What changes can we make to our lives to deal with the economic and energy crises ahead? Have you already started making preparations? Got tips to share?
hardworkinghippy wrote:I don't know about the service, but I got a few packets of seeds for Christmas last year from a friend from Real seeds.
I then gave a friend half of the seeds from each packet. The germination rate was almost 100% so I shared out a few of the plants and still had plenty of Romanesco, sprouting Broccoli and Chillis for us.
You lucky thing having a propagator - I have to wait for my compost to warm up a bit in the cold frame or start them on the windowsill and there's always a danger they'll be leggy if I can't get them somewhere safe to continue their growth. I may wait until this really cold windy spell is over, it's bitter here - they'll soon catch up.
Erik, we use a lot of chillis because here in France we have to do home made curries (They're never the same as East London ones though ) and chilli sauces for couscous and I bottle a lot of chilli chutneys to give away to friends.
leroy wrote:Anyone got their seeds delivered yet from the link provided by Dinor?
Guess it takes a while to ship from Oregon and I'm being impatient...
Sorry I am late answering, just got back from a trip.
Well I was warned! No seeds and no answers to emails!!!!
I guess they are rip off merchants after all. Roguelands sounds about right/
Thanks for letting us know Dinor - you must be very er... "cabreado", to put it mildly. I hope as many people here as possible spread the word on these scammers.
Erik wrote: Thanks for letting us know Dinor - you must be very er... "cabreado", to put it mildly. I hope as many people here as possible spread the word on these scammers.
I just tried to report them to paypal and got this response from them:-
Thank you for registering your complaint about this transaction. Unfortunately, this type of transaction is not eligible for PayPal dispute resolution. We encourage you to continue to work directly with your seller, as we have found that many misunderstandings reach amicable solutions through communication.
So I suppose they have got it pretty well stitched up.
Thanks for the Spanish gardening link Erik, will take a look later.
I've used real seeds for the first time this year after buying from http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/ in previous years. No complaints about the latters product, I just liked the sound of real seeds.
Here's a question:
I had thought that the reason for buying heirloom seeds is that most of the seeds (at least in the US) are hybrid and thus the second generation seeds derived from the initial planting won't work very well.
In my experience (in the UK) the seeds I have planted have given pretty good second generation seeds even though I have bought my seeds from B&Q. What gives?
The reason for buying Heirloom Seeds is that they are definately NOT hybrid and will breed true through successive generations. Of course you have to make sure cabbages for instance don't mix with brussells etc. or you will get crosses.
In UK seeds that will not breed true are labelled F1.
Others should breed true.
The heirloom bit, is about seeds for which no-one has paid the fees to have the seed variety registered for public sale. As these fees are high so it's not worth breeders registering all varieties.
Seed collections such as those from Real Seeds ( www.realseeds.co.uk ) get round this by charging a membership fee, so you are contributing to their seed bank when you "buy" seeds. So technically their varieties don't need to be registered for public sale.
Read what they say on their site. The have some good info and a good argument against GM
) and chilli sauces for couscous and I bottle a lot of chilli chutneys to give away to friends.
