Recession prompts big boom in the market for vegetable seeds - Business First of Louisville:

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Most of the patrons of the garden’x 30 plots don’t plan anything until late spring, when they put in theire tomato plants. Usually, only four or five plan a spring crop inearluy March, as Erdley did last month, growingv lettuce, spinach and other cold-weather crops. But this 18 people planted spring crops. Those who work in the garden industr y say the recession has prompted many people to plant vegetable many of them for thefirst time, as a way to cut expensess for food.
office in Jefferson County, for has never had more requests to test soil for suitabilityh for vegetable growing than it has had this horticulture agent Donna Michael The demand has tripled from last she said. Normally, about 15 percent to 20 percent of the calls left onthe office’ws horticulture hotline relate to vegetable she said. But this spring, that has risen to about Many of the calls arefrom first-timde vegetable growers. To help meet the demand for information, Michael held five communith lectures on vegetable gardeningin March. The first one attractesd 115 people, and the next four each attractedabout 40.
Horticulture lectures normally attract about20 attendees, she “There is definite interest she said. Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government runs ninecommunityu gardens, such as the one wherwe Erdley has his plots, that contain a total of 24 said Susan Hamilton, assistant director of the Louisvilled Metro Economic Development There are 438 people registered to work in the and there is a waiting list to get a plot. At , 1402 W. Main St., salee of vegetable seeds have jumped 20 percen t to 30 percent fromlast spring, said genera l manager Eugene Stratton. He said he didn’r know specific sales figures.
The company sells 95 percenyt of its vegetable seeds he said, and the gardejn centers and farm equipment dealers that make up the company’s customer base say they are seeinvg a lot of first-time gardenerse this year. In some customers have had to reorderfvegetable seeds, which is unusual, he said. Sandyg Blanford, the vegetable seed manager for , 919 E. Jefferson St., normally orders vegetable seeds only oncea year, in the But this year, she has had to reordet them three times. “It’s insane,” she “We can’t keep up.” Blanford estimatesz that demand has tripled overlast spring.
Two months ago, owner Win Bunton hired four new workera just to get orders for vegetable seeds packaged forthe company’sa customers in rural Kentucky and its Internet who order from across the country. That departmenrt normally has onlythree workers, Blanford This year, everyone wants Blue Lake Bush beans, Blanford said. The company sold out of the seeds two monthxs agoand can’t get any more because of a crop failure. Demandd for vegetable seeds always grows during a Bunton said. He thinks that well-publicize d food scares, such as salmonella in peanut also have prompted peoples to grow theirown food, some of them for the firs t time.
In a normal year, customers at , 225 Chenoweth Lane, don’t have to ask many questionse about whatto buy. “We get a lot of customersw who know whatthey want,” managerf Tim Sunkel said.