Grow Your Own Magazine

Anyone bought seeds off Ebay? Just been looking, and wouldn't mind the pre-packeted varieties, but wondering whether or not to take the plunge with seeds Ebayers have saved themselves. Anyone got experience of this and what the germination rates might be like compared to commercially produced and packaged seeds?

A friend bought asparagus from one of the "heirloom" seed companies on the web, however, I've heard bad reports from another forum about that company. Alan Romans at Potato Day (Ryton) was selling seeds in just the foil packets (50p each). My son bought 4 packets of flower seeds.

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I've bought lots of seeds (and plants) off ebay, here and in the US. Before I buy I try to check whether the seeds are 'self-saved' or packeted, whether the sellers are amateur growers or pros, and what the sellers Feedback is like - finally I check the price with google.

Even with self-saved seeds I've not had a problem. Got a great bargain from the States one time, 40 pkts of organic seeds for £8 (out of date but still good).

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

Is it not illegal to sell self-saved seeds? I think the seeds companies has legal requirements and obligations of some sort to meet with EU policies/guidelines. It did not occur to me some of these eBay seeds on sale could be self-saved seeds but I gather seeds from Dave's Gardens are not saved by him though.

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Food for Free

Dunno.

Don't care.

I've got some very nice agastache and another purple plant the name of which I've forgotten.

Edit - oh and some Kew Blue french beans.

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

carnt see why its illegal and same as blue planet i dont care. i have bought loads of some old bloke called ted(yhg1945) who saves all his own. have never had any problems

I've bought self saved lemon cucumber seeds and they were fantastic. However I bought some watermelon seeds and paid £1.99 for them only to discover that they were actually 22p from Lidl. I don't mind bending EU rules as I think they're a bit silly but my Mum in law bought some tomato seeds labeled as organic which were self saved and had no certification.

Only asked just to find out if anyone can just sell their self-saved seeds on eBay without worrying about the legal implications. Just that I've also heard that some of the recent hybrid fruit bushes are royalty protected which means you can't multi-propagate them (from cuttings) unless they're for your garden use only...as if you can stop anybody anyway. However I think eBay is pretty unregulated anyway for small time home garden seed sellers and we can't be regulated like the big boys until the big boys start complaining.

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Food for Free

as i said i have no idea but your right the big boys will soon stop the people who are just doing it to pay for there hobby or to make a few beer tokens

Hi
I've not tried seeds yet but I've bought a number of plants from ebay and they've all been very good. Some are from businesses and some from people who've made cuttings, split plants up etc. Got a very decent Victoria plum for £6 cheaper than Ken Muir was offering.
Sue