Which Seed Catalogue Offers the Best Value?

Comparing Seed Catalogue Prices

Gardening Tip – For the week 6^th  Nov. – 13 Nov.

The enjoyment of perusing seed catalogues is a pleasure which fills many a winter evening for us gardeners! I have always wondered if there is a large difference in price between the major catalogues. So although I have my favourite catalogues that I buy from every year, I decided to order seed catalogues from a few more suppliers to compare one with the other.  The task was much more difficult than expected! It is easy to compare the price of a hedge cutter from different stores as long as you have the same model, but when it comes to vegetable seeds there are so many varieties that comparison becomes nearly impossible. Here is a list of problems which confronted me:

• You obviously cannot compare seed prices like for like, unless they are the same variety. Seed companies have a tendency to change the name of varieties even though I am sure they are nearly all the same –take pumpkin seeds for example – I found jack in the box, jack be little, jack o’ lantern, and jack of all trades – leaving me as a master of not knowing the difference between any of them!
• Another problem is the word ‘organic ‘ as any catalogue can sell you a seed for double the normal price claiming it has been grown organically and therefore fetches a higher price(why? I suppose they cost more to produce – do they really?), but even the word organic can have many meanings as Organic Certification does not have the clearest of guide lines (farmers that cannot find organic seed are legally allowed to use non – organic seed and still call their produce organic, so who can verify that organic seed is organic?).
• Some varieties of plant do not set as many seed and in turn raise the cost of the seed.
• Then we have F1 varieties which are more costly to produce, (I suppose).
• Even if you do find exactly the same variety in both catalogues, since each company have a different count of seeds, a packet costing 95p with 80 seeds is really more expensive than a packet costing £1.20 with 100 seeds, so after examining the price of the packet I had to calculate the price per seed as well!
• Some seed companies boast that their seeds are vigorously tested for high viability and that means that they are selling better seed – but I believe that all reputable companies today are selling quality seed .

After many hours poring over my seed catalogues, I found two catalogues with 20 common varieties – Kings and D. T Brown. I have produced a table for comparison purposes.

The first column is the price per packet the second the amount of seeds in the packet and the third the price per seed.

		Kings.				D.T Brown.
		Packet price (pence)	Seed count	SeedPrice		Packet price (pence)	Seed count	SeedPrice
Aubergine Moneymaker		200	50	4		199	30	6.6
Beetroot Cylindra		100	275	0.4		149	300	0.5
B. Sprouts Maximus F1		295	30	9.8		379	40	9.5
Bean Bunyard		140	50	2.8		199	65	3.1
Bean French The Prince		150	125	1.2		239	150	1.6
Cabbage January King		95	500	0.2		99	450	0.2
Carrot Flyaway		205	500	0.4		249	750	0.3
Courgette Defender		200	10	20		219	10	22
Cucumber Carmen		235	4	59		399	5	80
Cucumber La diva		190	25	7.6		199	20	10
Cucamelon		145	20	7.3		199	30	6.6
Melon Emir		150	10	15		179	15	12
Rainbow Chard		155	125	1.2		199	125	1.6
Sweetcorn Lark		180	50	3.6		219	35	6.3
Sweet corn swift		195	50	3.9		239	35	6.8
Tomato Sungold		255	10	26		299	15	20
Tomato shirley		250	15	17		299	15	20
Tomato Tumbler		240	12	20		299	10	30
Squash Hunter		195	15	13		199	10	20
TOTAL		3575	1876	211		4461	2110	256

 

If you were to buy all these packets at D. T. Brown it would cost £44.61 whilst at Kings it would only cost £35.75, it is true that you would only be getting 1,876 seeds instead of 2,110 at D.T. Brown, but the last column shows us that the overall price is still cheaper at Kings, and if it would be possible to buy just one seed of each variety, the cost would be £2.56 at Brown’s but only £2.11 at Kings.

 

I did find that these are the cheapest of the seed catalogues that I had, as it can be seen from the comparison chart below where I have included a few of the other catalogues.

		Kings			Dobies			D.T. Brown			Suttons
		Packet	Count	Seed	Packet	Count	Seed	Packet	Count	Seed	Packet	Count	Seed
Cucamelon		145	20	7.25	279	20	14	199	30	6.6	249	20	12.45
Rainbow Chard		155	125	1.24	179	100	1.79	199	125	1.6	279	90	3.1
Tomato Sungold		255	10	25.5	299	10	29.9	299	15	20	299	10	29.9
Tomato Tumbler		240	12	20	279	8	34.9	299	10	30	299	7	42.71
Squash Hunter		195	15	13	249	12	20.8	199	10	20	399	12	33.25

TOTAL    pence   per seed                      66.99                              101.39                         78.2                              121.41

Obviously there are many other factors to take into consideration, postage is only 95p at D.T.Brown and £1.50 at Kings, whilst most others firms charge £1.99. You might also prefer a certain seed catalogue as it gives more growing information or you enjoy the glossy pictures!

One item which had large variation in price was Elephant Garlic

		Kings			Dobies			D.T. Brown			Suttons
		Packet	Count	Seed	Packet	Count	Seed	Packet	Count	Seed	Packet	Count	Seed
Elephant Garlic		895	10	90	599	4	150	1195	10	120	599	4	150

 

I could not include shop bought seed, as most shops only begin selling during the early months of the year but shops tend to be dearer then the catalogues besides for discount supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi who sell seeds at rock-bottom prices and I have had very good experience with their seeds  – but one can hardly use them in a comparison table to as they mainly have foreign varieties!

Verdict for the Cheapest Seed Catalogue

Kings definitely seems the overall cheapest seed catalogue with D.T.Brown a close runner up, but cost is not the only significance when choosing seed – varieties that claim to have better qualities is definitely something to look out for.

Being a gardener and not an accountant, I decided to put my calculator away – stop all these calculations, and go to my allotment for a breath of fresh air!!

Boris Legarni .