[sarah-king]

Last year i was given a pointed pepper plant and i kept some seeds which i planted this year... they were F1 seeds so i wasnt expecting much,..just an experiment really..

well of the 10 seeds i planted all 10 germinated..( better than the 2 normal peppers i managed to germinate out of a full bought packet!) i have kept 4 and gave the rest away with a warning they might not do anything...they are now nice and tall with lots of peppers growing on them..

my question is.. can you keep saving seed year after year for things such as tomatos and peppers? and does anyone do this with good results?  These look exactly like the origional plant..im hoping they taste as nice...

[Swing Swang]

Should be able to save seed on all open pollinated varieties with good results. Choose from the best of the crop, take steps to eliminate cross pollination if appropriate, and you should be OK. There are plenty of books out there, but for free information the stuff on the Realseeds website is a good place to start.

after a while cross pollination may cause things to look a bit odd, but then you might just be developing a new strain that's ideally suited to your growing conditions!

some seeds are easier to keep going than others,

I get good results with peppers, toms, peas, beans (all types), gemsquash, chard etc

SS

[TheSpartacat]

There's great info on seed saving on this site:
http://www.realseeds.co.uk/

Hybrid seeds don't produce decent offspring generally- as the hybrid may consist of a cross between:
1 parent that produces a tiny crop of sweet fruit
2nd parant that produced a heavy crop of bitter fruit.
(To result in a plant that produces a heavy crop of sweet fruit)

When you combine traits, you can end up with any variety of traits in the next generation- iethe offspring may result in a plant that produces a tiny crop of bitter fruits.

But if you want to save seed, definitely look at heritage varieties. Not only do you have the satisfaction that you're keeping a rare variety going- some of the older varieties have exceptional flavour and have natural disease resistance/ climatised to suit the region... but you also can use heritage types to breed your own experiments, and you can be sure of the traits you're combining.
Plus, if you keep the trait from crossing, you get reliable seed, for a reliable crop next year... saves a bomb