Suttons Grafted on Veg

pclark42

Hi Everyone

This year I decided to have a change, I always grow my tomatoes from seed, last year they were ruined due to the blight, my attempt with Aubergines was a bit disastrous too. So while I was purchasing some seeds from Suttons I spotted the grafted on toms and aubergines, so I purchase 3 Shirley and 2 Aubergines, the Aubergines arrived first, one was snapped at the base and the other one was all twisted and distorted ( that one is still alive, just) I told Suttons and they sent me 3 more, very much the same condition on arrival, they are just surviving, but look quite sad. Then 9 yes 9 when I ordered only 3 Shirley Tomato arrived, they again were virtually all dead, out of the 9 there are 3 which may live, but the jury is out on them still, I will post pictures later, I was just wondering if anyone else has had a problem, I suspect the post handling them poorly to be the cause.

Pete.8

I'd request/demand a full refund - what you received was not what your ordered.
If the plants were damaged in the post, then they weren't packed properly in the first place to survive handling by Royal Mail.

pclark42

Quick update. Suttons replaced the 3 Aubergines which were damaged, the 3 new ones arrived looking sorry for themselves, but I repotted them quickly and they are coming along, the tomato plants, well I received 9 Shirley and 5 survived the postage, Suttons put a plastic clip over the graft and tell you do not remove the clip, however on arrival every plastic clip had already fallen off, and I was afraid to try to force them back on, so I transplanted them as deep as the graft, I had forgotten that I also ordered 3 Crimson Crush, very much the same, they are packed in translucent green plastic trays about 20 mm thick, 30 cm long and 20 cm wide, so they fit into the letterbox, I was near the door when the last lot arrived, the postman just posted them like a letter, and of course, they took a big jolt as they hit the floor. Well, I have managed to save what I require, and even given a couple away, so maybe next year I will be back to growing from seed.

Pete.8

Glad you got it sorted - in a way.
You can't beat growing your own plants from seed - there's the extra satisfaction you get that with a little help from nature you've nurtured your plant from seed to plate.
Hope you have a great harvest!

AnniD

What bad luck you had with them, glad it's sorted. I have had the grafted aubergines in the past and they were very successful. In that instance much easier than growing aubergines from seed, they always seemed to just start to fruit as Summer was coming to an end.
I'd be interested to hear what you think of them at the end of the season 

REMF33

I have had terrible issues with Suttons this year. They used to be my go-to for veg by post, and were excellent when many companies failed during the first lockdown in 2020. I have had four deliveries in the last month of plants ordered in January in which the plants have arrived in an irrevocably poor state. Damaged, small, unhealthy. I just had some beans arrive today. They were just in a box, so of course half the stems had snapped off. The other orders were tomatoes. One lot arrived in compost like dust - one plant had fallen out of the pot. Another lot had been watered, but the plants did not survive. The watering must have been an afterthought. They can't blame the delivery company as they have used different ones. I have been given refunds for two lots of plants, but not heard re the third and only just emailed re the 4th. Re the tomatoes, it was too late for a replacement, but frankly I don't want one. The tomato plants were also pusillanimous. 3 inches tall and arriving in June?!? They had clearly just been plonked (recently) in the 9cm (but not much more than 9cm deep) pots having been grown in tiny postiplugs. I have had some aubergines and peppers from them - they arrived before all the abovementioned and are ok, so Suttons seem to have gone very wrong in just the three weeks for me. But I am still underwhelmed by the size of the tomato plants sent. I was clearly paying extra for the pots and dust/compost, rather than for slightly bigger plants, as I had assumed.

REMF33

Yet another rubbish tomato plant arrived and also  a load of French beans the other week, more or less loose in the box, most of the stems of which are broken. I have been promised a replacement for the latter but don't really want one. I have done some digging around (ha!) They were taken over by T&M who also own Dobbies. T&M appear to have served multiple redundancy notices around May, which would be around when things started to go very wrong for me with them. It strikes me that there is no quality control and considerable ignorance when sending things out (badly packaged, not been watered for days, damaged and pusillanimous plants etc.) but also perhaps in other areas. Their customer service has been ok but I don't want good redress - I want good plants!

REMF33

Thought I'd give Suttons another go. Not as bad as last year, but they sill haven't got their act together and don't seem to be able to work out how to send plants without their being damaged.
Some flower plants were squished, but ok. Tomatoes and peppers in dust but so far surviving. Sweetcorn (why did I order sweetcorn?!?) in dust and mostly fallen out of packaging and badly damaged.

Ceres

Why on earth did you return to Suttons? I haven't ordered anything from them for a couple of years ever since the great spring flowering bulb debacle. The packets had the right names but the contents were a mystery. Very disappointing.