[infowarrior]

     I'm starting to research saving my own seeds and am aware that it is much better to save them from true heirloom varieties as the offspring will be "true to type" and saving seeds from F1 hybrids is supposed to produce erratic, unpredictable offspring.  Does anyone have any experience in saving seeds from F1's and if so what were the results and from what plants?  I've heard that the offspring of heirloom varieties vary quite a bit from their parents anyway and F1's (not offspring of F1's)are normally more uniform hence why they're almost always used for commercial crops so it sound like offspring from both types vary from their parents anyway??

                       Cheers.

[mumofstig]

The way I understand it.
Heirloom seeds are usually true to type, as long as they haven't been cross pollinated, so you have to prevent that happening if you want to save seeds. Things like peas, french beans and toms don't easily cross pollinate, but they can.

Seed from f1s cannot breed true even if you stop them cross pollinating. The f1 is itself the result of cross-breeding, so it's seeds will always be a cross-breed.

[GrannieAnnie]

I've only saved seeds from 2 types of F1.  The first was Floridity Tomatoes.  The catalogue I got them from at the time said they were not F1's, but after saving some seeds, another catalogue said they were, so looking it up on the internet, of course Floridity ARE F1.

But I am still saving the seeds 4 years on, and they either come up as still the same shape, but one year they will be bigger fruits, another year smaller, but hey, to me they are free tomatoes, so I don't care!   

The other was, my first chilli plant was Apache which I bought at a garden centre, before I knew any better, again 4 years ago.  I thought I'd try the seeds even though I knew they were hybrids, and the ever since then, I still save the seeds.  They are nice chillies, but larger than the original ones.

[arugula]

Strange you should say that GrannieAnnie, I was going to say that we saved Apache seeds last year from a few chillis a friend gave us, not realising at the time they are F1. They have grown lovely plants with plenty of those little chillis on them, although the chillis don't seem very warm yet but that might be down to ripeness.

[GrannieAnnie]

Even my original apache plant didn't grow very hot chillies Argyllie! And I thought that Apache were supposed to be fairly hot?

But the only reason I grow them really, is for Biscombe's Hot Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce!  I've been making it for 3 years now, and its wonderful!  How hot it is depends on what chillies grow best! 

[arugula]

No, they have a pleasant warmth and plenty flavour. That's why we like them. That chilli sauce sounds good, is there a recipe anywhere on the forum?

[GrannieAnnie]

Oh YES!  Biscombe, who doesn't posted on here anymore, gave it to us about 4 years ago.

http://www.allotment-garden.org/recipe/?s=thai+sweet+chilli+sauce

Can be a bit sweet, but that's how I like it, but once you've made it, of course its easy enough to alter the sugar to your own liking! 

[arugula]

Thanks for that GrannieAnnie, I'll definitely try that , now we'd better get this thread back on topic! 

[GrannieAnnie]

oh yeah! 

[Trillium]

What I'd add to saving seeds from hybrid plants, is that usually the 2 parents are totally different than what the seed yields, and if you save seed from the hybrid, it's been pollinated by still more different plants, so you have no idea what you'll get.

For free, you can always take the chance. But if you want true seeds, you'd need to do heirloom plants, and isolate them from others of their variety. A friend of mine grows and sells heirloom seeds. She lives on a 40 acre lot and has mini gardens everywhere tucked between trees and bushes to better help isolate the plants from their cousins. In small lots, you'd need to bag and hand pollinate  the plants to ensure true to type.

[Malturn]

Hi all

Last year I was given 1 tomato weighing 1lb 2oz it was from a variety called Big Red that was supposed to be F1 from Wilkos. I saved the seed from it and grew some plants from it this year. the results ar as in the photos. I think some of them will be bigger than the original





And they are still growing

Malcolm

[infowarrior]

Interesting that some of the replies from people's experiments of planting seeds from F1's produce BIGGER plants than their parents!

[mumofstig]

They may be bigger but it doesn't follow that they will taste any better 

[DD.]

A better comparison, (size wise), would be the parent and offspring grown together under the same conditions.

What we are comparing is the result of two possibly completely different sets of circumstances, not really a very scientific method.

[Trillium]

They may be bigger but it doesn't follow that they will taste any better 

I agree MoS. A friend saves seed from any toms that grow in her garden, and some are totally flavourless and simply weren't worth the cramped space she has for growing. She turns them into sauce, but even then they need loads of herbs and flavorings.