Real or Heritage seeds ?

[fumanchu]

I want to plant a lot more veg in the garden this year, mainly onions, carrots, and tatties. Is there any point or advantage in me choosing sites like Real Seeds, or will ordinary seeds do the same job ?

[Green Aura]

Real Seeds is great if you want to harvest your own seeds.

Many other companies sell seeds from hybrid plants. So if you collect seed from them they probably won't grow true the next year.

[Annpan]

I'd say it is worth buying from Real Seeds or another heritage seeds company if you want more interesting varieties and/or you want to save your own seed.

Real seeds don't do potatoes or big onions (though their 'bunching onions' are fantabulous) So for us it is usually a mid-march panic visit to homebase.

If you are more of a beginner, or on more of a budget I would recommend lidl for seeds, or scrounge some seeds off of a willing donor. In an ideal world we would maybe all be growing heritage varieties but the initial seed outlay can be expensive, seed saving is a daunting and complex task for a beginner, and we mostly want to start out with the supermarket varieties that we all recognise.

Last year there was a company offering a multi pack of heritage seeds for £15 or £25 but it was a scam so watch out for them.

[fumanchu]

ok , best start with Lidl I think ! I did a few things last year, the carrots failed, the lettuce failed, - but the potatoes, tomatoes, and the few onions I tried did well. This year we are going to try a lot more... if either of us hav e the strength and energy to do it!

[indy]

Just as an aside, victoriana nursery are great for heritage seeds, not had a failiure from them yet and they are fairly reasonable prices