When to buy seeds?

[jubilado]

I'm planning next years growing, with a lot of sowing in propagators and greenhouse early in the year between January and March.

Do I buy now, presumably from 2015 stock and maybe find some end of season bargains, or do I wait for new catalogues and 2016 stock?

I also see some big price differences between internet / ebay / importers / poundstores, and the traditional UK suppliers who send out glossy literature.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

[sparrow100]

Depends where you're getting them from I s'pose. After a pants year of parsnips I'll only buy them fresh now, but I'll buy most other things from old stock, particularly online where I think that the seeds will have been stored in better conditions.

[Elfeda]

firstly please try to check what all seeds you want to buy. with out knowing what you can /want to grow ..you end up buying every other discounted options and end up forced to use them up despite you want/eat them or not.

so better be prepared to explore what all you really like . just comeup with your list and then you also fix your budget so that you can decide whwn/where to buy seeds to match your list and budget.

not really easy thing as said. but now I realise how much it is tempting theseed offers. but knowing what exactly you want, it has better chances to win the race.

hope this helps

[rosiepumpkin]

When for me is whenever my self control fails me. Must. Buy. Seeds.

[Bill Door]

I agree with rosiepumpkin. Even if you buy really cheap seeds and get a super crop it is of no use if you don't want to eat it.

I would suggest parsnips like sparrow100 says and wait until new seeds are available. I for one will not be buying tomato seeds (blight). I try to get certified potatoes but for the rest if the packet is 50 pence or less I can't keep my hands off them.

One suggestion I would make is that you make a list of seeds that you hold to make sure you sow them next year. If you have problems you can mark the list so you don't buy them next time (that is if you don't forget to take the list with you when you go out buying seeds). Of course the one overriding factor is the other half ("oh not more seeds, you have 15 boxes of the darn things").

regards

Bill

[sparrow100]

Going slightly against the grain here - I always get at least 2 new things to grow each year. Mostly because I want to widen the range of things I eat. So now I know I love salsify, root parsley, oca, achocha, tayberries - amongst others. I just don't sow acres and acres of each new thing, just in case I think it's gross. Not that that's really happened so far.

Edit to add - actually that's wrong. Asparagus peas. Bleurgh!!!

[Jungle Jane]

It is good to have a list of what seed varieties you want. I google these award winning fruit & veg seed variety lists. Shows you what year they got their award. Then I google that variety. I do quite a lot of faffing about but also if there's seeds in a shop,it's like I've never seen seeds before & I'l buy randomly. But good to have a list in the back of your head.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/a...and-vegetables

[muddled]

I try to buy seed from companies I like.
'Realseeds' for example are a small firm that never sell hybrids. I like their ethics and policies so I tend to buy what I can from them first...even if they aren't as cheap as the £ shop.

I really enjoyed getting seeds from the VSP, a swap system on this forum. You need to have been here for three months and posted regularly to join (but you will have by January won't you?) and that costs only the price of postage.

But like everyone else, I still love a bargain and buy lots of cheapo seeds when I see them. Things like courgettes and tomatoes are pretty robust and I don't think it matters where you get them.

Parsnips and carrots need to be new seed but most other things you can keep for much longer so don't think you need to spend a fortune every year (although most of us seed addicts do)

[rosiepumpkin]

This is all very logical. There's the seeds you need fresh (parsnips etc), and for the rest, most of us here have enough seeds to start several smallholdings. Why buy shoes when you can buy seeds for 49p then take 60% off and share your extras with others (down the actual and virtual pub and allotment)?

I have succumbed to a tomato based spreadsheet this year and last year I bought for silly money many many more seeds than I can use in the next few years. Some has gone to other plot holders, some to local community farms, it's being generous for pennies.

There are also places like Real Seeds where I will pay several pounds a packet no quibble. I want to supoort them and keep them in business and once they shut up shop, who knows if anyone will take over? I see it as our responsibility as growers to keep seeds variety going for generations hundreds of years from now as we may be heading into a seed dark ages with all this gmo business and unintended consequences of eu rules. If not us, the who? /rant

Also, don't grow stuff you hate. If you don't like something, try it fresh from someone else's home grown to check you really don't like it, and then don't bother. Although even I will eat chard if it self seeds as long as it knows its place and only does it occasionally.

[jubilado]

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like I'm doing everything right so far. I have my list of what I want, with a couple of chosen varieties of each. But the dilemma is that, for example, poundstretcher have the same variety for 39p, Premier seeds on ebay are 99p, and marshalls and other popular suppliers are over £2.

As I'm a newbie I guess I have to learn from my own experiences.

Do the garden centres cut their prices at the end of the season?

[Thelma Sanders]

Wyevale garden centres reduce their seeds to 50p in the end of summer sale - should start in a couple of weeks.
It's worth having a look if you have one near you

[Lumpy]

The price differences for the same varieties can be because there are different numbers of seeds in each pack.

Our nearest GC does not discount anything so I only go there for the tatties and garlic. They may cost a bit more than their online cousins but once you take off P&P they can be cheaper.

2 weeks ago I went nuts ordering from Marshalls because they had some very good prices - although it came to just over £17 it included my dwarf runners (Hestia) and DFB's that grow their beans above the foliage, let alone enough beetroot etc to plant out a small farm.

Any excess or 'not likes' you have can always be swopped at the VSP on here.

Other than that I found that once I started growing bits and bobs it was almost impossible to ignore sales, discounts, unusuals and down right strange veggies.

My advice would be to get yourself a large seed box because if you are like the rest of us you will be up to your armpits in packets by this time next year!