Fruit and vegetable shortages have caused a rush of people wanting to grow their own, according to the Royal Horticultural Society.

The RHS said searches on its website’s fruit and vegetable pages are up 70 per cent compared to this time last year as would-be growers read up on how to start their own vegetable patches.

It said vegetable seed sales are also up 20 per cent, with seed potatoes up 44.5 per cent and onion bulbs 42.2 per cent.

Particularly popular are salad potatoes, with sales of Salad Blue, supposedly the most blight-resistant variety, up 136 per cent.

Several supermarkets have introduced limits to vegetable sales.

Lidl joined Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Aldi in imposing customer purchase limits on tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers this week.

Farming Minister Mark Spencer called in supermarket bosses to explain what action they are taking to keep the shelves stocked.

Mr Spencer said: ‘I have asked retailers to look again at how they work with our farmers and how they buy fruit and vegetables, to further build preparedness for these unexpected incidents.’

Guy Barter, the RHS’s chief horticulturalist said: ‘People don’t feel the vegetables they want will necessarily be available and if they are available, they will become very expensive compared to what they were and not so long ago.

‘So it’s a strong motivation for people who fancy trying to handle growing some to get started.’

While a packet of tomato seeds could cost well under £1 particularly at discount stores such as Wilko, keen gardeners could even collect seeds from their own tomatoes ‘and still get a good crop’, Mr Barter said.

While growing tomatoes may appeal, as a ‘reality check’, results won’t be an instant fix.

Mr Barter said: ‘Tomatoes in Britain, even in a greenhouse, you’re only going to get them from July to October. Outdoors, it’s going to be August and September. But having said that, you get a very good crop from a few plants in most years in Britain, and they are well worth growing.

‘The only slightly difficult thing about growing tomatoes is pricking out seedlings, but if the would-be veg grower does not fancy that, it is possfible to buy tomato plants already potted from garden centres, or plug plants from the internet.’

For quicker results, mustard and cress can be ready in just two weeks.

He added: ‘And, if you’re living in the south at any rate, or if you’ve got a greenhouse or some similar thing, you can start sowing quick growing things like lettuces, baby carrots, baby beetroot salad onions, and they will be ready come June, so not so long.’ Mr Barter said that while he is very sorry the vegetable industry is having difficulties, ‘there’s no reason why gardeners shouldn’t supplement the supermarket supplies by growing their own.

Mr Barter said that although Therese Coffey’s remarked we might ‘cherish turnips’ at this time of year, in his view turnips were not really a February vegetable as they can get damaged by frost, but closely related swedes are a better choice for the winter.

‘They are delicious when there’s a golf ball sized and you can see them all through the spring and summer, and they are usually ready about 90 to 120 days later.

‘Therese Coffey would have been better off saying cherish swedes, because swedes are the winter vegetable, while turnips are ready a bit earlier on.’