VERY expensive seeds - worth it?

[bluemoon]

I agree, JimmerG, Unwin's do seem to be ludicrously expensive. I picked up a packet of their seeds recently and hastily put it back. I always thought that T&M were dear, but at least if there's a variety there I want I can usually afford it, Unwin's was unbelievable. I always try to use open pollinated varieties, but there are some F1s that, for various reasons, I prefer and continue to use them.

[trifle]

Wilkinsons Seeds

I bought a lot of my seeds from Wilkies last year and they all did pretty well, although as it was my first year I'm not sure how they compare to the well known brands but i got a lot of veg for not much outlay

[kittykat8]

I do not understand the pricing of Unwins, they do seem expensive but down here in Cornwall we have a store called Trago Mills that sells the all the unwin seeds but loads cheaper, the seeds must have hell of a markup, here is an example of the prices by unwins and local store


Unwins Trago

leek sevilla 2.99 1.45

cuc long crop 3.99 1.99

cuc mini munch 3.99 1.99

cuc tasty king 2.49 1.20

cuc melonie 1.99 0.99

pak choi 3.99 1.95

sweet corn supersweet 1.99 0.99

I have just been looking at all my packets trago seems to sell the packets at half price. I am sure that Trago is not selling seeds at a loss.

Marion

[zazen999]

Just bumping this for Kath - who was asking about f1 seeds.

[TonyF]

At our seed and plant swap on Monday somebody abandoned some seed packets.

Duchy of Cornwall seeds, butternut squash, 8 seeds, £1.99.

Now that's taking the wotsit, I put a handful of squash seeds that I had last year in a packet after drying them out and have hundreds - for nothing!

[hamsterqueen]

- promiscuous plants are not seed-saver-friendly!

that conjures up a brilliant picture!

[Matt.]

I don't get the fuss over not using F1 seeds. I guess it depends on the volume of a single crop you're growing and the variety of different veg. For me I have a small greenhouse and I reserve space for four cucumber plants and nine tomato plants. I'm more than happy to go for the expensive F1 types if I'm going to get veg worth eating. After all by the time you've bought the compost and feeds how much has the seed cost overall? 20% at most? Also how many folk need 100+ cucmber seeds? Sure you can sow many to ensure germination and cull the weakest but most of us get good germination and with limited numbers of seeds I take more care.

[Borisbump]

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 - SweetCorn Seed

Having great fun reading the realseeds website, some fantastic advice on saving seeds etc.

[Bramble_killer]

I bought ~F1s because it's my first year growing stuff and to keep motivated I need something for me to eat. I'll swap little by little until I'm a more comfortable adventerous grower but don't knock the F1s

[Flummery]

Does anyone know what you call a cross between an F1 hybrid and a heritage tomato? It's not F1 because one of the parents already is. It's not F2 - it's a cross. Any idea. Because I've done it and I don't know what to call it!

[womble]

A Fybriditage?

Good word.

[Flummery]

I'll have to write that down - I'll never remember it!

[womble]

I can't even say it.

[Kath]

Hot cross toms?

Has it been done before? Is there really a word for it?

[snohare]

If you can get it to breed true FLummery, it is a new strain/variety - you get to name it. (Although you might have some legal problems with Plant Breeder's Rights along the way there....)
If you just have the one, and it has different characteristics, then it is known as a sport - a genetic mutation. You can still name it - Tom, Dick, Harry... There are any number of random crosses like that happening all the time in Nature, so not so unusual really.