One dwarf bean plant £6.99😱 have I read this wrong???

[Duke Ellington]

I received an email today from Thompson &Morgan surely this is a mistake!!
**Dwarf Bean 'Elegance' produces good yields of tasty slender beans that make a delicious addition to your dinner plate. Order today from ONLY £6.99!

Often known as French Beans, this crop is easy to grow and perfect for beginner growers. With a neat, compact habit they can be grown in even the smallest gardens, or a container on the patio. For the best crops, harvest regularly.

T&M's easy starter plants are delivered ready for planting at the correct time so that you can enjoy bigger, earlier and tastier vegetables. Gradually acclimatise plants to outdoor conditions over a period of 7 to 10 days prior to transplanting them outdoors.

1 x 10cm potted plant ONLY £6.99
3 x 10cm potted plants £20.97 ONLY £13.99

[Duke Ellington]

[ACE]

They have realised there are loads of people who have found their green fingers with the lockdown, they will not entice us regulars but there will be quite a few novices to be fleeced.

[Tee Gee]

Seen this sort of thing happen before and as you say Ace the regulars go elsewhere,but the seed is sown so to speak( pardon the pun) but these same suppliers often don't drop their prices when The extenuating circumstances end.

I have noticed rises like this elsewhere this year due to me losing a lot of stuff and I wanted to replace it with plug plants etc!

What we all should do after these problems have subsided is remember the companies that have taken advantage of the current situation and kick them into touch.

I have just sent for some stuff from Fothergills and their prices were quite high too,plus it is taking 3 weeks for them to deliver a couple of packets of seeds.

Anyone else finding similar practices.?

[Obelixx]

Yesterday while at the GC to buy plug plants for the potager to bridge the gap while my seeds germinate I spotted beetrrot being sold in pockets of 3 - one Choggia, one orangey yellow and one creamy yellow and literally one beetroot in each plug, not a cluster.

The price?  4€50!   Mug's game.

[markfield rover]

My Thomas Etty seeds arrived , 12 days all good and spoke with him when ordering no price "adjustment", would use again.

[Vetivert]

Whenever I see veg plugs in catalogues I end up on a 10 minute rant to the person unfortunate enough to be nearest at the time. The last catalogue I saw was before the pandemic and prices were absolutely outrageous. It just irks me on so many levels. What a crap, inefficient and expensive way to transport something that could so easily be grown from seed. Where do they find the  sociopaths coming up with the pricing? And who in their right mind is buying them??

I offered an allotment neighbour some of my seed stash because of the current difficulties with procurement. They told me 'I don't grow things from seed'. 

[ancellsfarmer]

We may need to resort to defensive measures to protect our plantings. clearly they have a market value beyond our ken. Measures such as removing plant labels, to not identify crops may help. Dummy rows of bean sticks, barbed wire entanglements, signs warning of "sprayed" to deter.
Form a platoon for night-time surveilance, early morning dog walkers beware!

[Tiny Clanger]

Well, there's profiteering....then there is profiteering. Then there is taking the proverbial. £6.99 is outrageous

[Plot22]

No Duke it's not a mistake it gets better they are selling one Broadbean for £7.99. so my row would have cost me £24.00 plus postage. I have 30 climbing French Beans that I have just set in trays in the greenhouse and they have cost me nothing this year as I have used the same packet of seeds for the last 3 years and there is still enough for next year. In the past I regularly ordered from T & M but now I order from a variety of companies some of which supply the farmers and smallholders so they have larger minimum quantities.

[Duke Ellington]

I was shocked too!! I have also noticed an increase in the price of seeds. I have been shocked at the small amount of seeds in the packet😳

Duke

[Tee Gee]

I have been shocked at the small amount of seeds in the packet😳

This has been going for quite some time now!


As some of you may know I try to get to a few Horticultural shows each year and I often call at the stall that are selling their seeds at £1 per packet.

Years ago these packets were marked down in price because they were end of season 'surplus' stock and had the regular number of seeds in them.


Then the suppliers saw a 'niche' market and had packets purposely produced with an amount of seeds in them commensurate with the price!

I think this has now extended to most seeds that are sold BUT! Now there are no reductions for end of season stock!

Is it any wonder that I more and more save seeds, take cuttings where I can or over-winter plants!


I know they have to make a profit but at what stage does pricing become "Profiteering"?

I know many of the GC's and seed/plant merchants are going through a difficult time at the moment and the name of the game seems to understandably be; Cash Flow!

These price hikes I am guessing are to compensate for this!

This I can accept if all goes back to normal when the country comes out of "Lock Down" but I won't hold my breath!


Then the next thing will be the Government will want to recoup the Furlough Expense to get the 80% salary costs back!

[Vetivert]

No Duke it's not a mistake it gets better they are selling one Broadbean for £7.99. so my row would have cost me £24.00 plus postage.

So, three plants? Hard times indeed 

[Plot22]

Sorry I meant that my row of broad beans would have cost £240.00 not £24.00 it's a maths thing that I got wrong.

[Jeannine]

I think the pricing is disgusting, seeds houses are running low here but I havent heard anything wrong about plants.as I don[t buy them I am nt sure though.

The really sad thing to me is twofold. If families are scared they won't have ebough food and turn to growing their own the prices ay be beyond their means and secondly they couod have been a family that would get interested in gardening, if burnt this way it will put them off.

I generally raise about 200 plants for our church plant sale but they decded back in February they were not likley to be doing it this year , so I didn't start them, I usally chuck in my spares too.

I oversowed my tomato seeds this year  as the varieties I chose  were coming form VERY old seed and of course I got a lot more than I need. I am going to put a sign out with freebies in a couple of weeks.

[tricia]

Me too,  Jeannine.  I've deliberately sown a lot more tomato,  squash and courgette seeds with the aim of putting the plants out on my driveway for passersby to help themselves. No outlay for seeds this year either - all seeds from last year or even older  .
As the season progresses I'll be putting out my excess produce too - as I've done for the past couple of years. Fingers crossed we'll have a good growing year!

Stay safe.

Tricia