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T&M have a half price deal on five disease resistant veg varieties - 2 carrots, one tomato and two mangetout, I think. 99p each? Not bad if you haven't finished buying seeds yet.

 ;D I received my Kale Walking Stick seeds from them today free of charge, just cost me the 99p postage ;D how do they make a profit ???

They've still got the 'most expensive seeds free' deal on as well. It's a mystery to me  :D

Me too - received £10+ worth of seeds from them today, and paid a total of £3.15, including the 99 p&p.  However they're doing it, I hope they keep doing it!!

:o Praps someone in despatch is serving his notice :o

Quote from: bupster on March 02, 2006, 11:25:02
They've still got the 'most expensive seeds free' deal on as well. It's a mystery to me  :D

carmen cucumber @ £7.99, you can get for 99p.

Pity as I don't grow F1s.

???

Amphib...what's wrong with F1's? Sure I should know, but can you explain please?

They must be getting desperate (or daft?) I hadn't ordered anything so this week they sent me a £5 voucher to spend on their seeds plus I can have two free packets.

I wasn't going to bother to get anything from them, but with the potential for that many free seeds, how can a girl resist?

I got two packets of seeds for free and purchased oriental salad mix (69p/packet). 1.53 pounds for three packets of seeds was a bargain, I think. ;D T&M seeds are generally pricey so I usually don't buy their seeds... but can't resist offers like this!

Re: F1 hybrids... I think this page explains well. http://www.realseeds.co.uk/why.html
I personally much prefer open pollinated varieties to F1 hybrids simply because I can save seeds and there are many good old varieties. I definitely do not like companies like Monsanto... ::)

Thanks Tora, excellent explanation!!

well you do learn something every day, don't you.   :o

Quote from: Tora on March 10, 2006, 15:43:09
I got two packets of seeds for free and purchased oriental salad mix (69p/packet). 1.53 pounds for three packets of seeds was a bargain, I think. ;D T&M seeds are generally pricey so I usually don't buy their seeds... but can't resist offers like this!

Re: F1 hybrids... I think this page explains well. http://www.realseeds.co.uk/why.html
I personally much prefer open pollinated varieties to F1 hybrids simply because I can save seeds and there are many good old varieties. I definitely do not like companies like Monsanto... ::)

That certainly explains it well, though there are many nefarious and sinister motives behind F1 promotion. Namely that in reality they are generally more reliant on chemicals than traditional varieties, which is why, despite the fact we are told they are insect and disease resistant, farmers are using more chemicals today than ever. It is particularly concerning that the major commercial seed companies are ultimately owned by the same agro-petrochemical industries that sell the chemicals.

F1s have also led to a whole host of agro-disasters, such as the one that hit Indian cotton production recently, where a new hybrid was sold, that alledgedly had crutial disease resistance, farmers bought this seed by the tonne and subsequently the crops failed (through the very disease they were supposed to resist), unfortunately many old varities were lost while the farmers were struggling with the hybrid.

It is simple really, F1s are for the large part marketing, and they are destroying our true seed heritage, we have lost scores of varities down the years.

I have no problem with selecting and cross breeding, but I don't think varities as unstable as F1s should be released on to the market, but of course seed companies want us to buy them, because we have to buy their seed year on year.

Quote from: Roy Bham UK on March 08, 2006, 21:26:30
:o Praps someone in despatch is serving his notice :o

Roy, you crack me up!

;D ;D ;D

Lishka