For the past two or three years I have been buying buying many of my seeds when I visit the two Harrogate Shows and Tatton where I pay £1 per packet.
Now in the past particularly at the Harrogate Autumn shows I took these seeds to be end of season stock" hence the price!
But now I am not so sure?????
I bought some F1 Cauliflower and Calabrese seeds and found there to be 31 and 45 seeds respectively which makes them very expensive in my mind e.g. the Cauli's were over three pence per seed.
In the past there used to be around 200 seeds in a 'Brassica' packet then that reduced to around 100 but 31 well that's a bit OTT I think!
Normally I don't count my seeds but it was when I was sowing some Cauli in my 40 cell plug trays I found I didn't have enough seeds to fill it.
The same more or less applied to the Calabrese I had 3 seeds left when I finished filling the cell tray.
Now I think these seeds are being packed purposely for the £1 market I guess to compete with the " Pound shops" that are springing up all over the place.
OK earlier this season I bought some seeds from a "Pound shop" where I got 4 packets of flower seeds for my pound and two of the packets indicated approx. 200 seeds, 1 packet said approx 100 and the other 500 +
At least in these shops I knew what I was buying, whereas with the 'seed trade' vendors I don't!
I am getting to thinking; once again we gardeners are being ripped off
First it was the chemicals going off the market yet the commercial growers can use them, then there was the 'dodgy' compost now the seeds, what is this country coming to?
When I visited the Harrogate spring show a few weeks ago,I mentioned this to the manager of a well known seed merchant and he just glibly said;
I have got to earn a crust for me and my kids!
So I thought I would just put out the message to you all what is happening in the 'seed trade' these days if you do not already know.
Has anyone else noticed this trend or is it my imagination or could it be I have 'dementia'
Has anyone else noticed this trend or is it my imagination or could it be I have 'dementia'
Oh yes...its been noticed and nothing to do with your 'dementia'.. :tongue3:
I rarely buy anymore from the 'big' seed companies..and because of this 'trend', buying from other sources..like from Ebay shops is some much better value. Same stuff and just different packaging, more seeds and cheaper too...WIN,WIN,WIN :icon_cheers:
Wot GL said - I've bought a few times now from ebay sellers like Premier Seeds Direct and their seeds are fine, they just come in little plastic bags rather than fancy packets. And their postage charges are cheap too.
It is the same with everything you buy in the supermarkets. Same size packets reduced weight. The seed merchants are just jumping on the bandwagon. I am lucky that I can sometimes buy wholesale by the weight if I wanted to buy 100 grams of seed that is what I pay for and that is what is in the packet. The only problem is finding the lesser know varieties of veg, but flower seed is covered quite nicely. Some of my suppliers will do miniscule amounts but an allotment society should be able to buy in bulk for their members.
You are right TeeGee, quantities seem to be getting stingier. I bought a packet of mixed leaves, for salad and was rather miffed that there was only enough for one planter!!! Hope they grow for a while, as that is not very good value. I have found that there are frequently less in the packet than advertised. I do get seeds from Lidl and actually they are pretty good, and at about 30cents a packet I can hardly complain! But one packet gives a good sowing of radish, which seems good value. Their packets of lettuce seed contain loads of seed and even for courgettes and cucumbers there are at least ten seeds in the packet.
I agree with Ace, in the supermarket I have noticed lots of quantities are smaller, but the price doesn't change...
£1 seems a good price for F1 brassica seeds. Unwins sure grow have about 25 and cost about £1.99 or more for 25.
There does seem to be a trend to put fewer and fewer seeds in the packet.
Quote from: Ellen K on May 10, 2014, 14:14:24
Wot GL said - I've bought a few times now from ebay sellers like Premier Seeds Direct and their seeds are fine, they just come in little plastic bags rather than fancy packets. And their postage charges are cheap too.
I can vouch for Premier Seeds Direct on ebay I have used them over the last 3 years, very successful germination every time apart from alderman peas last year,grew but failed due to the weather. most on our plots had a bad year with peas