Renee's Garden?

[Shellie]

This is the first year I've used seeds from this company and I have been having a terribly low germination rate...wondering if it's this company in particular. Usually when I plant seeds (which in the past usually were the chain store varieties) I would have close to all sprout. I planted 12 Renee's corn and 1 grew. 8 sunflower and 1 grew. About 50% for cukes and melons but the plants aren't doing well at all and although I'm a newer gardener, I don't usually have issues getting something going.

Wondering if I should give up and order from someone else next time....it's getting close to time for me to start some tomatoes for fall and plant pumpkins...I have Renee's seeds for this but am frankly afraid to use them!

Thanks!

[reneesgarden]

Hi Shellie,

This popped up on our Google alerts so we thought we'd contact you on here! I'm sorry to hear about your problems germinating our seed. We're a small company (~10 people) located near Santa Cruz, CA and we trial our seeds yearly across the country and take germination issues seriously. Our germination rates are some of the highest in the industry (well above the standard of some of the chain store brands) and we do perform regular tests.

That said, it has been a very cool season across the country so depending on when you started and where you started (you didn't say if you started indoors, outdoors) you may have had challenges because of that. Were nights consistently in the 55 degree range? Make sure you protect from birds, slugs, and snails? The jays in my backyard are notoriously awful and do eat most of my seedlings unless I protect them with bird cloth or berry baskets. The soil needs to be well-worked with good drainage; I use organic granular fertilizer as well.

Our on-staff horticulturist, Beth, is currently on vacation until the 18th but we'd be more than happy to replace your packets in the meantime. Would you mind shooting her an e-mail with additional details to [e-mail]? The best way to get a response from us is actually to contact us directly, so when you're having issues so then we can help you right away.

Best,

Nellie @ Renee's Garden
Marketing Assistant
http://www.reneesgarden.com

[Erinz]

Just had to say that response is pretty awesome. Impressed.

And I totally echo the bird thing. Last year the bird DECIMATED my seedlings. This year EVERYTHING has been covered!

[CariOfOz]

Impressive customer service when THEY come to YOUR complaint

[Shellie]

Oh wow, I just saw this over half a year later! How awesome to get a response--it actually never occurred to me to contact RG directly about the issue--I just wondered if it was me, or a common thing as it was my first experience with a smaller seed company. Since it was May/June near Phoenix I am certain our temps were good, and that nothing was eating the seeds in my birdless (in a terrible way!) backyard. No slugs/snails, etc. either. I never had a chance to plant the seeds I had for fall as we were planning a move. I ended up growing lots and lots of melons but they never ripened. I can just chalk it up to noobie errors.