Are expensive seeds worth it?

freebo_2

I'm preparing for my fist attempt at veggie gardening, the green house has just arrived, the plot nearly cleared now its time to buy seeds.

When I put together a wish list on the Thompson & Morgan site I ended up with £70 worth of seeds in my shopping basket :eek: the ave price was about £2 per pack so I suppose I'm looking at about 35 varieties. Most of these where Royal Hort Soc A.G.M. winners and most F1 hybrids (so no planing seeds from the crop).

My question is, is it really worth spending so much on seeds, there's a few I'd like top quality seeds for (like toms) but surely there's a cheaper way thats just as good?

Thanks for any advice!

kethry

you might want to check your local wilkinsons and other pound shops. they all do seeds at this time of year. Also Aldi and Lidl. The price will be more reasonable, but you won't get the top notch name.. *shrug*.. i would think, unless you specifically want a variety that is hard to get or very obscure, you could do much better. Wilkos have a buy one get one free offer on.. and their most expensive pack that i've bought so far is 1.55 and that was on a packet of tomato seeds - gardener's delight variety, and that was a Johnsons one (i specifically wanted gardener's delight as i know they grow here).

there are also some seed swap forums, i don't know how they work but its worth looking into them.

HTH

keth
xx

KatrinaC_2

My local Boyes' store sells own-brand/cheap brand seeds of named varieties in packets with the same photo on the packet as the Mr. Fothergill's seeds they sell around the corner. They are also packed at a place with the same address and postcode and the internal packets have very similar serial numbers.

The Mr. Fothergill's seeds cost about 3-5 times as much.

Makes you think

Kat

Biddyrolo

I was a bit miffed a couple of years ago when the only seed I could get locally for cauliflowers was expensive AGM seed, but I had excellent results. For some things though I don't think it makes too much difference, also some seed will store quite well, I get about 3or4 years worth from a pack of runner bean seeds for example which brings the cost down.
What sort of crops are you planning on growing?

BlondeHeadOn

This a long shot, but it might be worth trying your local charity shops. I used to get loads of free seeds attached to gardening maggies (in the days when I had maggie subscriptions) and ended up with loads of spare packets of seeds. I used to take these down the local charity shop and they bundled them up and sold them in sets of 5 packets for 50p or £1.

Apparently they had quite a few people donating seeds at this time of year, so might be worth a try.....

freebo_2

Biddyrolo wrote:

What sort of crops are you planning on growing?

All sorts to be honest, toms, cucumber & peppers in the greenhouse and about 20 different things in the veg patch, carrots, courgettes, beans, sweetcorn, cabbage, parsnips etc. I need a lot of seed!

Thanks for all the replies!

point3

F1 hybrids are expensive. Some are worth it (e.g. Tiffany F1 cucumber, Thompson & Morgan £3.99 - 4 in a packet, so £1 a seed!!! ), but there are often many tried and trusted older varieties that are just as good.

Are you getting the most out of T&M - they usually send money off vouchers to new customers and to unused accounts, plus they have "Buy xxx and get the most expensive pack free" type offers.

Biddyrolo

Just had a thought, have you checked the cash back sites? I think Greasy Palm has a link to Suttons for instance.

smk77

Biddyrolo wrote:

Just had a thought, have you checked the cash back sites? I think Greasy Palm has a link to Suttons for instance.

I was looking at QuidCo before and noticed that they have discount at Suttons. They have quite a few links in the gardening section.

mistah

My local garden centre (Wyvale - Brighton Racecourse) is doing a half price offer on all Thompson & Morgan veg seeds until the end of the month.

I would be careful with some cheap parsnip seeds as these are known for low germination rates even when you buy top quality.

*zippy*

Have you had a look at

http://www.alanromans.com/

All seeds are 50p and most are the same varieties as T&M etc You just don't get the pretty packets. I managed to get most of what I wanted from them.

I grew AGM peas last year and was dissapointed, I have bought expensive seed again this year, but have bought a heritage variety from a small seed company so looking forward to seeing how they do.