Tag: f1 hybrid

Sourcing Seeds

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A good place to source seeds is in your community. This is because people in your area know best what grows there. Ask friends and neighbors if they have seeds they can share with you. Also ask them to recommend you varieties to try and local garden centers, seed libraries or seed swaps where you can find them.

Bi-annual Seed Swap at the Chandler Sunset Library. Photo by Eileen M. Kane.

Seed swaps are events where people who have saved seeds from their gardens or who have excess purchased seed can trade seeds with each other. Knowledge, ideas and practices from different gardeners and their cultures are passed along too. read more

The Pros and Cons of Hybrid Seeds

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There are many thing to consider when purchasing or saving seeds for your garden. Photo by Ashley Andrews.

When parent plants carefully selected for their desirable traits are bred together, they produce hybrid seeds. These seeds are called hybrid or F1 hybrid seeds. Breeding plants together to produce hybrid seeds sounds simple, but it is a long process. Selecting plants to breed together over and over again to end up with the perfect hybrid plant can take years. And, each time the plants are bred, or cross-pollinated, it is done by hand. This means that every new hybrid on the market costs a seed company a lot of time and money. But, seed companies and consumers alike often say it is worth it. read more

Seed Packet Buzzword Bingo

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Tired of playing buzzword bingo as you sift through seed packets for information? Here are a few plant industry terms decoded.

GMO: Genetically modified organisms are plants or animals which were altered using biotechnology. They contain a new gene or a new combination of genes. Why? To provide improved traits.

Seeds from genetically modified plants are sold only to farmers by the companies which produce them. Legal contracts which spell out exactly how the farmers can and cannot use the seeds are required. None of the seeds available at garden centers are genetically modified seeds. read more