Why do seed packets have so many seeds
 

Just bough some Agrostema "Corncockle" for £1.55 to find it has 200 seeds. I
only need a dozen plants. Why do you get so many seeds that you do not use
them. Would it not be better to buy smaller quantityies for a lower price?

In article , Colin Jacobs
writes
Just bough some Agrostema "Corncockle" for £1.55 to find it has 200 seeds. I
only need a dozen plants. Why do you get so many seeds that you do not use
them. Would it not be better to buy smaller quantityies for a lower price?

Most of the price of the seeds is the cost of growing the parent plants,
the labour of harvest, packaging, advertising, sending out in response
to orders, etc.

Reducing the number of seeds to a tenth would not have a great effect on
the viable cost that you could charge.


--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 16:42:17 GMT, "Colin Jacobs"
wrote:

Just bough some Agrostema "Corncockle" for £1.55 to find it has 200 seeds. I
only need a dozen plants. Why do you get so many seeds that you do not use
them. Would it not be better to buy smaller quantityies for a lower price?

I guess most of the cost goes on marketing and packaging, so less
seeds in the packet would not be any cheaper. I agree with you that it
seems like waste when you get so many more than you need. Can you find
friends to give them to?


Pam in Bristol

In article , Pam Moore
writes
On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 16:42:17 GMT, "Colin Jacobs"
wrote:

Just bough some Agrostema "Corncockle" for £1.55 to find it has 200 seeds. I
only need a dozen plants. Why do you get so many seeds that you do not use
them. Would it not be better to buy smaller quantityies for a lower price?

I guess most of the cost goes on marketing and packaging, so less
seeds in the packet would not be any cheaper. I agree with you that it
seems like waste when you get so many more than you need. Can you find
friends to give them to?


Pam in Bristol


I found had loads of seeds over as well so I am starting up a stand at
the Gardening Club where we can swap the packets. This ay we get to try
something we wouldn't normally have bought and we don't waster the
seeds. Mind you, many seeds will germinate even if stored for a couple
of years or more.
Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 22:31:36 +0100, Janet Tweedy
wrote:

In article , Pam Moore
writes
On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 16:42:17 GMT, "Colin Jacobs"
wrote:

Just bough some Agrostema "Corncockle" for £1.55 to find it has 200 seeds. I
only need a dozen plants. Why do you get so many seeds that you do not use
them. Would it not be better to buy smaller quantityies for a lower price?

I guess most of the cost goes on marketing and packaging, so less
seeds in the packet would not be any cheaper. I agree with you that it
seems like waste when you get so many more than you need. Can you find
friends to give them to?


Pam in Bristol


I found had loads of seeds over as well so I am starting up a stand at
the Gardening Club where we can swap the packets. This ay we get to try
something we wouldn't normally have bought and we don't waster the
seeds. Mind you, many seeds will germinate even if stored for a couple
of years or more.

I think they last a lot longer than a couple of years. I believe
anything up to 10 years is fairly normal, and ages of 20 or more years
not unusual. The record is about 50 years for tomato seed, apparently.

MM

In article , MM
writes
On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 22:31:36 +0100, Janet Tweedy
wrote:

I found had loads of seeds over as well so I am starting up a stand at
the Gardening Club where we can swap the packets. This ay we get to try
something we wouldn't normally have bought and we don't waster the
seeds. Mind you, many seeds will germinate even if stored for a couple
of years or more.

I think they last a lot longer than a couple of years. I believe
anything up to 10 years is fairly normal, and ages of 20 or more years
not unusual. The record is about 50 years for tomato seed, apparently.

It depends on the type of seed and what they are adapted to in the wild.

The cornfield poppy, for example, needs bare ground to germinate because
it's not very good at competing with existing vegetation, so its seeds
are designed to remain dormant in the soil for very many years until
such time as they are brought to the surface by ploughing, roadworks or
whatever.

Other seeds may go off very quickly - for example parsley and parsnip.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

One years seed--- seven years weed.
"Kay" wrote in message
...
In article , MM
writes
On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 22:31:36 +0100, Janet Tweedy
wrote:

I found had loads of seeds over as well so I am starting up a stand at
the Gardening Club where we can swap the packets. This ay we get to try
something we wouldn't normally have bought and we don't waster the
seeds. Mind you, many seeds will germinate even if stored for a couple
of years or more.

I think they last a lot longer than a couple of years. I believe
anything up to 10 years is fairly normal, and ages of 20 or more years
not unusual. The record is about 50 years for tomato seed, apparently.

It depends on the type of seed and what they are adapted to in the wild.

The cornfield poppy, for example, needs bare ground to germinate because
it's not very good at competing with existing vegetation, so its seeds
are designed to remain dormant in the soil for very many years until
such time as they are brought to the surface by ploughing, roadworks or
whatever.

Other seeds may go off very quickly - for example parsley and parsnip.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

MM wrote:
On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 22:31:36 +0100, Janet Tweedy
wrote:

In article , Pam Moore
writes
On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 16:42:17 GMT, "Colin Jacobs"
wrote:

Just bough some Agrostema "Corncockle" for £1.55 to find it has
200 seeds. I only need a dozen plants. Why do you get so many
seeds that you do not use them. Would it not be better to buy
smaller quantityies for a lower price?

I guess most of the cost goes on marketing and packaging, so less
seeds in the packet would not be any cheaper. I agree with you
that
it seems like waste when you get so many more than you need. Can
you find friends to give them to?


Pam in Bristol


I found had loads of seeds over as well so I am starting up a
stand
at the Gardening Club where we can swap the packets. This ay we
get
to try something we wouldn't normally have bought and we don't
waster the seeds. Mind you, many seeds will germinate even if
stored
for a couple of years or more.

I think they last a lot longer than a couple of years. I believe
anything up to 10 years is fairly normal, and ages of 20 or more
years
not unusual. The record is about 50 years for tomato seed,
apparently.

Field poppies phenomenally durable, too. Wouldn't bet on it with
parsnip or parsley, though!

--
Mike.

MM wrote or quoted:

I think they last a lot longer than a couple of years. I believe
anything up to 10 years is fairly normal, and ages of 20 or more years
not unusual. The record is about 50 years for tomato seed, apparently.

``Scientists studying the origins of life have germinated the oldest known
seed ever found -- a 1,200-year-old lotus seed from China. [...]

Shen-Miller obtained seven lotus seeds from the Chinese village of
Pulantien in 1982 from the Beijing Institute of Botany. She determined
the dates of six of them and germinated four of them. The oldest was
calculated to be 1,288 years old, give or take 271 years. The youngest
was 95 years old. [...]''

- http://www.flowerpictures.net/lotus/lotus_seeds.htm
--
__________
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