ONE Tomato/pepper plant for SEVEN QUID!!

[rob the roller]

Tomatoes are very labour intensive plants. I don't think £7 is unreasonable for a staked and potted tomato plant in such an advanced state in good condition from a reliable source.

However I am not sure I would buy one from B & Q. I bought a pack of seed potatoes labelled Desiree from B & Q some years ago. I don't what they were, but it wasn't Desiree, and they were not of a quality I would knowingly buy again, let alone grow.

Tomatoes present a similar problem. If you don't buy the seed or plant from a reliable source, it will be months before you find out whether you got what you paid for. I got off to a late start and bought some tomato plants last year from a very well known garden centre. They carried fancy names but the fruit bore little resemblence to the fruits of the same name that I grow myself.

I have given away some 30 or 40 potted tomato seedlings this year. There will be a great deal for the recipients to do before they see any fruit. When you consider all of the work that goes into getting the plant to the fruiting stage, £7 is not over the top for a plant in the final stage. I don't think a conscientious and dedicated gardener would be overcharging if they sold a plant at that stage for that price.

[SarzWix]

Fair comment Rob, but the plants have been artificially 'nutured', under manufactured growing conditions, so that they are fruiting at completely the wrong time. Is the unsuspecting purchaser told that? Do they know the plants are pinched out, so that they very likely won't produce any more fruit? And, if the plants were grown naturally, in season, how much cheaper would they be?!

[Eco-Chic]

B&Q in the same breath as conscientious and dedicated gardener

Does not compute. Does not compute...

[WeeGarden]

I've seen the plants for sale and I have to admit, was quite tempted by them, as they had fruit already on them and the TWELVE pepper seeds I sowed last month has resulted in ONE seedling, at seed leaf stage...

However, I managed to talk myself out of it as like others have said, it's a bit too early for the fruiting and I don't have a greenhouse to keep it in. Will see how this ONE survivor goes...

[COMPOST CORNER]

Just bought three tomato plants 1 "Shirley" 1 "Tumbling Tom red" and 1 "Roma" for 60p each on my local market in Loughborough. About 6 to 8 inches high. Bargain!

[PeshB7]

Complete rip off. Regardless of whether they are fruiting or not. In the past I've grown seed direct in the garden by eating a store bought tomato which happened to be very sweet.

So i finihsed eating the tomato...Swished the seed around in my mouth and spat it out into an unprepared bed in around early Apr. And low and behold they grew just fine.

Spaced them out and later that year I was harvesting lovely sweet tomatoes. I know they arent true to the seed and all that, but they tasted great.

Its not rocket science to grow tomatoes. Nowadays I pamper mines a lot more and grow from store bought packets. But even then they only cost a couple of quid tops and thats for the F1 types. Normal ones are less than a pound for more than enough seed for an allotment.

[teakdesk]

Its not rocket science to grow tomatoes.

I challenge you to grow a tomato plant 15 inches tall with three trusses of fruit that can be grown on on a windowsill by people who don't have a garden or are too infirm to do "proper" gardening.

It is way beyond my abilities to produce a plant like these.



If I was to give a pot plant for Mother's Day or similar then I would spend at least £7 for something that only had flowers and would be finished and in the bin within the month - I'd rather give one of these tomato plants !!!

It is easy to rubbish and dismiss everyone who can't grow on an allotment like you but there are other people in this world who deserve access to plants just like you!



So no, I don't think it is a complete rip-off.

You just need to stop mixing your onions with your oranges!

[PeshB7]

I dont have an allotment

And in MY opinion it is a rip off.

[teakdesk]

So please explain why in your opinion it is a rip-off compared to any other decorative, windowsill plant given as a present for Mother's Day ?

[Alison]

So please explain why in your opinion it is a rip-off compared to any other decorative, windowsill plant given as a present for Mother's Day ?

I wouldn't buy the plants aimed at Mothers' Day gifts either as I think they're a rip off too. And don't get me started on the price of all those out of season flowers at that time of year...........

[teakdesk]

So just let me summarise a few comment on this current page

they didn't look right,they look more like a christmas decoration
...
they bread to only last a few weeks

I wouldn't dream of paying £7 for a plant that is fruiting so early, I could get a new rose bush for the front garden for that price instead.

I think it's disgusting!

the plants have been artificially 'nutured', under manufactured growing conditions, so that they are fruiting at completely the wrong time.

Complete rip off.

I wouldn't buy the plants aimed at Mothers' Day gifts either as I think they're a rip off too. And don't get me started on the price of all those out of season flowers at that time of year...........

There is a huge market for decorative pot plants that are given as presents to loved ones. Plants that are as out of season as these tomatoes.

To my eye these tomatoes are prettier than pot flowers and cost the same - yet, unlike with pot flowers, you actually get to eat them.

If you complain about them being forced or out-of-season you presumably have the same comment to make about all the tomatoes on sale at the moment in veg shops ?



No-one has yet given me a sensible answer as to why these plants are any worse than pot flowers. You might not like pot flowers either but that is not a reasoned arguement.



I'm not trying to force you to buy these plants - just be charitable to those who do.



Not everyone's Mother would appreciate it if they received a bowl of compost and a tomato to chew on and then spit a few seeds into.... and if the tomato that PeshB7 spat out grew into a well-cropping plant over the season then that tomato must have been grown out-of-season just like these tomatoes you are condemning!!!!!!!

[Sweepster]

Never mind the price of tomatoes, I'm intrigued by this 'swish and spit' technique of sowing

Anyone else like to confess to projecting their seeds from an orifice? How successful was this method, and did you end up with a plant or an ASBO?

[FelixLeiter]

But will they be watered? I was at a B&Q last year and a member of staff was waving a hosepipe around at the bedding plants, which was a rare sight (they weren't actually looking at what they were doing, mind). Only, they got the leaves wet but the root balls were dust dry. None of the plants at the back of the staging even got wet leaves. It's tragic how many plants perish at DIY stores through lack of water / improper watering. I mean, how hard can it be? I've seen plants coming in to superstores looking pristine, and within a week have become compost through lack of attention. Still, if they can sell a few toms for £7 a piece, the money's going to come in and that's all that matters, I guess.

[Eco-Chic]

It's tragic how many plants perish at DIY stores through lack of water / improper watering. I mean, how hard can it be?

It's marvellous how cheaply one can purchase limp and wilting plants which only need some water or potting on

[janeyo]

Never mind the price of tomatoes, I'm intrigued by this 'swish and spit' technique of sowing

Anyone else like to confess to projecting their seeds from an orifice? How successful was this method, and did you end up with a plant or an ASBO?

pmsl

I might have to try it!