Seed Manufacturers

[Katycue]

Morning

I wonder if I could get some advice on proven seed manufacturers. Had a few failures last year.

Many thanks

[Mark Rand]

Moles Seeds are excellent. They're aimed at the wholesale and commercial growers markets, but are quite happy to sell seeds to folk like us. I haven't had a failure from their seeds yet and they seem to have consistently high germination rates and quick germination times.

[nick the grief]

I use Premier seeds, Seekay Horticulture, and Kings seed in the main but try and save my own seeds where possible - I find that helps for a couple of reasons:-

1. You know the seeds are fresh or what age they are. (packed in the year ending doesn't really tell you the age of the seed and I understand they have to pass a germination test but thats carried out under Lab conditions ... not many folks have those in their garden
2. By saving seed grown at your plot and selecting from the best plants, eventually you get a strain that is 'bred' for your locality

how you store your seeds is important too, huge fluctuations in temperature doesn't help - they like relativley stable temperatures and humidity

[Jungle Jane]

Kings seeds are very good,I’ve used them for several years now,had garlic delivered this year really good cloves & seeds.

[Vince G]

It depends what you are trying to buy sometimes. If you're looking for something failry unusual, you might not have a lot of choice. For instance I only seem to be able to buy Tropea Onion seeds from Franchi.

My preference for my main yearly order has been DT Brown for several years, but this year I have used Premier Seeds. The thing about them I like is that you don't get stupid numbers of seeds in the packet. When was the last time you used all 5,000 carrot seeds in your packet? Instead I got a packet of 500 seeds. Unfortunately 500 is not a tenth of the price of 5000, it was £1.99 instead of £2.99, but I'm still saving a few quid and not throwing away anywhere near as many out of date seeds. Their seeds also usually come in little 2 inch square foil packs, so they don't take up so much space in your seed tin!

For tomatoes I use Dobies, they sell a lot of blight resistant varieties.

[burnie]

For years we used just Suttons, but I moved to Dobies, who were taken over by Suttons, I still use Dobies and also Robinsons and Real Seeds too.