F1 Hybrid ??

[stupo74]

Hi all, can anybody please explain, about F1 hybrids, i have read somewhere, that if you collect seeds from them, that it wont come true, does this mean they dont germinate/grow at all ??, dont produce seed ?? or something to do with colour? cheers in advance.........stupo74

[Lesley Jay]

It's to do with genes. F1's have been selectively bred for generations to ensure that any genes carrying the characteristics that breeders don't want in a plant have been bred out. Seeds saved from an F1 plant will produce plants but they will not grow true, in other words they will not all be identical to the parent plant. A percentage will be identical but the remainder will grow to all shapes and sizes. The only way to produce identical plants is to know exactly which plant the breeders used as the pollen parent plant and which plant was the seed parent plant then cross these.

I hope that makes sense!

[stupo74]

Hi Lesley, thanks for the reply. You said in your reply that some percentage of the plants produced would be identical, and the rest would be all shapes and sizes. If i keep seed from the identical plants, would the results be the same?? (only a certain percentage again of indentical plants) or would they all be the same. hope this makes sense to you cheers paul (stupo 74)

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Paul, if you save the seeds from an F1 variety and sow them that generation then becomes an F2. If you save the seeds from the F2 the next generation will become F3. Each year there will be a percentage that are not true to type but by only saving the seeds from the plants and vegetables that show the characteristics that you want to keep in the variety I think that eventually over the generations you will breed out the bad characteristics.

[stupo74]

Hi again Lesley, Thanks very much for the detailed information you have provided me with, i now get the idea. Hopefully i will now be able to single out the certain strain that i want, over the period of the next several seasons, thanks again paul (stupo74)

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Paul, to avoid cross pollination from the plants displaying characteristics that you don't want I would pull up any plants that just don't look right - poor growth, wrong leaf shape etc. If you grow all the F2 seeds the first year you will know what the bad characteristics are and then hopefully in the following years you will be able to spot the bad plants early.

If you wanted to try vegetables then tomatoes, french beans and peas are all sef pollinating so cross pollination wouldn't be a problem.