Maine is also a good source for varieties that grow well in the Northeast.…

Times Colonist | Helen Chesnut's Garden Notes: Cold-hardy foods can be harvested throughout winter
…Another, smaller bed containing a second carrot planting and two varieties of daikon radish, all seeded at the beginning of July, will get the same treatment. Last winter, my friends and I enjoyed a daikon called 'Alpine', from Johnny's Selected Seeds (JSS), grated into green salads and combined with grated carrot and sometimes apple in a lemon juice and oil vinaigrette.

This year, I have a planting of Alpine again, joined by another from JSS. 'KN-Bravo' has grown even more vigorously than Alpine. This autumn I'm looking forward to savouring the purple and white flesh of this daikon.…

Boston Globe| Ask the Gardener: What to Plant Now in a Small Community Garden
…Q. I have been allotted my first plot in a community garden, but it is only 4 by 4 feet. I hope to get a larger one next year, but what can I plant in the meantime?

A. I've heard of tiny houses, but you've got a tiny bed. Don't plant anything that spreads! Instead, try a late-season vegetable crop. Go to johnnyseeds.com and its "winter harvest" seed selection, which offers cold-hardy varieties of lettuce, kale, radishes, carrots, komatsuna, bok choy, mustard greens, chard, cilantro, arugula, and spinach that are proven performers in their fall trial gardens in Maine. Don't worry about how big they have time to grow, because they will taste great even when immature. I also would plant a mix of early and late-blooming tulip bulbs in October for May bouquets. Tulips often bloom only once, so you won't be throwing much money away if you move on. But if you are still in the 4-by-4 bed in May, I would plant cherry tomatoes for eating and zinnias for cutting. Maybe not so-called giant zinnias.

Civil Eats | Food Companies Step Up Funding for Organic Farming Research • Clif Bar, King Arthur Flour, Organic Valley, and others are providing university endowments to counter a system stacked in favor of conventional agriculture.
…USDA's organic funding comes out of its Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), which provides grants to university researchers ranging in size from about $50,000 to $2 million for multi-university collaborations.

Oregon State University (OSU), for example, is the lead on a large project called the Northern Vegetable Improvement Collaborative (NOVIC). The collaborative is conducting long-term research into 10 organic vegetable crops across five states. Founded in 2009, NOVIC is now on its third four-year funding cycle, with each cycle bringing in $2 million in USDA grant funds.

Long-term funding is critical for breeding new plant varieties, but it "is really unheard of," said Lane Selman, professor of practice at OSU and a NOVIC researcher. Instead, she spends a lot of her time writing shorter-term grants.

What's more, the $2 million is split among six institutions, and the university takes half the funds earmarked for its researchers. That leaves Selman scrambling to find supplemental funds to help connect local farmers with the new varieties. Without that, adoption of organic agriculture is even slower.

Selman turns to a handful of companies, including Clif Bar, Organic Valley, Johnny's Selected Seeds, Vitalis, High Mowing Seeds, and Burgerville, to fund her outreach to farmers and chefs, through the Culinary Breeding Network.

"You have to be an out-of-the-box thinker in this university system," Selman told Civil Eats. "All of these amazing people are fighting for the same funds," she added. "There's not enough…"

Village Soup • Waldo | Innovative grower campaign helps the hungry
…[Waldo County Bounty] WCB campaign manager Sara Trunzo said, "The response from local people has been generous and impressive. Our initial momentum demonstrates that rural Mainers are independent yet interdependent, innovative, and compassionate — and that is no surprise."

To date, WCB has distributed more than 2,000 plants and 750 pounds of seed potatoes, donated by such local businesses as Johnny's Selected Seeds and Fedco, to six food pantries in Waldo County. Starting in July, WCB will buy $1,000 worth of food from local farms every week and distribute it to hunger relief programs countywide.

The Province | Looking for heat-tolerant lettuces? Try new varieties each year • Determine the most reliable in your conditions for summer growing.

Q. I need some advice on growing lettuce successfully in hot, dry summer weather. My lettuces tend to dry up in these conditions.

A. Fine lettuces can be grown through the summer. First, choose heat-tolerant varieties. Catalogue listings and seed packets indicate suitable varieties.

The Johnny's Selected Seeds catalogue begins its vast lettuce listings with a charted guide to preferred varieties for early, mid, and late-season harvesting. The mid-season varieties are planted in late spring and early summer for hot weather (mid and late summer) harvesting.

'Red Cross', one of the best red butterhead lettuces I've grown, is described as heat-tolerant in the catalogue. Johnny's beautiful, tasty Salanova lettuce blends "hold their flavour without growing bitter." I've found the Salanova Home Garden Mix to be very reliable for growing spring through early autumn…

Sierra Club | The Overstory: Resistance Is Fertile • Season Two, Episode Three
On the latest installment of "The Overstory," we talk with some of the people who are coping with the pandemic by getting closer — much closer — to the earth. The co-CEO of Johnny's Selected Seeds discusses the skyrocketing demand for vegetable seeds sparked by "pandemic planting," while urban farmers Kanchan Dawn Hunter and Novella Carpenter answer listeners' gardening questions. Our advice columnist, Ms. Green, talks with her mom about how to grow "zombie" crops on the kitchen counter. Plus: A radio diary from Nicole Hill, a woman in Detroit who is organizing against water shut-offs.…

Portland Press Herald | Maine Gardener: These Maine-designed dresses give a whole new meaning to floral pattern • Just don't put these outfits in the laundry.
Botanical couture? It's a thing. And a Portland florist will be showing her dress, with matching flower-festooned high heels, during American Flowers Week, which begins today. Both dress and accessories were made from real, live actual flowers provided by Johnny's Selected Seeds.

Last year's event also featured a dress by a Maine "floral artist."

The online event, which ends on the Fourth of July, is sponsored by Slow Flowers, a group that promotes sustainably grown local flowers.…

SEE THE DRESSESSee the Maine-made dresses for American Flowers Week — along with others from Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota and Washington — at americanflowersweek.com or on the Slow Flowers pages on Instagram and Facebook.

Forbes | Gardening For Beginners: Essential Tools You Need To Get Started
…Barbara Damrosch, author of the Garden Primer and co-owner of Four Season Farm in Harborside, M[aine] says sunlight is the secret to garden success. "If you don't know where to plant, choose the sunniest spot," she says. "You can change the soil, but you can't change the fact that a building is blocking the sun you need for fruiting crops like melon, peppers and tomatoes. Leafy crops, like spinach and chard, are more forgiving and can withstand partial shade." Secondly, she says, you need good soil. "It's where your plants get their nutrients," she explains. "Your soil should look like chocolate cake mix. It should be fluffy and have air in it. You want it to hold moisture but also drain when there is too much moisture…

"People think dirt is dirt so they just buy whatever is cheapest," says Damrosch. "Then when their plants don't grow well they think they have a black thumb. It's not their fault." Damrosch says good quality soil will have the ingredients listed on the side of the bag. She is a fan of Johnny's 512 mix, a custom blend from Johnny's Selected Seeds. If you're unsure of your soil health or if your garden health declines, use a soil test kit to see what nutrient is missing…

Once your soil is loosened and tilled, you'll want to smooth and level the bed top before seeding. A bed preparation rake makes the task easy. Curved teeth grab stones and debris as you pull the rake up, then level and smooth the soil when you push. Damrosch suggests buying row markers, hard plastic tubes that slide onto selected teeth of the rake to mark rows or to create a grid pattern for transplanting. It's a perfectionist's dream tool for nicely spaced crops.

Salon.com | Eat with your eyes: A beginner's guide to adding edible flowers to your meals and co*cktails • How to add color (and flavor!) to your dishes by growing your own edible flowers
…In addition to being beautiful, many edible flowers — like herbs — can elevate food and drinks with unexpected pops of flavor.

Before I got started, I reached out to Shannon McGaughey, the co-owner of Vivian in Asheville, N.C. Their menus, both kitchen and co*cktail, are filled with edible flowers. Here's what I've learned so far.…

…[M]ost edible flowers are low-maintenance enough that even beginners can look forward to a fruitful harvest. There are plenty of online seed catalogues to inspire you … McGaughey recommends Johnny's Selected Seeds…

Eugene Weekly | Stay Home, Get Dirty • People in Eugene are gardening like crazy during quarantine, boosting business for local seed and plant sellers
For Frank and Karen Morton, the owners of Wild Garden Seed Company in Philomath, April and May are normally a time to rest. In a regular year, most people would have planted their seeds for the year by now, and business would have tapered off.

But this year, seed sales didn't slow down.

"Right now, we would not normally have a whole lot of business. But my wife, Karen, is up at five every morning filling orders," Frank Morton says. "And she doesn't stop until six or seven at night."

People are spending more time at home these days, and they're gardening a lot more. This has led to a boom for garden and seed businesses across the country.

Some big national seed companies, like Johnny's Selected Seeds in Maine, were so flooded with orders at the beginning of the federal shutdown that they temporarily closed to everybody except farmers…

Morton, whose company sells seeds to both Johnny's Selected Seeds and Territorial Seed Company, says he's selling three times more seed than he normally does this time of year…

TriCorner News |Seeds, plants and vegetables: Many options for growing produce
…Seeds packaged for retail sales are somewhat less abundant this year (but there is no need to panic or to hoard).

Julie Fine, who is sales representative for the Northeast for Johnny's Selected Seeds, said in an email interview last week that "There has been a real run on home garden seeds. Many of our packet sizes are sold out, and we just don't have enough people to re-pack those fast enough to keep up."

Like many companies, Johnny's has had to deal with "the challenge of social distancing and labor shortages in the warehouses," Fine said. "Usually those warehouses are arranged tightly, to efficiently move people and packets through rows.

"Johnny's had to rearrange the rows, establish one-way traffic to prevent people walking toward each other and getting too close, and add disinfecting protocols."

The company also had to "suspend home garden orders for a month in order to keep up with farm orders … the people who are feeding our communities."

Like many of the farmers interviewed this week, Fine said that ultimately she hopes all this concern about the food supply chain will "contribute to a long-term valuing of local food production and the value of sustainably produced food…"

The Daily | The run-down on potting your plants
…I also recommend looking at biodegradable and compostable pot options… Johnny's Selected Seeds also has a large selection that can be purchased online…

Herald Mail Media | Need for seed: Gardeners flock to stores, overwhelm websites
…Johnny's Selected Seeds stopped taking orders from home gardeners a few weeks back and only was accepting commercial farm orders through the end of April.

"We had to prioritize to make sure they had their orders filled," co-CEO Gretchen Kruysman said.

Home garden orders "wiped out our shelf stock of packets of seeds," she said.

More seeds are readily available, but it takes time to assemble new packets. Social distancing forced the company to cut its labor productivity by about a third…

Lancaster Farming | Gardens Seeded by Pandemic Concerns
…Johnny's Selected Seeds, in Winslow, Maine, reported that it experienced an unprecedented increase in orders on Friday, March 13, when the national emergency was declared for the pandemic.

"We had a 250% surge in visitors to the website, our phones were ringing constantly, and orders came flooding in," said marketing coordinator Joshua D'Errico.

Johnny's Selected Seeds was established in 1973, and grows thousands of varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers each year at a farm to trial how well the plants grow, look and taste, for its seed company customers.

Ninety percent of the increase in orders at Johnny's Selected Seeds came not from wholesale seed stores, but from home gardeners; and about half of those orders were first-time Johnny's customers. Overall, tomatoes, lettuce, greens, peppers and microgreens are some of the most requested items, according to D'Errico.

"The first-time customers seemed to be new to growing as well, with lots of questions about how to grow their vegetables and what to choose," D'Errico said. "We have also seen a significant increase in visits to the Growing Library on the Johnny's website."

The feed and seed stores they supply have placed second and third orders because of demand. Johnny's has also seen an increase in retail stores that want to start carrying seeds, ranging from boutiques to hardware stores.

The seed company's direct-to-market farmers also are reporting that their online CSAs are selling out this spring, which helps to replace lost sales to restaurants and at farmers markets.

"We also hope that new CSA members will continue to support their local farmers when the coronavirus crisis ends," D'Errico added.…

People.com | Pandemic Gardens Are Trending: Fears Over Food Shortages Lead First Timers to Get Growing
…Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine, usually ships orders the same day they are placed. Recently, they had to temporarily cut off amateur gardeners and only take commercial orders. They're now open to all again…

University of Minnesota Extension | Big ideas for small gardens: Succession planting
…Johnny's Seeds has a helpful table showing how often you should re-seed each vegetable to maintain a continuous harvest if you wish to keep harvesting the same crop each week…

Portland Press Herald | Seed sales soar as Mainers put down roots at home | Amid fears of food availability and looking for ways to feel useful, Mainers are taking to gardening in a big way.
…"We started doing this as a project for the kids, but we also want to be more self-reliant and avoid frequent trips to the store," said Josh Pahigian, 46, of Saco, who is growing bean sprouts and micro greens indoors with his two children. "When facing difficulty like this, it makes you feel better to do something proactive."

…Pahigian, an author and adjunct instructor at the University of New England, did some research online to see what he might grow quickly, indoors. He found information on the website of Johnny's Selected Seeds, a Winslow company, and bought one of their germinator sets online for about $30. In the germinator tray he's growing bean sprouts, which his kids like; he also got supplies from Johnny's to grow micro pea plants — the tiny stalks are edible.…

Poynter | Americans are buying seeds and learning how to grow vegetables at home amid grocery store woes • Plus, food banks are slammed at the same time farmers are destroying crops and dumping milk, and college students are paying for empty apartments
…Johnny's Seeds said it has a good supply but it is slower in packing orders than normal because of COVID-19 precautions, so it is only currently filling commercial orders…

Yahoo! Finance | Americans growing their own food during coronavirus pandemic
…Gardening guru Martha Stewart has been flexing her green thumb on Instagram as of late showing off her Salanova lettuce leaves harvested from seeds she got from Johnny's Selected Seeds, which halted individual orders until April, 28, according to its website.…

New York Post | Seed sellers say demand growing out of control
…Johnny's Selected Seeds stopped taking orders from home gardeners a few weeks back and is only accepting commercial farm orders through April 28.

"We had to prioritize to make sure they had their orders filled," co-CEO Gretchen Kruysman said.

Home garden orders "wiped out our shelf stock of packets of seeds," she said. More seeds are readily available, but it takes time to assemble new packets. Social distancing forced the company to cut its labor productivity by about a third.…

marthastewart on instagram | Homeschool with Martha: Tips and Tricks to Making a Delicious Salad at Home
So, during this crisis that we are living through, I'm very, very lucky because we are growing salads that look like this. These are Salanova the seeds come from Johnny's; and they look like flowers, don't they? I could put that in the vase and someone would say, "Oh, my gosh, what is that unusual green flower?" But these are beautiful… this is a variegated reddish-greenish Salanova, and this is the green-colored Salanova. And they have many, many leaves on them…

Montana Standard | Finding your own food network in the time of coronavirus
…Many people finally have the time to dig that garden or build that chicken coop. But the only hitch is if you want an actual chicken for that coop, or seeds for that garden, you'll have to wait. Chicken hatcheries are about a month behind the backlog of orders, and seed companies are behind as well. Some have stopped taking new orders until they catch up. Johnny's Seeds, the lion in the family farm seed space, has suspended sales to non-commercial growers.…

…If you're ready to start growing your own vegetables now, in the midst of social distancing, consider shopping online and staying home. You can order any of the seeds to make the veggies in this list from … Johnny's Selected Seeds…

News Center Maine | Business is blooming for some farmers amid coronavirus • As many businesses are cutting back or closing during COVID-19, local farmers and seed suppliers are more than busy.
Local farmers and seed suppliers tell NEWS CENTER Maine that many people are growing their own vegetables, so they have fresh food at home.

"You know people have some anxieties about the food supply… they're not going out to eat," Nathan Drummond of Six River Farm said.

David Mehlhorn, co-CEO of Johnny's Selected Seeds echoed that, and said he sees a demand from home gardeners.

"For the last month the demand from home gardeners has doubled and sometimes tripled," Mehlhorn said.

Drummond gets vegetable seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds.

Both Maine businesses are doing well during the coronavirus pandemic.

About three-quarters of Johnny's business comes from commercial farmers like Drummond, and the rest of its business is to home gardeners.

Recently, Johnny's had to temporarily stop selling to home gardeners to focus on commercial farmers, but the hope is to be able to sell to everyone again soon.

With the current demand for seeds, additional shifts [have been added] at the company's fulfillment center. Mehlhorn said that's been helpful.

"Our process has slowed down a little bit there because we can't have people let's say in the same aisle-ways at the same time," he said.

For local farmers, the real challenge is in planning and predicting.

"Trying to read the tea leaves of well will this restaurant be buying again because they used to buy a lot of cherry tomatoes," Drummond said.

You don't need tea leaves to know, Mainers are still happy to be supporting local farmers.

Inhabitat | Where to order vegetable seeds online
…Rose recommended a few vendors she's ordered from herself. "I have nothing but good things to say about them," she said. "I think all of these companies are having a good sales year… Johnny's Seeds, which is 100% employee-owned, began in the attic of a New Hampshire farmhouse in 1973…"

Salt Lake Magazine | Grow Your Own Microgreens in Less than 2 Weeks • Find out how to grow your own microgreens
Microgreens are all the rage for urban gardeners, and for smart reasons. They are quick (less than 2 weeks) and easy to grow if you have limited space, and provide a delicious and fresh veggie option to your diet. In essence, growing your own microgreens provides almost instant garden gratification.

…I grew this "microplot" of pea shoots using a planting tray from Johnny's Selected Seeds…

Lincoln Journal Star | Nebraska Horticulture | Sarah Browning: Veggie winners bring color, flavor to garden
…Tomato 'Galahad': A new variety with a high level of late blight resistance, bred from parent plants that are both resistant. Galahad is a high-yielding, great-tasting tomato that grows on a strong sturdy plant. Judges agreed that the sweet, meaty flavor is better than that of the comparison varieties and boasts of being crack resistant. Broad shoulders (just like Sir Galahad?) and large, clean fruits grow on a highly productive, disease-resistant plant. Certainly, a variety you'll want to use in your battle for tomato greatness.

Missoula Current | Sustainable Missoula: First-time gardener learns more than growing beans
…Nationally and locally we've seen this as the pandemic unfolds: people are turning to gardening and local farms to take control of their food security. Garden City Harvest has certainly seen an increased interest in our community garden plots and CSA farm shares (a subscription to a local farm, picking up veggies each week) — and we've heard similar things from farmer friends and those selling seeds. Johnny's Seeds sales were up by 300% in March!…

Maine Public | Maine Calling • Gardening: The Pandemic Drives New Interest in Gardening for Relaxation and for Food
People are eager to work on their gardens, given that it's among the outdoor activities you can do safely while staying at home, and it has soothing effects in these uncertain times. Some are also looking for items to grow to augment their grocery supply. We'll learn about what you can do now to get your vegetables, flowers and yard off to a good start, and what to plant during this crisis.

Guests
Pamela Hargest, Horticulture Professional, Cumberland County Cooperative Extension

Gary Fish, State Horticulturalist, Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry

Lauren Giroux, Director of Product Selection & Trialing Research, Johnny's Selected Seeds

Los Angeles Times | In turbulent times, a magical art-filled garden offers solace
…10. Plan
This is a perfect time to research plants for the garden. Two great growers with accurate information are San Marcos Growers and Monrovia Nursery. For ordering plants/retail therapy, try… Johnny's Selected Seeds…

Talk Farm to Me | Episode 7: Narrowing the Gap • COVID Brings Farmers & Consumers Closer
…Food insecurity as a result of COVID has spurred folks to hoard supplies and food. But it's also had another effect. Consumers are scrambling to get into a local farm share. They are planting gardens of their own, raising chickens and even homesteading. The result is a closer connection to farmers and fortified communities…

Seeds are an interesting part of the COVID response equation…
Guest: Gretchen Kruysman, Co-CEO, Johnny's Selected Seeds, Winslow, Maine…

Houston Chronicle | Powered by flowers, a Houston caterer blossoms
…A strict vegan, Holleran also goes a few steps further. She grows most of her plants from organic seed, propagating them herself when she can, participating in online seed exchanges and buying heritage varieties from organic suppliers such as Johnny's Selected Seeds…

Daily Times | Gardening: Try your hand at a 'Victory Over Virus' garden
…6: Follow suggested sowing and planting dates.
It's important to wait until all chance of frost has passed before setting out plants. In the Philadelphia suburbs, our average last frost date is between April 15 and April 30. Johnny's Seeds has a handy seed-sowing and transplanting guide on their website…

Mother Earth News | 9 First Crops for your Coronavirus Victory Garden
…Protect your lettuce patch from bunnies and deer by laying floating row cover over the patch (very lightweight but allows in light and rain). You might be able to find row cover locally, but Johnny's Seeds is a good source otherwise. The photo shows white row cover, which I highly recommend for pest prevention, and an optional resource of black shade cloth, which can help protect spring crops from the hot sun…

Maine Public | As More Mainers Look into Growing Their Own Food, Seed Suppliers Struggle to Meet Demand
…Maine Public's Jennifer Mitchell spoke with Gretchen Kruysman co-chief executive of Johnny's Selected Seedsin Winslow:

Kruysman: We saw a tremendous surge, really starting the Friday, March 13 when the national emergency was announced. Our phone started ringing, our website traffic went crazy. So we've seen a tremendous spike, almost a tripling of orders that started coming in…

Vineyard Gazette | The New Victory Gardens: Vineyarders Turn to the Soil
…Polly Hill Arboretum executive director Tim Boland, who's also an avid home gardener… offered another idea for space-conscious gardeners: growing microgreens. He buys different mixes from Johnny's Seeds (mild to spicy) and grows them in terracotta pots all season long…

WCHS New Center Maine | Growing your own vegetables during the coronavirus pandemicSeed sales are going through the roof in Maine • What you can do with them right now during the coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic
…Seed supply companies like Johnny's Selected Seeds say sales of seeds are through the roof. Online orders are up 300 percent… and half of those orders, the company says, are from new customers. Gretchen Kruysman with Johnny's Selected Seeds says she's never seen anything like this.…

Fine Gardening | If You Like Heirloom Vegetables, You'll Love These New Varieties • If you are ready to move on from tried-and-true varieties, we have some options for you
Many gardeners, including myself, grow older, classic, or heirloom varieties of vegetables. We have many reasons for doing so. Some may be sentimental reasons, such as we obtained the seeds from a relative or have grown these varieties since childhood and they bring back fond memories. And, of course, flavor and eating quality come into play, as heirlooms are rightfully known for having superior eating quality.

But we have found there are some newer varieties that perform better and are easier to grow than their older counterparts, while maintaining excellent flavor and unique appearance. Here are a few options if you want to try something different this year…

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens | Dig It! Garden Blog | Starting Your Own Cut Flower Garden • Flower Selection
…My single favorite place to order seeds from is Johnny's Selected Seeds. Not only are they an employee-owned, local Maine company that I love to support, they are also a wonderful resource — from tons of great varieties to a wealth of helpful information and useful supplies. You can't go wrong with this company…

Penn Live Patriot News | Virtual garden tours, talks and videos to get you through the coronavirus shutdown
…Johnny's Selected Seeds, the employee-owned Maine seed company, has more than 100 free videos that include how to grow assorted crops and use various tools as well as behind-the-scenes looks at how Johnny's trials and breeds new flower and vegetable varieties…

East End Beacon | Plant a Seed of Resilience
…This spring's panic has [led] many people to nurture a natural instinct to plant some vegetable seeds, as a hedge against anxiety, economic uncertainty, and worry about food shortages.

Mail-order seed companies have gotten the message, loud and clear.

"We're here for you. Stock up on staples," says the home page of Johnny's Selected Seeds' website…

Where should you find seeds? The sky is the limit. We're partial to the small home gardener friendliness of Pinetree Garden Seeds up in Maine, and Johnny's Selected Seeds' new selection of staple crops makes decision-making easy…

Cape Gazette | Grow Indoor Gems while isolating at home
While regular marigolds can be eaten, they have a strong, unpleasant taste. The so-called citrus marigolds are truly delicious, with a fruity citrus flavor.

These are the Gem marigolds, also called Signet marigolds (Tagetes tenuifolia), which grow in several colors: Lemon Gem, Tangerine Gem and Red Gem. They all sport lacy leaves and delicate single flowers. Both the leaves and blossoms have a subtle citrus smell…

Seeds are widely available from nurseries or garden centers, or by mail from seed-houses such as Johnny's Seeds…

Savvy Gardening | Niki Jabbour | How to plant lettuce: A guide to planting, growing & harvesting lettuce
…When transplanting lettuce into my garden beds or containers, I typically plant in a grid pattern, spacing each seedling about ten inches apart. This is where you can have a bit of fun if you're growing multicolored varieties like . You can stagger the colors to create a checkerboard pattern…

New York Times | Panic Buying Comes for the Seeds • I'm clearly not the only one who is desperate to garden.
Gretchen Krusyman, the co-chief executive of Johnny's Selected Seeds, a large seller of organic seeds for home gardeners and farmers alike, said of the demand for seeds: "Every day it just increases. We think it's going to slow down, and there's no sign of it slowing down."

The company prides itself on getting all orders placed by 1:30 p.m. out the door on that same day. But now, "we just can't keep up," Ms. Krusyman said…

According to Ms. Kruysman, "it really started going up on Friday the 13th," she said. That week, Johnny's Selected Seeds sold twice as many seeds to home growers as they had during the same week last year.

March 13, by the way, is the date that President Trump declared a national emergency because of the new coronavirus…

This isn't the first time in recent years that there has been a run on seeds.

"When the market crashed in 2008, there was a big increase in people starting to grow their own food," Ms. Kruysman, of Johnny's Selected Seeds, said. But that uptick was more gradual…

Brattleboro Reformer | Henry Homeyer: Notes from the Garden | Pushing the envelope: Bring on spring!
…If you use a cold frame, I recommend planting cold tolerant plants. A cold frame will not protect tomatoes, peppers, or other frost-sensitive, heat-loving plants in early spring. Spinach, lettuce, mâche (also called miner's lettuce), cabbage and kale are good choices.

When selecting lettuce seeds for planting, look for ones that are recommended for early season planting. Johnny's Selected Seeds lists seven named varieties of lettuce for early season use including 'Vulcan' (a red leaf) and 'Sparx' (a Romaine)… Read your seed catalog carefully when selecting early season varieties…

Bangor Daily News | Maine ag operations see unprecedented demand amid coronavirus concerns
…But in a world reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, the unexpected is quickly becoming the norm. Along with farms such as the Bahner Farm, local businesses Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow and Fedco Seeds in Clinton have been overwhelmed by sudden demand. Customers around Maine and the nation — stuck inside and uncertain of the future — have turned some attention toward seed catalogs.

At Johnny's Selected Seeds, Dave Mehlhorn, the co-CEO, said he believes that the uncertainty with the food supply is making people who once grew something in their backyard want to do that again.

"We've seen a significant increase in the home garden business," he said.

Johnny's was seeking to hire a few more employees, mostly in the warehouse, to pack and ship orders. Because the company is trying to follow all the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about social distancing, officials created a second shift in order to reduce employee density. But when the workers are in the warehouse, they are busy right now, he said, packing seed orders that have come in from all over the place. And shoppers are not seeking unusual varieties of produce right now.

"It is the traditional crops that a home gardener is comfortable with, like tomatoes and peppers and lettuces and fruiting crops," Mehlhorn said, adding that the demand hit the seed company quickly. "It came on kind of in the same way that the rush on grocery stores came on."

It's not hard to understand, he said. Growing more food at home is a boon for people who may be feeling worried about leaving the safety of their houses in a time of crisis. As well, it eases the minds of folks who may have seen some shelves emptied at their local grocery store.

"Our little mission is to help friends, families and communities feed one another," Mehlhorn said. "It seems like people are really happy we're here serving that mission right now…"

Better Homes & Gardens | 19 of the Earliest Flowers You'll See Blooming in Spring
Claytonia
Not only does claytonia produce small, beautiful flowers in spring, but it's edible, too. Also called miner's lettuce, both the leaves and , and can be eaten like salad greens…Buy It: Claytonia Seeds…New Jersey Herald | Sowing lettuce calms the soul
…Once upon a time, you could purchase one — maybe two — types of arugula to grow at home. Johnny's Selected Seeds now features nine named arugula varieties! A member of the mustard family, the so-called "wild arugula" has a smaller, thicker, very deeply lobed leaf and is even more pungent that the softer "salad arugula." For those of us who like spicy foods, wild arugula provides a very pleasant "kick" to a salad.

'Sylvetta' was introduced from Italy decades ago…

Philadelphia Inquirer | Gardening self-care: Vegetables you can plant right now (indoors and out) during the coronavirus pandemic
…If you don't have access to green space
"Even if you live in an apartment with no balcony, at the very least you can be growing sprouts," says McCabe.

And you don't need to go out and buy alfalfa seeds to do it…

Seed companies like Johnny's sell special microgreen mixes, but almost any vegetable seed will work. If available, radish, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage seeds are a great place to start. Plant the seeds in a soil-filled tray (or improvise with a baking dish), and from there, all you need is light and water.…

Salt Lake Magazine | Plant Your Own Peas (and Pea Shoots)
Peas. It just so happens that now (mid-to-late March) is the optimum time to plant peas in your garden. I've gone about planting peas over the years with great success. You have choices galore, some shells are softer, some varieties sweeter, different colors — knock yourself out. This year I'll be direct-planting an organic tendril-climbing variety of 'Sugar Snap' peas from Johnny's Selected Seeds. And, if you play your peas right, you should expect a few weeks of harvesting bucketfuls in June…"

Seattle Times | Want to eliminate all that plastic in your garden? Learn how to create soil blocks
…What if we did away with pots altogether? Several gardeners I know swear by soil-blocking tools and techniques that do just that. I reached out to Jen Goff, a tool technician with Johnny's Selected Seeds, and asked her to walk me through the perks of using a soil blocker, a sturdy metal tool that is used to form cubes of soil that you can seed directly into.

I confess, it looks a bit unnatural — I mean really, a free-standing cube of soil?

"They hold up better than you might think," Goff assures me. "But there are some tricks to making quality soil blocks…"

Better Homes & Gardens | 6 Online Shops Where You Can Buy Plenty of Veggie, Herb, and Flower Seeds • It's time to get your garden started!
…Numerous companies are still shipping seeds to gardeners, often offering even more selection than you'd find at the store. The six we outline below are our favorites, but keep in mind that your order could be delayed by up to 10 days, as many of these sites are processing more orders than usual…

1. A Wide Variety of Vegetable Seeds
A trusted source for more than 45 years, Johnny's Selected Seeds has a large selection of veggies, fruits, flowers, and herbs online, including organic options. It's one of the best places to order vegetable seeds right now because of their huge and varied selection — you'll be able to score seeds for uncommon varieties like scorzonera and salsify. If you need any last-minute tools or supplies, you can add those to your order too; Johnny's stocks common garden supplies like mulch, compost bins, and fertilizers too…

Garden Gate | Niki Jabbour: How to avoid basil downy mildew
…According to Rachel Katz, a Research Team Product Technician at Johnny's Selected Seeds, there are three things necessary for a disease like downy mildew to spread:

• The pathogen needs to be present
• There needs to be a susceptible host
• Conditions need to be just right

Knowing this can help you reduce the spread in your garden by eliminating a factor, like foliage moisture. Katz suggests watering with drip tape or a soaker hose instead of a sprinkler or watering wand to reduce water on the leaves. It's also a good idea to water early in the day so the foliage has a chance to dry off before night…

Basil varieties resistant to downy mildew
In my garden, I've put smart watering to work but I've also combined it with variety selection. Katz says the best way to grow a crop of downy mildew-resistant basil is to start with resistant varieties.

Prospera® basil
Recent breeding has resulted in new cultivars, like Prospera, that offer resistance to downy mildew. "Prospera is the first certified organic basil variety with real genetic resistance to downy mildew," says Katz. "Additionally, it has beautiful, dark green, cupped leaves, and traditional Genovese Italian basil flavor…"

Ellsworth American | Barbara Damrosch: It pays to grow some herbs from seed
…Rosemary can germinate poorly, but Johnny's Selected Seeds sells "primed" rosemary seed that is more reliable — if you use it within six months of purchase…

New York | the Strategist | What Artist Dan Colen Can't Live Without
…We asked artist and Sky High Farm founder Dan Colen … about the hoe, cucumber seeds, and ceramic plates he can't live without…

Johnny's Selected Seeds 5-Inch Stirrup Hoe
I have Sky High Farm because of my art practice; the studio really allows the farm to exist. There'd be no harvest without this thing … It's just a kind of classic farming tool. The blade is sharp; the grip is comfortable. … This one, when you're holding it, is ergonomic — it allows you to use your knees and your back…

'Marketmore 76' Organic Cucumber Seed
This is a specific strain from a company that's really reliable. The thing with farming is there are so many factors essentially out of your control — you can lose a whole harvest to one storm that floods your garden, or to cows breaking through your fence. So you at least want to make sure you're working with reliable seeds. We've gone through a lot of different seeds, and these yield a great, really tasty cucumber. They'd be great for a New Yorker to grow a little cucumber bush on their fire escape; really, you need nothing else but the seeds and a nice pot of soil. Care for them, love them, check in on them, water them. These go from seed to vegetable in six to eight weeks…

Times Colonist | Longing for lettuces of spring
…I like beauty in lettuces. There are many that can light up a vegetable plot and fit well into spaces in ornamental beds. Glistening red butterheads are gorgeous. The unusual Salanovas from Johnny's Selected Seeds look like big double roses…

Brattleboro Reformer | Notes from the Garden | Starting seedlings now is one antidote to winter blues
…The other way to avoid plastic is to plant in soil blocks. I have a little hand tool that will compact and squeeze out 2-inch cubes of a special planting mix I make. These cubes sit in a plastic flat, but I have plenty of those, and reuse them every year. The tool is sold by Johnny's Selected Seeds…

Portland Press Herald | Maine Gardener: Here's a gardening project while you wait for tomato season • You can grow tiny, tasty (and trendy) microgreens inside under a grow light
…Many Maine seed companies sell the seeds, but Johnny's Selected Seeds has the largest selection, according to Hargest…

Cape Gazette | Bupleurum will bloom from summer until killed by hard frost in the fall
…This is one hardy annual that can actually be sown directly in the garden as soon as you can dig the soil. In fact it is best to direct seed Bupleurum rather than start it indoors and transplant.

These are easy-to-grow plants that do best in average, well-drained soil. Choose a spot in full sun or partial shade.

Seeds are often available at local nurseries and garden centers or from mail order seed houses such as Johnny's Seeds…

Lancaster Farming | A Foundation of Flowers: Back Mountain's Dahlias
…Katie Aurand is embarking on her fourth year operating Back Mountain Farm…

"Ordering is very intensive," she said. It often takes an entire day or weekend in late January through mid-February to get her order finalized.

Her first step is to make a wish list. That list is based on whether the flowers are cool season or warm season, and when they need to be planted.

Aurand has seed catalogues that she studies…

Johnny's Selected Seeds … has many helpful tools that include specific growing information.

"In 2015, I printed off Johnny's flower list and took notes," Aurand said.

By early March, the process of planting seeds begins as the germinating process starts. Aurand keeps track by writing which seeds are direct-seeded versus transplanted.

"I do soil-blocking," Aurand said, which involves forming starter soil in blocks that are kept in small spaces and easily managed. Within three to four weeks of prepping the soil blocks, it is time to plant.

"I don't do plugs in plastic containers," she said, and she uses a tuber system.

Southeast Missourian | Peppers
…Johnny's Seeds Catalog has an excellent list of different diseases and resistance codes on peppers. Some peppers might be resistant to TMV or Tobacco Mosaic Virus, while another will be resistant to PVY or Potato Virus Y. Many of the different varieties of peppers will be resistant to some of these diseases. As you grow your peppers you might see spots on the leaves of the pepper. This could indicate Bacterial Leaf Spot. By knowing the diseases you have in your garden, you can choose a variety that is resistant to your particular culprit…

The Post & Courier | Gardening: In the Charleston area, try growing vegetables. It doesn't get any more local.
We start with quality seeds from online sources like Johnny's Selected Seeds … not an inexpensive source but there are numerous cultivar choices and the seeds reliably germinate…

New Castle News | Leek cause of news alert
Carlee's question to me was, "Which seed company would I suggest to purchase seeds from?" I told her, Johnny's Selected Seeds, which were offering the most varieties as well as transplants…

Johnny's offers several varieties of leeks that mature at different times.

I would suggest 'King Richard' leeks … for the beginner, because it matures in 75 days. If you grow them right, the shanks should be about a foot long. You can even have baby leeks, if you plant them close, and harvest at finger size…

Connecticut Public Radio | Connecticut Garden Journal: Expand Your Vegetable Horizons
…Each year there are more colorful tomato varieties available. 'Bronze Torch' from Johnny's Selected Seeds is a small, saladette-sized, tomato that's about the size of a Roma. It features a red with golden streaked skin and crack resistant fruits that are early and tasty.

Also from Johnny's comes a broccoli adapted to New England. 'Eastern Magic' is a hybrid broccoli producing medium-sized, green heads. The plants are more stress resistant often growing and producing in adverse weather.…

Detroit News | Gardening: Turn to turnips for early vegetables
…Johnny's Selected Seeds… also carries salad turnips and their white variety 'Hakurei' is said to be sweet, without a bite and is best harvested when young — up to 2 inches in diameter.

These are a quick turnaround vegetable, and if you harvest them at radish-size they may be ready to pick in as little as a month. Full size may take 40 to 50 days, depending on the weather…

Press Herald | Maine Gardener: Read catalogs to preview the coming gardening season
…Johnny's Selected Seeds is the largest and slickest of the Maine catalogs, and it understandably gives prominence to the many varieties it breeds itself — including three new varieties for this coming year.

The one that grabbed my interest is the 'Starry Night PMR' acorn squash, and not just because I am awed by the Van Gogh painting of that name. It has a pixelated color pattern, from which it gets its name, and, says the catalog, extra flavor and a longer shelf life. PMR, by the way, stands for powdery-mildew resistant.

The 'Citrine', a crack-resistant orange cherry tomato, also should do well, mostly because 'Sun Gold', the most popular orange cherry tomato on the market, is delicious but tends to crack as the season progresses. The 'Citrine' sounds like a great improvement.

… [O]n the inside back cover is a page of recommendations for proven performers from last year's new releases. Yes, the new releases are always exciting. But this page shows the ones that succeeded in the field.

Another note: Last year, Johnny's did not sell 'Sugar Snap' pea seeds because the seed had been producing a lot of off-types. The've been working with the son of the original breeder to re-introduce the original 'Sugar Snap' pea. It is offered this year solely by Johnny's…

Wicked Local Sharon | The Addicted Gardener: The sal[a]cious and bodacioius … seed catalogs
Johnny's descriptions … provide basic facts and eschew marketing hype. I will order their 'Jedi' hybrid jalapeño pepper seed. The description in their catalog reads: "Our largest jalapeño offering, Jedi's fruits average 4–4½ inches and are slow to check (show small cracks in skin). The large plant is of the 'continuous set' type that produces over a long harvest window, especially in regions with a long growing season. Our variety with the highest potential yield. High resistance to bacterial leaf spot races 1–3."

I will also order organic hybrid tomato seed 'Galahad' … described as "Delicious early determinate beefsteak. Excellent late blight resistance and early maturity. The round, 7–12-oz. fruits can be harvested with green shoulders and ripened red in storage, or ripened on the vine. Vigorous plants. High resistance to Fusarium wilt (races 1, 2, and 3), gray leaf spot, late blight, nematodes, tomato spotted wilt virus, and Verticillium wilt. Determinate. Organically grown." And I will order their 'Rutgers Devotion DMR' basil seed, new from the Rutgers breeding program. It is a Genovese type basil with a "compact (but highly productive) plant habit and … strong downy mildew resistance…"

Detroit News | Gardening: Sprouting seeds a fast way to grow fresh veggies
Sprouts are high in fiber, low in calories, easy to digest and fat free. They contain protein, minerals, enzymes, amino acids and a variety of vitamins and can be used in salads, sandwiches, stir-fries and a passel of other ways including smoothies…

Although alfalfa and mung beans are the most popular seeds for sprouting, there's a large array of vegetables to choose from, including broccoli, radishes, and lentils. And there's no comparison between those you grow yourself and store bought…

If you really get into sprouting, Johnny's Selected Seeds also carries certified organic seed in larger quantities…

[Chesapeake]Bay Weekly | Plan Your Plantings with Seed Catalogs
…One of my favorite catalogs is Johnny's Selected Seeds… For some of the best vegetables, herbs and cutting flowers, they can't be beat. They offer organic and non-organic seeds and cater to small commercial growers and home gardeners. They have their own breeding program to produce seed varieties with special qualities that perform well in diverse growing conditions.

In Johnny's selection, you'll find some 16 pages of lettuces and specialty greens. There are also great selections of tools and specialized equipment for small growers. Eliot Coleman, author of many vegetable gardening books, has designed many of the tools they offer…