Newbie question - why so many seeds?

:o

Okay very newbie question here lol

Why are there so many seeds in a packet e.g. I have brought some veggie seed packets and they each have about 500 seeds in them, one even has about 1050! I know some of them won't germinate, but I don't want to feed the whole nation

 

Hi Noidea.......
Don't knock it you are lucky lol.
No seriously you need a lot of carrot,onion etc. to make a decent row of veg.mostly smaller seed, or it is useful to sow a sucession so they don't all come at once.
They are much more stingy with the bigger seed though.

There is one seed company that charges per seed.......that might suit you better,not such good value though.

 

Its so you can join the gardeners corner pass the parcel seed packet exchange.

 

Its an excellent question. Would you like 450 of my lettuce seeds? I think the remaining 50 lettuces will be ample for my family for as long as the seed stays viable!

There again, I bought some Melon Bastion, supposedly the best flavoured Melon on the planet!, and I got 6 seeds for £5.25 ... I think they saw me coming!

Here's an idea. Buy 500 seeds for a quid or two. Decide you need, say, 50 lettuces. Grow all the seed and prick out into pots, and then sell them for £1 each. I reckon you will get 90% germination, so your 50 lettuces will be "for free" and you'll turn a handsome little profit too.

I'm now off to write an eBook with lots of LARGE FONTS and Colourful Lettering that you will be able to buy on eBay for modest-bucks shortly!

 

That is an idea Kristen ! It just seems a bit of a waste, maybe their is a business opportunity in starting said seed syndicate or even just a seed swap...... , or starting a company just selling lettuces lol

 

Most seeds packets will keep for a couple of years, maybe more, in a sealed Tupperware box in the fridge.

Parsnip seed germinates better when fresh (and maybe some others that the good folk here will remind me).

Even so, 500 lettuces divided by even FIVE YEARS is still way too many

 

I like lettuce ! :D

 

I think it is for successional sowing and to allow for failures to germinate.

PS great idea about joining the seed swap or seed bank thread-both do very well and everyone is happy with what they can get.

 

oh whereabouts is that thread then ??

 

Here you are


http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=17317

 

thanks!

 

No problem, , when it gets to you you will be blown away by what is in there, and in general you will find that the people on this forum are extremely generous.