b'Starting the Year Off with a BANG!With 2021 planting ahead, home garden and vegetable companies prepare for another potential boom.Alex MartinAS THE NEW YEARcontinues, weve all been working on putting 2020 behind us. Although, with a pan-demic, stay-at-home orders, China Trade deals, stimulus checks, a presidential election and a second wave2020 is hard to forget. One sector of our industry, in particu-lar, will find it difficult to forget, especially with 2021 planting hot on its heels: theWe went back in and realized that home garden seed sector, but mostthese were all from new customers and importantly, the vegetable seed sector. they were all new orders, he says. When stay-at-home orders hit lastOne thing Gale says is important to March, home garden and vegetable seedknow is that these new customers didnt companies found themselves with anhave the Stokes Seeds catalogue.unprecedented moment: hundreds andThese new customers found us on hundreds of new seed orders.the internet and ordered everything cold turkey on the website, he says. A Mistake, or Just a Spike? Stokes Seeds has facilities in both the Wayne Gale, president of Stokes Seeds,U.S. and Canada and reported unbeliev-says that at first, his company thoughtable demand in the home garden section it was a mistake. But, Gale can pinin both countries.down the exact date that his sales wentBoth our U.S. and Canada websites through the roofand it was right afterwere shut down for periods, or they were the grocery store panic buying started.only allowing so many orders per day, One week after the grocery storesGale says. For a time, even our call went through the roof, our orders wentcenters were shut down in order through the roof as well, Gale says. Theto facilitate more efficient use season had started to slow down to theof staff in entering orders, point we normally only get between 300instead of being on a to 400 orders on the home garden seedcall for half an hour to side. That week, customer service told me45 minutes listening to a we had more than 1,000 orders on thedictation of an order.website alone. Diane Blazek, executive Gale says that earlier in the week,director of the National Garden there had been some tinkering done onBureau (NGB), says this wasnt just the website, so initially, he thought therea trend at Stoke Seeds. The home was an error and the orders had beengarden seed sector found itself on duplicated. quite the rollercoaster ride this year. 34/ SEEDWORLD.COMFEBRUARY 2021'