Growseed does NOT sell GMO seeds :) Our entire seed range is "GMO FREE"
To be perfectly honest, there are currently no genetically modified garden seeds on sale to the general public. Not from Growseed or any other seed supplier.
Now there are expectations to that rule however ALL seed-certified companies or those with a DEFRA registration that are regularly checked and inspected have no GMO seeds on offer to the general public.
Currently, in the UK there are no GM crops being grown commercially. Although trials are underway no GMO crops are being grown for public consumption in the UK, this did reach a step closer in September 2021 which can be read here so who knows what might happen in the future!
Our range of vegetable seed consists of the following:
Hybrid F1 seeds are produced by cross-pollinating different plants within the same species. Seeds labeled are F1 are NOT GMO seeds they are cross bread because breeders and growers alike require a plant with a specific trait, such as disease resistance.
You cannot save hybrid seeds to use the following year, storing and saving hybrid f1 seeds will result in a totally different crop the following year! Rather than a yellow courgette, you may end up with a green one for example.
Open-pollinated seeds are produced through natural pollination, without or little help from humans (sometimes in a closed environment such as a greenhouse we may aid in the pollination a little). 90% of our seed range is made up of this type of seed. You can save the seed and regrow it each year.
Heirloom seeds are open-pollinated seeds and are saved over generations. We do not currently label specific seeds as such but we do hold a few heirloom seed varieties. These can be saved and grown again each year.
Treated seeds some of our seeds are treated (we mark these as such on the packaging) they are treated to help with germination example some beetroot seeds used to be treated to avoid problems with soil born pathogens.
Finally, Organic seeds are seeds that we do not grow ourselves we buy these from an organic certified farm. These seeds are marked as ORGANIC and come with an Organic batch number, if required we can provide proof of organic certification from the supplier which is only required if you are growing on an organic farm or smallholding and producing crops for resale!
We hope that answers any questions you may have, if you still have questions please contact us.