Thursday, March 15, 2012

Saving Seeds? Good or Bad idea?

 A gorgeous watermelon full of seeds. Can they be saved and planted next year? The answer lies here; was the watermelon grown from 'hybrid' seed, or 'open pollinated' seed? Hybrid seeds are a cross between two parents, and are referred to as F1 hybrids, for 'first parentage.' Then there are also F2 hybrids which have multiple parents, a blended family, F2=hybrid 2nd generation! Hybrids are created by human intervention.

Hypothetical: Let's say this watermelon is 'Jade Star.' Jade Star's parents are Crimson Sweet & Allsweet both open pollinated types. When Crimson & Allsweet are manually cross pollinated by humans, they create a melon with  Jade Star seeds in it. Confused yet? Then the melon with the Jade Star seeds in it, is processed and packaged as Jade Star for the consumer. Now you buy the Jade Star seeds, and grow your own melons. However, the seeds from your melons will not produce Jade Star again but some mixture of the parentage and may not even be edible.

So the simple answer is NO, you cannot collect & use seeds from hybrid plants, and it will always say on the label if it is a hybrid.

The answer is YES, you can collect and plant seeds from open-pollinated types, sometimes called Heritage or Heirloom as well. If it doesn't say on the label, then you can assume it's one of these types.

 
 Open pollinated is the 'original plant.' It will drop it's seed and reproduce the same forever without human intervention. I've always wanted to leave a heirloom garden in place for 2+ years, unattended - and see what if anything it would re-produce on it's own. Maybe this year? Some folks only like this type. Note to self: these types also have less disease resistance than hybrids. And thats what usually gets our tomatoes every year. Blights & wilts. =(
I prefer to buy seed, and never make an attempt to save. Frankly in the fall, I do not have time to spend hours collecting, washing and drying, packing & labeling seeds I can buy for a few bucks. And, purchased seed has always been tested. Can't afford a failure when it's your buisness.

Why Hybrids? For example; a tomato with supersweetness is crossed with a tomato known to have
great tolerance to plant diseases, then bred again with one that has naturally good shipping qualties, and one the ripens early in the season. Hybrid seed is always more expensive due to the process involved. The majority of our plants are hybrids - the best of the best. PLEASE post some garden questions in the comment box, I would love to hear from you.
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3 comments:

  1. sue's simple thingsMarch 16, 2012 at 11:48 AM

    Diane, my wonderful husband is thinking of building me a raised bed vegetable garden as opposed to the one I have had at ground level. Save my back! What are the pro's and con's to this and any pointers you can give us?

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  2. Diane DunhamMarch 16, 2012 at 3:48 PM

    Garden beds are the best Sue. Here's why: When you make a raised bed, you are filling it will soil, some from the garden, some from a bag or whatever. When you dig and move garden soil, you break its natural capillary system for air and water exchange. So, the nice fluffy garden bed you have for 1-3 years, will soon be hard as concrete. If you must, then add lots of vermiculite or perlite,finished compost worms - lots of worms to recreate the capillary system. The beds looks nice, but are not that functional. I have tried them 1 too many times myself.

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  3. sue's simple thingsMarch 19, 2012 at 8:52 PM

    Thanks. So your saying it will be good for the first few years then will turn hard unless we use vermiculite, perlite and compost worms. I think I will experiment with a small box here and another up north.

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