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#1
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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? |
#2
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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" |
#3
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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 |
#4
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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 |
#5
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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 |
#6
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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" |
#7
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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" |
#8
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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. |
#9
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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 -- __________ |im |yler http://timtyler.org/ Remove lock to reply. |
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