VERY expensive seeds - worth it?

[Geordie]

I guess with corn you're in the same situation as butternut squash - it needs a long hot season such as we haven't had lately

strangly enough last year was one of the best ever for my sweetcorn (variety Incredible Mr. F's)

For open pollinated sweetcorn (and almost anything else you need) see these guys...service and information is always excellent! Real Seed Company - http://www.realseeds.co.uk/sweetcorn.html

[Eyren]

I never got to find out last year - my b#@@&y cat ate all the sweetcorn seedlings the moment my back was turned. I direct-sowed the few I had left, just as an experiment (since it was too late to order more seed of the same kind and I'd read you can get strange results if you mix varieties in close proximity), and the slugs ate all but one

I have used Real Seeds in the past though, so maybe I'll try them again next year...

[jogette]

I bought a packet of F1 carrots last year - it cost £1.50. I planted them as per instructions and..... I ended up with three carrots which worked out at 50p each

[JamesA]

This is the first year of buying seeds for me as im new to all this and i was shocked by some of the prices! My local garden centre had a half price offer on all their seeds last month so i stocked up while they were going cheep

[crichmond]

I dont have any F1 seeds at all, mine are all op and heirloom seeds, and I will saving my own seed from this year/

[butter fingers]

I try to buy seeds from suppliers who dont use loads of packaging ,just the foils etc. This keeps the cost down and i get smaller amounts so i dont wast so many seeds by not using in time eg alan romans, chilli seed co as they dont use so much packaging for their seeds.
Also there are allways the freebies on magazines to get, if your going to buy one anyway.

[JimmerG]

OK So here's another question - are cheap seeds, for example B&Qs branded seeds for £1 a packet, any worse than T&M seeds for twice the price? - (leaving F1 seeds out of the equation)

Are there cowboy suppliers somewhere churning out dodgy bootleg seeds?

Surely at the end of the day Blue lake is Blue Lake, and parmex is parmex

[TonyF]

I dont have any F1 seeds at all, mine are all op and heirloom seeds, and I will saving my own seed from this year/

Mine too now, I'm working my way through all the freebies and older stuff that I have but I now only buy certified bio (organic), self saved, heritage or seeds to do with HDRA.

[Duronal]

I've just had aload of seeds form Premier Seeds Cirect on ebay. All @ 99p per pack and 70p postage for the lot if you order them all at the same time. I've not got any in the mud yet to see the results but from all the searching I've done for reviews on them I've not seen a bad one !

I'll let you know how I get on. Thye also have a few interestign things I haven't seen with any other suppliers. Here is their Cabbage range :
Caggabe

I've used these guys before they're extremely good value. large quantity, good quality, cheap, good customer service and great delivery times. Yeah they're a favourite!

The only seeds I'd pay for would be Ferline tomato seed. These were extremely tasty vigorous AND very blight tolerant - everything had been dead for weeks and these weren't showing any signs of the disease.

I've still got 200-400 seeds left from one packet of cabbage seeds last year, not bad for under 99p.

[RedThorn]

I don't mind paying for yellow courgettes [gold rush] - I think they were £2.35 for 10 seeds - as I know I get a whole summer's worth from one plant and I always try and get 3 plants sown in case of disaster - so it should last 3 odd years.

This is why seed saving and swapping is so important....

cannot argue with you there I'm a gold rush convert too!.... now if I could just fgure out the hybrid combo.....

[toastie]

Don't tend to use F1 seeds as they haven't been 'roadtested' for reliability/can't take seeds from them etc.

Must admit I do tend to buy most of my seeds from Thompson & Morgan as they were certainly more reliable last year.

Didn't bother with courgette seeds, last year bought one small plant, it grew like wildfire, produced some many courgettes we were giving them away like nobodys business and if we hadn't had had some frost last October (whilst we were out of the country) it would probably have carried on growing.

[smallblueplanet]

...but I'll agree to F1 courgettes and squashes, these produce so many fruits its worth the extra cost...

Seriously you'd buy f1 courgettes for abundance? We've grown lots of sorts of OP courgettes for many years and you can't stop them!!! Fave are cocozelle & striato d'italia, big croppers and good taste. Never had a problem with OP squashes either...

[zazen999]

Manda - can u recommend a yellow OP courgette? I grow OP green ones - but we have yellows for a special soup 'happiness soup' and green just doesn't cut it...

[seasprout]

This year I had an offer from T&M for 2 free packets of seed so for one i chose a variety of cucumber called Carmen - £7.99 for 5 seeds.....will let you know if the price is justified!

Carmen is an excellent cucumber, long, straight and tasty, it is the Cucumber of choice for the serious veg shower.

Carmen is expensive from who ever sells it, i got some from seeds of distinction a couple of years ago, last year i grew a heritage variety for a change and they where really pants.

[seasprout]

Gone to seed.

OK So here's another question - are cheap seeds, for example B&Qs branded seeds for £1 a packet, any worse than T&M seeds for twice the price? - (leaving F1 seeds out of the equation)

Are there cowboy suppliers somewhere churning out dodgy bootleg seeds?

Surely at the end of the day Blue lake is Blue Lake, and parmex is parmex

I was told years ago that own brand seeds such as Wilkinson's, B&Q etc sell older seed that was Named brand seed such as Fothergills, Unwins etc...

Dont know if that's true, but i have found you get much less seeds per packet from own branded stuff.