"judith" wrote in message
...

I have grown Sungold tomatoes every year for about the last ten years.
I always bought seed from Thompson & Morgan - indeed, I was originally
told that they were the only people you could get them from as it was
"their" variety.

I now see that this is incorrect - and you can buy from any number of
sources - (too late from this year - already bought T&M)

I have noticed that there is great variation in the prices - eg ten
seeds for 3 pounds or thirty seeds for three pounds.

My question is : is it worth paying more for such seeds or are the
cheaper ones fine?


Over the years I have tried a lot of seed merchants. I had a bad experience
with T&M last year and would not use them again. Their seeds are expensive
and their live plants didn't do well for me (after I'd paid in 2007, they
told me that the plants I wanted wouldn't be available until a year later,
and the ones that arrived in 2007 came as small cuttings, with nothing
around their roots, so they promptly died).

We have shops like Aldi, Lidl and Wilkinson's in our area, and Wilko's seeds
are 29p a packet. You don't get many seeds, but who needs more than 10
tomato seeds of any variety? I've found their seeds very reliable. Lidl is
also good because, being a German company, they sell slightly different
things, e.g. yellow string beans, as well as the regular green ones. They
of course sell all the normal flowers and vegetable seeds.

I can recommend Franchi Italian seeds as well, they have interesting
varieties, although they're pricier. Their Cavolo Nero is to die for.

http://www.seedsofitaly.com/

If you've been growing Sungold for all these years, you should be saving
seed yourself from your tomatoes. Tomato seeds are very hardy and
long-lived, as are all the brassicas and squashes. Carrot and onion seeds
are very short-lived and not worth storing from one year to the next.

HTH

someone