Cross-pollination v. seed saving

[flowerlady]

Talk to me about how you think this effects the next generation of plant !! ??   :)

Squash, courgettes, beans of all varieties are renowned for this.   :-X

What experience has anyone had of plants evolving into something else  :o

[flowerlady]

[tricia]

Last year I bought a small pumpkin from a roadside vendor, saved some of the seeds and sowed them last Spring. Result: several huge fruit which look more like marrows than pumpkins (more than twice the size and of a completely different shape to the bought pumpkin) but they are turning a beautiful orange colour and are definitely pumpkins with hard skins and not marrows, so I'll be interested to see how they taste in my first pumpkin pie of the season. I'll also be roasting them together with root vegetables.

Must admit though - I won't be saving any seeds from this season's harvest ;D. - and I don't save courgette seeds as they are F1 varieties. My garden is very small and I have been hand-pollinating all my courgettes, squashes and pumpkins just to make sure they got pollinated.

Tricia

[saddad]

French beans and peas are ok to save seed but Runners tend to be more promiscuous...
8)

[bennettsleg]

I saved butternut seeds from a shop-bought (gasp) squash and not one true butternut did I get this year.  One butternut shaped squash with green courgette markings (yet to be harvested). Next year, I buy proper seed.  So much for going solo on the seed front!

I got some seeds from a small scale seed supplier who promote saving your own seed (got the details of A4A but blow me if I can't remember the name of the org'.) and their literature says if you're going to save true seed from your own plants, plant them 12 MILES apart first!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Is that Real Seeds? You can save true seed by bagging the flowers and hand-pollinating.

[Kepouros]

Robert, you missed out the word `only`.  Peas and beans can hybridise just as freely as other species (don`t forget that Mendel performed his experiments on hybridisation with garden peas).  Remember also that when the seeds of any hybrid (which most modern garden peas are) are collected and resown year upon year the hybrid form will gradually revert to the original parental form.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Actually I didn't forget it; I'm well aware of the dangers of deterioration, and Real Seeds do give advice on how many plants you need to avoid it, at least for some veg. If you're only growing a few plants, I wouldn't recommend saving your own for more than a generation or two before buying in new.

[davee52uk]

I was talking to an old boy who left some brassica plants go to seed. Then continued to leave them so the seed went onto the ground. Then left it even longer so that the seeds germinated and grew. At this stage he then planted them on.

I find this hard to believe as brassicas can cross-pollinate with weeds like charlock. However I think it might work with Sprouting as this sets seeds at a different time of year from the others.

I have certainly done the above with land cress which is agin a brassica.

Has anybody kept seed from brassicas as these are essential crops whose seeds are expensive?

I save parsnip, beetroot, courgette, tomatoes, sunflowers, mallow and many others.

Surely the farmers hundreds of years ago were able to keep all of their seeds.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Yes, but seeds from the middle of a field are a different prospect to those from a few plants which may be surrounded by things they might hybridise with. That being said, I did once let some turnips go to seed. These, of course, are brassicas, and I was interested to see what hybrid things I ended up with in the next generation. I got a nice crop of turnips which had come true as far as I could see. But it might not happen so easily another time.

[saddad]

The bewildering array of brassicas, which include most chinese leaves are evidence of how promiscuous they are... but with isolation (in polytunnels or big cloches with a few friendly blowflies it is possible to save your own (HDRA) Grow Organic Heritage seed library have pamphlets on how...
;D

[Multiveg]

I might have a go, have said before on here, growing potatoes from seed. There was an article I think in KG magazine a while back about it.

[flowerlady]

Just so long as one does not expect to get the exact same replica on the folloiwng year - and so long as you enjoy the surprise element when it isn't -  then keeping seeds is a very ecconomic way to go!!

... my main concern would have to be the maintained quality of veg and their yield !!  ;D