Many years ago, the only way to produce your own vegetables was by collecting and saving your own seed. Year by year seed was collected and stored, or shared with others to help them establish their own gardens. As little as three generations ago, this practise was common. But, in the 1950s this began to change. With the advent of large supermarkets, came the need for food to be tougher - they went from being an item chosen for taste, to an item that was chosen for ease of shipment or storage. Hybrid plants then came into being. This resulted in a seed that could no longer be consistently saved.
What are Hybrids?
Hybrid seed is a result of crossing two different parent plants. They may be crossed for many reasons including:
- Disease resistance
- Early seed production (for plants where the seed is the edible part)
- Late seed production (for plants where the root or leaf is the edible part)
- Long shelf life
- Crop time
- Taste
The main reasons for hybrids are to produce plants that crop all at once and that maintain their shape during travel. Farmers need their crops to produce all at once so that it is cheaper to harvest. They also need food that will arrive in the supermarket in the same shape as it left the farm.
As a result, if you were to save the seed from a hybrid plant, you my very well get something that is different from what you expected.
How Do You Know if You Can Save Seed?
Many hybrids are listed as F1. This is one way of identifying them. Any seed that has heirloom listed on the packet, is what is also known as open pollinated or non-hybrid seed. These seeds are the ones that you can save from season to season.
How are the Seeds Saved?
This varies from plant type to plant type. It is often recommended that beginner seed savers start with tomato, pea, bean or lettuce seeds. All these plants are known as self pollinators. This means that the flower produced will not need the wind or insects to produce viable seed.
Wind pollination occurs on such vegetables as corn. The wind moves the pollen from the male flower and (hopefully) deposits it on the female flowers.
Insect pollination occurs on plants such as broccoli and cucumber. As insects move from one plant to another, they collect pollen and it is passed from plant to plant.
For self pollinating plants, seed can be collected quite easily. For wind and insect pollinating plants, it gets a bit more difficult. When the pollen of similar plants get mixed up, the results are called natural hybridization. The results of such plants can still be edible, but are usually not desirable. As a result, many people will ‘hand pollinate’ their crops to maintain consistent seed.
All in all, seed saving can be quite easy. But more importantly, it is great fun and will save you money to boot.
