Seeds

[bailz]

hi which are the best seeds to get straight from the fruit / veg for germination in the greenhouse. Cheers Bailz

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Neil, if you mean saving the seeds from supermarket veggies - then really it's not advised as most (if not all) veggies on sale will be F1 varieties. Seeds saved from F1 varieties will not grow true to type and you can end up with all sorts of wierd shapes. Vegetables on sale at supermarkets are sprayed to extend the shelf life and stop seeds sprouting so there is no guarantee that the seeds will germinate. But, people do save the seeds from peppers, melons and squashes and some do have success.

You can save the seeds from vegetables you have grown from seed as long as they are not F1 varieties and are open pollinated varieties or heritage varieties.

[bailz]

hi lesley what is F1

[Lesley Jay]

F1 stands for Filial 1 the first generation. An F1 hybrid is the result of many years selected pure line breeding. Breeders want features like identical, perfectly shaped vegetables which is why if you buy tomatoes in the supermarket they are all the same size and shape They breed disease resistance and heavy yields into the plants. The only way you could reproduce an F1 variety is to know what pure line varieties the breeder used for the cross. This is why F1 seeds are more expensive.

If you want to experiment you can save the seeds from an F1 variety and sow them then the next generation 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.

[bailz]

wow intresting you never think there can be so much to learn thank you