Vegetable Seeds – Which Supplier is Cheapest in 2019?

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Latest edition of the seed price index for 2021/22 available here.

This time last year I compared vegetable seed prices across the major UK seed retailers. I did this by creating a notional basket of twelve different vegetables and gathering pricing information for each. By totalling up the price of this ‘seed basket’ for each seed supplier, and incorporating packet sizes, I calculated which seed supplier provided the cheapest 1000 seeds (on average). In 2018 the folks at seedparade.co.uk provided the cheapest seeds at £7 for 1000, whereas thompson-morgan.com charged £24.90 for 1000 seeds – a variance of 255%.

Vegetable seed catalogue

The DT Brown seed basket is up 48.94% in 2019

With the new year upon us and seed catalogues popping through letter boxes once again, it seemed sensible to reprocess the comparison task for 2019. I am of course using the same basket of seeds to see how inflation might be affecting vegetable seeds, much like the government’s RPI (Retail Price Index) I call this the SPI (Seed Price Index). Where an identical match is unavailable I select the next nearest on price and variety. It’s certainly not foolproof but does help give an indication of what you can expect to pay with each seed company.


2019 Seed Price Index (SPI)

To quickly summarise, the most expensive seeds in 2019 still come from thompson-morgan.com (£22.60 for 1000) with seedparade.co.uk remaining the cheapest (£6.80 for 1000) but what is interesting is that at both ends of the scale seeds have become cheaper. The gap between most costly and least costly has been reduced to 232%.

Seed Supplier 1000 seeds 2019 1000 seed 2018 Variance Change %
thompson-morgan.com £22.60 £24.90 -£2.30 -9.24%
dobies.co.uk £17.60 £16.10 £1.50 9.32%
realseeds.co.uk
£16.20 £16.60 -£0.40 -2.41%
suttons.co.uk £15.60 £18.80 -£3.20 -17.02%
unwins.co.uk £14.40 £13.70 £0.70 5.11%
organiccatalogue.com £14.03 £11.50 £2.53 22.00%
dtbrownseeds.co.uk £14.00 £9.40 £4.60 48.94%
pennardplants.com £13.00 £12.20 £0.80 6.56%
mr-fothergills.co.uk £11.30 £10.60 £0.70 6.60%
marshalls-seeds.co.uk £8.50 £8.10 £0.40 4.94%
kingsseeds.com £8.20 £8.80 -£0.60 -6.82%
seedparade.co.uk £6.80 £7.00 -£0.20 -2.86%

 

You may note from the above that the largest price rise came from dtbrownseeds.co.uk – up a whopping 48.94% (but still mid-priced on the table). Dobies.co.uk also increased prices by 9.32% taking them up into second place, whilst suttons.co.uk reduced prices by 17.02% at the same time – interesting because both are owned by the same company, perhaps dobies.co.uk is more of a premium brand now? The folks at organiccatalogue.com have also increased vegetable seed prices, the notional seed basket is up by 22% in 2019. Chase Organics and their organiccatalogue.com website were acquired by Dobies (Suttons) in 2018 – one assumes that there is a similar pricing strategy at play there now…


Who has the cheapest vegetable seeds by variety?

Cheapest Vegetable Seeds Seller Price Per Seed
Carrot – Fly Resistant marshalls-seeds.co.uk £0.003
Parsnip Seeds – F1 Gladiator kingsseeds.com £0.004
Swede Marian, Ruby, Tweed seedparade.co.uk £0.001
Beetroot (Boltardy) dtbrownseeds.co.uk £0.003
Pea Sugar Snap / Ann seedparade.co.uk £0.007
Runner Bean ‘Lady Di’ or Enorma seedparade.co.uk £0.039
Sweetcorn ‘Lark’ F1 Hybrid or Swift seedparade.co.uk £0.030
Sweetcorn Mini Pop or Snobaby kingsseeds.com £0.036
Pumpkin Dill’s Atlantic Giant seedparade.co.uk £0.230
Butternut Squash seedparade.co.uk £0.049
Cucumber (Burpless / Marketmore) dtbrownseeds.co.uk £0.047
Courgette ‘Soleil’ F1 Hybrid / Goldmine seedparade.co.uk £0.119

 


Who sells the most expensive vegetable seeds by variety?

Most Expensive Vegetable Seeds Seller Price Per Seed
Carrot – Fly Resistant unwins.co.uk £0.008
Parsnip Seeds – F1 Gladiator thompson-morgan.com £0.012
Swede Marian, Ruby, Tweed dobies.co.uk £0.027
Beetroot (Boltardy) suttons.co.uk £0.007
Pea Sugar Snap / Ann dtbrownseeds.co.uk £0.013
Runner Bean ‘Lady Di’ or Enorma thompson-morgan.com £0.092
Sweetcorn ‘Lark’ F1 Hybrid or Swift thompson-morgan.com £0.119
Sweetcorn Mini Pop or Snobaby thompson-morgan.com £0.119
Pumpkin Dill’s Atlantic Giant dobies.co.uk £0.490
Butternut Squash thompson-morgan.com £0.349
Cucumber (Burpless / Marketmore) thompson-morgan.com £0.299
Courgette ‘Soleil’ F1 Hybrid / Goldmine suttons.co.uk £0.500

 

>> See full vegetable pricing comparison data


Is price a lone a fair judgement?

I wrote last year that price alone is NOT the only factor to consider when purchasing seeds – germination percentage and the quality of the produce are important too. However, nobody knows what those are prior to purchase, and we all purchase on the assumption that we will have high germination and yield regardless of supplier. Only if we experience poor germination or crop yield from a particular supplier AFTER purchase might we make a decision not to repurchase the following year. So I put it to you that price will always be the dominant factor for most buyers of vegetable seeds. I’ve grown seeds from ALL of the above suppliers and never had a problem with any of them. Typically during my research I noted that you often get many more seeds per pack from the cheaper suppliers, so even if there were lower germination levels you’d still be better off.

Heritage seeds are an exception

Suppliers like pennardplants.com and realseeds.co.uk provide a service to us all, they offer unique varieties that are in theory more natural and closer to older ‘original’ crops. Not always likely to be retained by the big seed companies I like the fact that these other varieties are maintained by smaller outfits giving us future protection against food controllers. In addition it is much easier to harvest and retain seed for the following season without complication (vs F1 seed types) which saves you money in the long run. I have written a previous article about this here. I prefer to buy these heritage seeds at full price and that price is irrelevant to me (within reason). I add them into the Seed Price Index (SPI) purely for interest and it is clear that you are not paying more for these more traditional varieties – maybe you should! Everything else I am growing in 2019 was reduced to 50p a packet in the Wyevale Garden centre end of season clearance – despite their supposed expiry dates the seeds are usually good for two to three years afterwards anyway.

Beware the rogue seed companies

There are a whole host of dodgy new ‘seed companies’ out there pretending to sell rainbow coloured tomatoes, strawberries and roses. All are completely fake, many of them Chinese. Google accepts advertising revenue for these fraudulent items (I have complained twice to no avail). Again a full article on that is available here, order only if you like growing weeds thinking they are magical seeds… as a colleague of mine discovered. I know this article is all about price comparing but ALL of the companies in my SPI table are reputable vegetable seed sellers, I have tried them all, I wouldn’t gamble on anything else if it looks too good to be true, regardless of price or multi-coloured fantasy appeal.

 

 

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About Author

Matt Peskett is GrowLikeGrandad (if you want to know why read 'About the Editor). He has a few 'heavy clay' allotments and is Chairman of the Dorking Allotment Holders Association (DAHA). Matt also has a medium sized 'sandy soil' hillside garden (Italian terrace designed) and enjoys photography - especially nature. Matt takes inspiration from gardens like Hidcote and Great Dixter and enjoys watching anything on TV presented by Monty Don or Louis Theroux.

3 Comments

  1. Very Excited Gardener on

    Wow! Great article, well written. Would you mind if I steal this concept to write an article for my blog on California (USA) seed brands. I will of course give you mention?

  2. I have just read your interesting and most helpful article. As an avid gardener –

    over the years I have often wondered about seed pricing/quality – I have probably bought the majority of brands available in my area! I will now switch to Seed Parade. I have browsed their website and found that to be excellent. Many thanks for sharing your research and hoping you produce a bumper crop this year 🙂

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