F1 Varieties

[piskieinboots]

excellent CC excellent

[bazzaboy]

LOL...! And extraordinary. But Flum, when you say you "keep selecting out the best" how do you make that decision, by selecting the strongest/quickest growing etc or do you, Mendel-like, look for particular dominant/recessive features in each seedling? (Or simply peer with one big eye and squash all others with big green fist?) b.

[Snadger]

I grow mostly open pollinated cultivars of veg but do believe there is a place for certain F1's for the amateur!

Technology isn't all bad and F1's aren't all geared towards farming.

F1's bred for disease resistance (clubroot and mildew spring to mind!) can be beneficial. Likewise with cold tolerance, dwarfing species and other useful attributes that can only be achieved by F1-ing!

[Two_Sheds]

for me, F1 is absolutely vital to sweetcorn ... I've grown Double Standard (open pollinated) for several years now and it is just not as good as the F1s.
In comparison, it is weedy, has fewer useful cobs, and tends to toughness.

I like having F1 squash too ... knowing what I'm getting, and having all the crop ready at the same time. Squash is ripe just as it's getting towards winter, so it's always a race against the weather to get them in anyway...

If I had more room I'd love to breed my own version of Sungold like Flum, but for now I'll have to keep buying the seed, extortionate though it is.

[zazen999]

LOL...! And extraordinary. But Flum, when you say you "keep selecting out the best" how do you make that decision, by selecting the strongest/quickest growing etc or do you, Mendel-like, look for particular dominant/recessive features in each seedling? (Or simply peer with one big eye and squash all others with big green fist?) b.

All of us who do seed saving will select 'the best' for example:
onions and leeks - those that bolted latest and had no disease and were a good size with a tight compact bulb/ good firm shank.

tomatoes - those that showed the best and vigorous growth; matured early and didn't get diseased.

beas and beans - good vigorous foliage and nicely shaped pods with good colour flowers and a resistance to pea weevil. Also, a good colour and shape to the inner pea/bean. Any quirks/rogues can be kept back and grown separately to see what they come up with the next year.

carrots - it is traditional to dig them all up and select the best 15 - odd to replant out and let flower the next year.


All of the above plus the most important - TASTE!!!

[becky250970]

carrots - it is traditional to dig them all up and select the best 15 - odd to replant out and let flower the next year.


All of the above plus the most important - TASTE!!!

Great advice as always Zazen, with regard to the carrots, do you just store them over winter and then replant?

[zazen999]

Great advice as always Zazen, with regard to the carrots, do you just store them over winter and then replant?

Yep; store in sand and then replant in the spring.

ditto beetroot; although you can see the roots so last winter I just saved my best 3; and dug them up and put them together to go to seed.

[bazzaboy]

Fascinating, thanks ZZ. Do the varieties that you select for this action include (original) F1s or do you necessarily separate them out (or not use 'em in the first instance)? And on carrots for example, how do you stop them cross-pollinating (Seed Savers' says the professionals have a 500 metre gap between varieties which means next year I'll be planting 'em about 60 gardens down the road, hope they won't mind!) Whatever, fascinating stuff, thanks! b.

[zazen999]

Fascinating, thanks ZZ. Do the varieties that you select for this action include (original) F1s or do you necessarily separate them out (or not use 'em in the first instance)? And on carrots for example, how do you stop them cross-pollinating (Seed Savers' says the professionals have a 500 metre gap between varieties which means next year I'll be planting 'em about 60 gardens down the road, hope they won't mind!) Whatever, fascinating stuff, thanks! b.

I don't save F1s myself; I was answering about Flum saving the best specimens; but I know that some do.....you could save F1s and then save the best of the ones that are grown from those - but as Pisk says, some F1s will be sterile anyway.

Carrots; some make net cages and use blow flies to pollinate. It crosses with Queen Anne's Lace which lives in hedgerows; the main thing is to try and stop the insects with other carrot family pollen from getting anywhere near the carrot pollen......which is why carrots aren't the easiest of veg to save seeds from....

[Flummery]

LOL...! And extraordinary. But Flum, when you say you "keep selecting out the best" how do you make that decision, by selecting the strongest/quickest growing etc or do you, Mendel-like, look for particular dominant/recessive features in each seedling? (Or simply peer with one big eye and squash all others with big green fist?) b.

You been looking at my peas?

I select for flavour. I also take yield into account to some extent but I wouldn't make that a priority.

[bazzaboy]

Carrots; some make net cages and use blow flies to pollinate.

"Blow flies"? What, bluebottles?! Oh my goodness, don't tell me gardening is going to get me breeding bluebottles.... (butcher's son, trained since childhood to hunt 'em down...). I've got a wormery, quite fond of them, but encouraging blue bottles may be a step too far... Hmmm, I think I might pass on carrots, ZZ, or proffer my thruppence and simply buy a packet of seeds.... Pity really, I'd calculated about 500 paces down the road was a retired colonel's prize rose patch where I'd need to plant me Heritage Carrots.... BANG!

But all good stuff, thanks ZZ.

You been looking at my peas?

LOL... shhhh. Mendel's my first hero, (Flum my second...!), for years he looked at tens of thousands of pea seedlings to discern their heritage, a dedication to duty that I can't quite ('quite' as in 'remotely') match. Soooo complicated, and "taste" even more so (Isabel Allende and Sybil Kapoor come to mind)... But I know what I like so as it's tea-time on a Friday I'm about to cheat by getting Fish and Chips and Midland's Mushy Peas... Oh dear, one up (or down) on Pot Noodles?

b.

[zazen999]

BB - you could do what I do and just let them flower; and sample the next generation yourself before you decide that they are the next big thing.......I'm testing out this year's beetroot to see what happens as we speak - if it is any good then I've got a list as long as your arm of those that have already requested some.....