"F1" hybirds

[chris]

A while ago, I posted about harvesting seeds from onion plants, or similar any someone replied about them being F1.. Could anyone clarify this for me please? I basically planted a whole onoin, it grew into a large plant, and ran to seed - pretty nice plant really.. I wanted to get the seeds and grow more onion plants. The onion was just from a supermarket if that helps any?

[zazen999]

If you don't know the onion type then we can't tell you if it will be an F1 or not.

The only way to tell would be to harvest and sow the seeds that you get and see what happens.

[Geordie]

If you sowed the seeds and waited to see what happened, are you prepared to possibly not have any usable onions next year. Your onion could be an F1 or possibly more suited to growing abroad. If not buy some non hybrid onion seeds or sets, grow them for next year, let some run to seed for the following year, repeat as necessary.

[rustylady]

F1 hybrids are plants grown from seed which has a known parentage (i.e. two plants deliberately cross pollinated to produce a particular variety). If you save seeds from plants grown from F1 seed they will be what is known as "open pollinated", therefore the seeds (and resultant plants) may not be exactly the same as the plant that produced the seed. Got it? Clear as mud I expect. It's quite a difficult concept to absorb, but fascinating too. Go for sowing your onion seed, you may even produce a stunning new variety.

[chriscross1966]

Hmm... Allium cepa (common onions) have 8 chromosome pairs so therefore in an F1 open pollinated cross there will be 2^8 combinations available. The combination that leads to the chromosome pair being the same as the F1 is twice as likely as either of the combinations that lead to the chromosome pair being the same as the F1's original parents.... If I'm getting the sums right your cross will give birth to 256 different sorts of onions with the ones that are more like the F1 being more common than the ones that are more like one or other parent of the F1... they'll all be tiny percentages even then.... doubt even 1% would be true to the F1... been a while since I did any classical genetics (my degree in Biology and Electronics is a long time ago...) but IIRC that's the basic situation..... it is of course then complicated by the fact that there's bound to be some gene swapping going on at the cell division leading to gametes too....

chrisc....

[Jeanied]

I agree with all the above ^^^ - (well, I'm sure I would if I understood) except I love to experiment - give it a go but don't rely on it!!

[zazen999]

Hmm... Allium cepa (common onions) have 8 chromosome pairs so therefore in an F1 open pollinated cross there will be 2^8 combinations available. The combination that leads to the chromosome pair being the same as the F1 is twice as likely as either of the combinations that lead to the chromosome pair being the same as the F1's original parents.... If I'm getting the sums right your cross will give birth to 256 different sorts of onions with the ones that are more like the F1 being more common than the ones that are more like one or other parent of the F1... they'll all be tiny percentages even then.... doubt even 1% would be true to the F1... been a while since I did any classical genetics (my degree in Biology and Electronics is a long time ago...) but IIRC that's the basic situation..... it is of course then complicated by the fact that there's bound to be some gene swapping going on at the cell division leading to gametes too....

chrisc....

Or 'suck it and see' in other words

[chriscross1966]

Or 'suck it and see' in other words

Pretty much

[Two_Sheds]

whereas if you buy F1 seeds, you know exactly what you're getting

[Flummery]

whereas if you buy F1 seeds, you know exactly what you're getting

A big bill, generally!

[louisesgarden]

I have just less than an hour ago posted an order form for some F1 hybrid carrot seeds, that are coated in a carrot fly resistant stuff 1000 seeds for 2.99, not that i have room or need a 1000 carrots ! but i will try them and see if they work ! i will have some spare seeds no doubt if anybody wants to try them too !

[sarraceniac]

A big bill, generally!

Lol, in fact pmsl.