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Just been to Lidl for the first time, apple tree post was the reason. While there were no suitable trees they had seeds.29p each £1 for 5 packets. Banded 1, 2, 3 & 4, 1 included carrots, herbs, beetroot, lettuce etc bought 20 packets as dated sow by 2016. too late for me this season bought mine from real seeds, do for next year.

I have noticed seeds in the UK are astronomically expensive, I have bought lettuce, parsnip, beans etc abroad for a twentieth of the UK price.

How do UK firms justify the price?

westcoast wrote:Just been to Lidl for the first time, apple tree post was the reason. While there were no suitable trees they had seeds.29p each £1 for 5 packets. Banded 1, 2, 3 & 4, 1 included carrots, herbs, beetroot, lettuce etc bought 20 packets as dated sow by 2016. too late for me this season bought mine from real seeds, do for next year.

I have noticed seeds in the UK are astronomically expensive, I have bought lettuce, parsnip, beans etc abroad for a twentieth of the UK price.

How do UK firms justify the price?

I've been taking advantage of exactly the same bargain myself. Bought 15 packets for £1.50

The answer to your question: seed producers are in the business of making profits, but Lidl has an entirely different business model. Lidl (and Aldi) make money by offering their customers exceptionally good deals by cutting out all frills, nonsense and all practice designed to extract as much money out of customers as possible.

The main seed producers are guilty of the following:

Focusing on F1 hybrids that don't come true if they produce seeds, and which inevitably have very few seeds per packet. They tend to neglect non-hybrids which people can keep seed from, and which have lots of seeds in the packet.

For non-hybrids, putting more seeds in the packet than most people need, and then hiking the price. Lidl, by contrast, tends to have enough seeds (more than an F1 hybrid that only has 10!), but not so many more than enough that most of them don't get used.

The main reason, though, is simply that they are greedy and there isn't enough competition in that business. They charge lots for their seeds because not many of their customers shop at Lidl. They charge what they think people will pay, and people do pay it.

And on the topic of seeds, I've just been fortunate enough to get my hands on a bona fide "heirloom" tomato - as in a variety that somebody has been growing for fifty years, keeping the seeds each year, and which was originally passed down to her from her own family, or rather her husband's. She married a Latvian immigrant, and the seeds are for Latvian tomatoes, which apparently aren't lookers but taste amazing.

Sod seed companies!

The two brothers who started Aldi are the two richest people in Germany. The third richest is the bloke who started Lidle. They got something right.

"Malcolm of the Plots" (our allotment veteran who knows everything worth knowing) says he buys cheap seeds and they work just as well as costly ones. Just in case anyone's worried the quality may not be up-to-snuff.

RenewableCandy wrote:"Malcolm of the Plots" (our allotment veteran who knows everything worth knowing) says he buys cheap seeds and they work just as well as costly ones. Just in case anyone's worried the quality may not be up-to-snuff.

The ones I have sowed so far from Lidl are fine.

Im a big fan of realseeds. They do cost a bit but they are all heirloom and the company actively encourages you to save seeds.

Ideally I would like to save seed year to year but its harder than it sounds with the vagaries of weather etc. Problem is when it works you have more than you can use before it goes 'off' just wish we had a seed saving network locally.

I cheat. I stick to the simple stuff (beans, peas, sunflowers, PSBrocs). Been doing it for 7 years now.

Beans (broad & runner), peas, parsnip, kale etc OK. Leek, carrot no luck but I'll keep trying.

It would be a very good skill to master as things get 'tighter'.

potatoes are not as easy as you would think, keeping clean tubers year to year to year is a challenge.

Having tried I would advise starting now as there is a lot to learn and like many skills when you really need it, its too late.

veg I'm growing this year, all from seed: tomatoes, aubergine, pepper, chilli pepper, cucumber, courgette, squash, broccoli, cabbage, sprouts, turnip, swede, radish, runner beans, broad beans, carrot, parsley, thyme, coriander, basil, spinach, chard, beetroot, rhubarb, globe artichoke, lettuce, lamb's lettuce, sweetcorn, red onion, spring onion, leek, garlic

fruit: gooseberry, redcurrant, cooking apple, damson, grapes (red and white)

edible flowers: nasturtium, pot marigold, cape pondweed (water hawthorn), borage

I read somewhere that dahlia tubas make a very good substitute for potatoes. You can do everything with them in the kitchen that you can do with potatoes. Furthermore they are extremely resistant to blight. finally, they are not as starchy as potatoes and so can be eaten raw like carrots, if desired.

That's worth knowing! I might get some dahlias for the Plot, then

I didn't know that. And looking it up at http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?Lat ... ia+pinnata I still don't know that. Even if they were good to eat they'd be jolly expensive.

You can also eat the roots/tubers of waterlillies.