I presume that they know a thing or two

These days the packaging on seeds is less than honest - everything is wonderful heavy cropping with fantastic flavour and quality

err.. the reality is different..

As farmers grow for supermarkets i presume they grwo the best varities - at least in terms of crop and disease resistance

Maybe we could list the varieties here if anyone knows

In article , ZeroZero.98f3236
@gardenbanter.co.uk says...

I presume that they know a thing or two

These days the packaging on seeds is less than honest - everything is
wonderful heavy cropping with fantastic flavour and quality

err.. the reality is different..

As farmers grow for supermarkets i presume they grwo the best varities -
at least in terms of crop and disease resistance

and, in terms of tough thick skins to withstand mechanical harvesting
and long distance transport to point of sale. To farmers tender flesh is a
disadvantage not a virtue; so are lumpy shapes or uneven ripening rates.
Commercial producers seek a uniform growth pattern for tending/picking by
machine, which will all be ripe at the same time.

Janet

Priorities for growing for supermarkets include uniformity, large size, and cropping all at the same time to save on harvesting costs.

For the domestic grower, taste is more important, and it is more useful to have the cropping spread over a period, to avoid gluts.

The domestic grower is more likely than the farmer to be trying to grow something which is not necessarily suited to his conditions.

All this means that finding out the commercial varieties may not give you the results you expect. More useful is likely to be find other gardeners in your area with similar growing conditions and see which varieties they find work for them.

"ZeroZero" wrote in message
...

I presume that they know a thing or two

These days the packaging on seeds is less than honest - everything is
wonderful heavy cropping with fantastic flavour and quality

err.. the reality is different..

As farmers grow for supermarkets i presume they grwo the best varities -
at least in terms of crop and disease resistance

Maybe we could list the varieties here if anyone knows


err.....
Are you saying that food bought in the supermarket is better tasting than
home grown?
In which case, why do we bother?

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

No I am not saying that. But I am saying that (given the caveats above) that often the varities are high yield and fast growing

Looke everyone I know there are pros and cons, but what I am after is the names of varieties.

I grew some brussles last year - in excellent conditions - the sprouts were few on the stem and did not grow large.
Buying a stalk from a supermarket its packed with large size sprouts and they tasted fine to me

What was the variety?

Try googling commercial vegetable seed variety

This company sells seeds to the commercial market:
Brussel Sprouts | Tozer Seeds

On Jan 20, 11:00*pm, kay wrote:
ZeroZero;947664 Wrote:

No I am not saying that. But I am saying that (given the caveats above)
that often the varities are high yield and fast growing

Looke everyone *I know there are pros and cons, but what I am after is
the names of varieties.

I grew some brussles last year - in excellent conditions - the sprouts
were few on the stem and did not grow large.
Buying a stalk from a supermarket its packed with large size sprouts and
they tasted fine to me

What was the variety?

Try googling commercial vegetable seed variety

This company sells seeds to the commercial market:
'Brussel Sprouts | Tozer Seeds' (http://tinyurl.com/74m3e4u)

--
kay

Or you could keep a couple of sprouts and root them, grow them on and
let them flower and then collect the seed.

thank you exactly what I need

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:56:28 +0000, ZeroZero
wrote:


I presume that they know a thing or two

These days the packaging on seeds is less than honest - everything is
wonderful heavy cropping with fantastic flavour and quality

err.. the reality is different..

As farmers grow for supermarkets i presume they grwo the best varities -
at least in terms of crop and disease resistance

Maybe we could list the varieties here if anyone knows

You could try the main commercial suppliers such as Elsoms or Lima but
I don't know if they supply in limited quantities. From memory Edwin
Tuckers do sell non-commercial amounts.
--
rbel

"ZeroZero" wrote in message
...

No I am not saying that. But I am saying that (given the caveats above)
that often the varities are high yield and fast growing

Looke everyone I know there are pros and cons, but what I am after is
the names of varieties.

I grew some brussles last year - in excellent conditions - the sprouts
were few on the stem and did not grow large.
Buying a stalk from a supermarket its packed with large size sprouts and
they tasted fine to me

What was the variety?


Are you sure that it is the variety that is the problem, and not your method
of culture?
You would probably be better off asking gardeners near you which varieties
they grow.

This stalk from the supermarket - do you know where it was grown?
It may be suited to an area which has different soil, temperature, rainfall
etc. from yours.
Assuming it was grown in the UK.
It may also have been subject to a commercial regime of chemical weed
killers, fertilising, watering which did not match your attempt.

How many varieties of brussels have you tried, over how many years?
With how many different methods of culture?
It seems a bit simplistic to assume that you did everything right, the
conditions were ideal, so any failure must be the result of using the wrong
seed.

Assuming that there is a farm near you growing brussels, then why not go and
ask the farmer about varieties and method of culture?

If nobody near you is growing brussels commercially then this might be an
indicator that your area is not ideal for this crop.

You have given us very little information about what you did - area of the
country, soil type, aspect, varieties grown, planting time, fertilisation
etc.

All you seem to have stated is that the commercial brussels you have seen in
the shops are better than the ones you grew, plus the conclusion that this
must be because the farmers are somehow getting better seeds than those
available to non-commercial gardeners.

You may well be happy in your own mind that you have answered all these
questions before posting the query, but it is not helping us to help you
find a better vaiety of brussel to plant.

To reiterate - the stalk you bought may have been grown somewhere far from
you under completely different environmental conditions.
To use the same seed in a different environment will not guarantee you the
same result as a commercial farmer.

Cheers

Dave R

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

[I did not post to get into a debate about these things I just wanted to know the varities. Of course htere are variables in this

Dave wrote:
Or you could keep a couple of sprouts and root them, grow them on and
let them flower and then collect the seed.

On Jan 21, 9:29*am, ZeroZero
wrote:
thank you exactly what I need

I wuold have thought farmers mostly grow F1 types.


NT

On Jan 21, 3:45*pm, NT wrote:
Dave wrote:

Or you could keep a couple of sprouts and root them, grow them on and
let them flower and then collect the seed.

On Jan 21, 9:29*am, ZeroZero
wrote:

thank you exactly what I need

I wuold have thought farmers mostly grow F1 types.

NT



Yes many do , but if you grow from the sprouts you will get an F2
cross,
F2 stock will vary more, your get maybe 3-4 plants out of 10 seeds
that will be true to the parent, the rest will take after one or other
of the parents of the origional cross.
Well worth trying though..

Well, unfortunately you're posting to a newsgroup which was founded for general chat about gardening in the UK. As you'll see from any of the other threads, there's no guarantee that we'll keep even remotely on the topic of the original question ;-)

In article , ZeroZero.990d817
@gardenbanter.co.uk says...

[I did not post to get into a debate about these things I just wanted to
know the varities. Of course htere are variables in this

Well, this is a discussion group anyone can contribute to and you have
no control over what other people say.

The other option is finding out answers for yourself.

Janet.