Hello all , I am just in the process of looking threw my seed catalogue for next years seeds, just thought that I would let you know that I use Moles seeds from Colchester. They cater for the commercial grower so the seeds come in larger quantity's then most allotment holders would use, but the price of them is better than the small packets of seed that you get from other seed company's and of the shelf, the quality of the seed is a lot better as well. It may be worth one or two of you getting together and buying the seeds to share out. They have got an on line catalogue the link is
www.molesseeds.co.uk
;)
I use Kings mostly, because of their facility for selling direct to allotment associations ... It is a standard practice at our site now and works well. I put next years seed order in last week, and expect it back before December ... Our association also has a local supplier for potatoes and sundries etc.
Other than that, I can get the Organic Gardening Cataloge seeds from the HDRA shop at Ryton, when my daughter is horse riding ...
Derekthefox :D
Last year I did a summary of a few suppliers, picked a range of crops and compared prices across the different catalogues. It immediately threw up that the large seed companies like T&M are the most expensive.
I am doing the same this year and so far have covered T&M, DT Brown, Simply Vegetables, Simpsons Seeds, Kings, Tuckers, Nicky's Nursery.
I intend to add Real Seeds, HDRA and maybe Tamar Organics.
If anyone wants a look give me a shout.
Jerry
Funny enough, I think the worse one to use this year is T&M, it is all over the place and I have rapidly lost patience with it!
Jerry
I did that too Jerry, and Tuckers came out the cheapest for me last year.
I have looked at a number of seeds marketed for commercial growers and a word of warning a lot of them come pre treated with all sorts of chemicals to prevent diseases etc. Just take care when ordering.
Regards
Chriszog
DP, they have some of the squashes we were thinking about, but I reakon Tuckers is cheaper as it is the 2 of us.
EJ - I don't mind coming in on the squash seed swap if you want to spread the cost 3 ways.
The only thing I like about T&M is the catalogue. My son liked it - he could point out most of the veg a couple of years ago.
Have ordered this year from DT Brown and T&M (used the special offers - anyone want some of the world's top 6 geraniums!!!! Well only 5 of each variety). I went to Ryton for pumpkin day and bought some OGC seed and one from Franchi (a red onion because the silly shaped Rossa di Milano isn't available). Might see if there is room for a small Tuckers order, but they don't have lao lavender aubergines (I put aside an aubergine for seed, and found that OH had cooked it :o )
As this was my 1st year buying seeds, I had a good look around the 'net and found that gardeningdirect.com was one of the cheaper which suited us fine, so I ordered, then found alan roman was even cheaper - 50p per pack.... Sod's Law isn't it? :-\ Anyway I'm sure will make my way round the rest of various companies and independents over the next few years... :)
I hope you dont mind me saying this but often the cheapest is not the best. I go for quality and not just the price.
This year I used/supplied seeds from
Franchi
Moles
Tuckers
Fothergill's
Johnsons ( same company )
Seedfest
Viva Verde
Wilko
and maybe some I've forgotten
I neither have, nor have heard any complaints about germination that make me think there's a significant difference in quality between suppliers. I suspect we blame the supplier when our first attempt with them fails but forgive a regular supplier for our ocasional failures.
I'm forever having customers come in a and suggest that there was something wrong with their seed poatatoes, despite everyone else's from the same sack growing fine, or blaming this year's poor carrot germination on seed ( despite everyone having problems early in the season regardless of seed supplier ).
As an experiment, one of our tenants bought in 6 shirley plants from the local nursery, sowed some fothergills and some wilko ones. Later in the year he was defying anyone to tell which were which.
The single biggest difference with seed suppliers is their overhead. It's quite probable that different companies get their seed from the same fields anyway and the actual cost of the seed is probably the same. When we buy (for example ) Hurst Greenshaft peas in bulk from Moles, a pack the same size as the £2.19 ones from T & M costs around 40p. No-one will ever convince me that the ones from T & M are better, just more extravagantly packaged and promoted. You could also point to the higher cost of Fothergills to Johnsons ( again a slightly higher cost package ), but as they're the same company I'm doubtful the seeds are any different.