Was 60 Packs Of Seeds For $15 A Good Deal?
If there is one thing that I have learned about Dollar Tree stores, it's that the value you get for your money can be relative; especially now that their prices have gone up to $1.25. But, there is one item that Dollar Tree stocks around this time of year that hasn’t gone up in price: their garden seeds. I recently stopped in and bough 60 packs of them for a grand total of $15 plus tax!.
Dollar Tree carries a brand of seeds called American Seed. They proudly display on their package that they have been around since 1897 (Pic/video cut), so I did some searching to try and find their company online. I found that using the search term “American Seed” turned up a company called American Seed Company.
“A-Ha!” I thought to myself. But, clicking on the link took me to a website that was celebrating their 33rd anniversary, and some quick head-math revealed that they would not have been around in 1897.
I was confused.
I had to dig a little deeper.
I was able to find a blog post from some time around 2018 that mentioned “American Seed”. They had also noticed that ‘American Seed’ and ‘American Seed Company’ were two separate entities. The blog post mentioned that ‘American Seed’ was affiliated with a company called Plantation Products and provided a link to their website, however it led to a dead page on a company site called ‘Green Garden Products’. The OP on the blog post mentioned that there were a lot of bad reviews for ‘American Seed’, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the parent company rebranded or was bought out. Interestingly, Green Garden Products has several different subsidiary brands under it that you have probably heard of including Ferry Morse, the Jiffy line of seed starting products, Seeds of Change, as well as several others. After further inspection, I was able to find the Green Garden Products stamp on the back of the seed packets. Unfortunately, I could not find a stand-alone website for American Seed. Even the Green Garden Products website had links out to websites for Ferry Morse, Jiffy, and several other of their subsidiaries, but nothing for American Seed. I can’t lie: their lack of a web presence raises doubts for me about their quality. But, I don’t want to judge a book by its cover, so we’ll need to do some experimenting and gather some data to find out if these 25 cent American Seed packs from Dollar Tree really present the value that they appear to present.
The Plan
At 25 cents a pack, I do not expect these things to have as many seeds as a pack of Burpee or other name brand seeds that you would buy from a big box store at $2.00-$3.00 a pack. But, that seems to be where the value generally lies at Dollar General. If you price things out per unit, you usually are actually paying a little bit more for dollar store items. However, if you only need a small amount of a product, you can get what you need without spending extra money on something that is going to go to waste. I have found this especially true for gardening on a relatively small scale. I always end up with tons of seeds left over at the end of the season, so paying 25 cents for fewer seeds in a pack is perfect for those with a small garden.To make a comparison on the price per seed in the packs, I have bought $1.00 worth (4 packs) of a bunch of different seeds. I have also bought packs of select comparable varieties from a couple of other sources:
For the summer squash, I will be using the Early Yellow Straightneck variety from American Seed, the Early Prolific Straightneck variety from Ferry Morse, and an heirloom blend of yellow squash and zucchini from Burpee’s Fordhook Farm.
For the cucumbers, I was able to find a Marketmore variety for both American Seed and Ferry Morse; however, the Burpee Fordhook Farm variety that they had available was one called ‘Bushy’.
I ended up with three different varieties of carrots. I picked up the Danvers Half Long variety from American Seed. They did have another variety available at my local Dollar Tree store, but the Danvers is what I went with. I bought a Scarlet Nantes variety in Ferry Morse, and Red Cored Chantenay in Burpee’s Fordhook Farm.
The Fordhook Farm kiosk at my local Dollar General store did not have any variety of broccoli available, so this experiment will just have to take place with two companies. The American Seed variety of broccoli at my local Dollar Tree was Calabrese, and Ferry Morse had a Waltham variety.
I’ll make up for the limited broccoli varieties with the Bell Pepper part of the experiment. From American Seed, I will be using two different varieties: California Wonder and Grand Bell Mix. From Ferry Morse, I chose the Grand Bell Mix, and Fordhook Farms had a variety called Chinese Giant.
For the tomato, I will use the Beefsteak variety from both American Seed and Ferry Morse, and I will be using what I think is a comparable variety called Mamie Brown’s from Burpee’s Fordhook Farm line. It is a pink-fleshed beefsteak style tomato, so I think it will work as a fair comparison.
For lettuce varieties, I was able to find the Parris Island variety in both American Seed and Ferry Morse, but the only variety of lettuce on the Fordhook Farm rack was called Freckles, so it will have to work as a comparable variety.
We’re going to start by opening each pack of seeds and counting how many come in the pack. Then, we can calculate a price per seed in the pack.
I will open up the packs, count up the seeds, and calculate the price per seed from each of the different seed companies that I end up purchasing. While this will give some initial idea of value, it will not be the deciding factor. Next, I will do an experiment to calculate the percent germination for each seed variety and company. Then, I will use that data to recalculate a final price per seed germinated. Finally, I plan on marking the plants that go into the garden and following their growth, development, and production throughout the gardening season. By the end of the process, I hope to have a better idea about the value you can get out of the cheap Dollar Tree seeds from American Seed.