I was reading one of my gardening magazines over breakfast this morning and came across this advert, my first response was WTF !! For those of you unfamiliar with this saying it is along the lines of 'oh my, what on earth is this'. ;-)
I have just done ten minutes research into this on various sites including Amazon (see HERE) and have found out that they retail for between £1.99 ad £4.59.
For £4.39 you get a tomato seed, oh sorry TWO whole tomato seeds, compost (or in their words 'growing media'), fertiliser .... the amount of fertiliser in one of these pots must be minute, and of course you get your 'seed pod'.
THUD
...... sorry, that was me falling off my chair in shock.
They are 'guaranteed to grow' but if you read the Amazon reviews from people who have tried to grow them it would seem that this does not happen very often, and I had a genuine 'laugh out loud' moment reading one of the reviews. To quote one purchaser 'package said watermelon, but it grew a zucchini plant'' now that would be amusing ... or not, as the case may be!!
On the pack and the adverts it says that all you have to do is 'plant, water, enjoy', it mentions nothing of potting up into larger pots, feeding the plants once they start fruiting, nipping off side shoots, tying the plants to a support etc etc etc...... I see lots of disappointed people, especially children who will give up gardening after the first few failures and go back to buying cheap tasteless supermarket offerings instead, thinking they just can't grow successfully ..... or maybe that's the plan!!
I don't think I'll be giving this a go even as a daft trial, after all for not much more money you can buy a bag of compost, a full packet of seeds and a carton of tomato food (which is an excellent fertiliser and plant food for all sorts of fruits and vegetables).
When I want seed pods I get out my toilet roll cardboard inners and use them ... they are 100% biodegradable. This photo is my version of seed pods growing right now in the polytunnel. Lots more food for lots less money.
Please let me know if you decide to give these a go as I would love to hear if they are any good.
Sue xx
