Kitchen Garden Forum

I did a bit of a seed trial this year because I was testing brands for our allotment shop. I sowed two rows of Avonresister parsnips a couple of feet apart in the same way on the same day. One row was Unwins the other Simpsons. I later thinned them, on the same day to the same distance, weeded a bit and watched 'em grow. It was clear from early on that the Simpsons were getting away much more quickly and by mid-season they were twice as tall and lively as the Unwins. On Saturday I dug up four sample parsnips from each row. The Unwins were OK'ish, a bit puny and only the top couple of inches was fat enough to be interesting. The Simpsons were whoppers - with plenty more to come. I only needed three of them to do enough roast parsnips for four greedy diners on Sunday night. I guess it must be something to do with the fact that the Simpsons are British bred and perhaps in soil very like my own and I'm not sure where Unwins parsnips were bred (abroad somewhere?) Anyhow, I don't work for Simpsons or anything, I just thought I'd share that with you. An interesting experiment.

Dear Giulia, i have often wondered if the seed from different companies varies, it certainly seems to prove it in this case.

Just as a matter of interest, Unwins are based in a village called Impington (or possibly Histon, as the trwo villages are side by side and the boundary is rather wayward), just north of Cambridge, near to where I live. Interestingly, not all garden centres near here stock their seeds.
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Granny

I've no wish to knock Unwins, I've had many a satisfactory crop from their seed, but I must say this year all the stuff I had from Simpson's did exceptionally well, super peas and beans. I noticed Monty Don nursing one of their packets on TV last week.

Dear Giulia, i used to use Unwins for all my seeds, but i found that they were getting very exspensive. So i started looking around and i couldn't believe the variation in prices between the different companies.
I have to say Unwins seeds always seemed to be of the best quality though.