Choice

[TheEssexYorkshireman]

It's that glorious time of the year again when produce plans are top of the allotmenteer's 'to do' list. Most years I try to grow something different from the previous year & use a different seed supplier for variety of choice. One choice this year is whether to grow hybrids or open pollinated seeds - does anyone here have a preference? I understand that the flavour of OP or Heritage produce is better but do they have the same resistance to diseases etc? What do you think?

[TheEssexYorkshireman]

[Stevens706]

I tend to grow F1's for difficult crops such as brussels, caulis etc.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Mostly OP are as good as F1's, and often better for our purposes. Hybrid sprouts, for instance, are bred to ripen all at the same time - all these varieties are bred for farmers not gardeners. Most of us want to harvest our sprouts over a period, so the old varieties are likely to be better. The only possible exception I know of is corn; there isn't an OP supersweet available. If I ever have enough space available - you need to grow 200+ plants - I'd like to try breeding an OP one and see what happens.

[chriscross1966]

Does depend a bit, some F1 sprouts seem to give a long period, I grew Dominator and Rubine this year and have been happy with the season so far and plenty more to come yet :-), definitely an idea for harvest at once and pickle it things like Beetroot and onions (and cauli'[s for me for picallilli).... also a good idea wuith exotics and tenders cos you really want that hybrid vigour, but there's loads of good OP things out there.... ask round your site as to what grows well, but I find the great thinga bout an allotment is the space to experiment... swap seeds (this forum has an active swappign area) and instead of sowing three rows of the local favourite sow two and have a harlequin row with five varieties in it (label them up though) some things like potatoes are always F1's.... they're single-point crosses then vegetatively propagated.....

[GrannieAnnie]

have a harlequin row with five varieties in it (label them up though)

One F1 hybrid that seems to consistently outperform my other heirloom toms in production is Burpee's Betterboy. It's flavor seems very good as well, though heirloom Black Krim I'd rate tops for flavor but it isn't nearly as productive.

As far as labeling, for some reason that is difficult ::) Despite all sorts of good intentions and note taking as a back-up my labeling fails for assorted reasons. Somebody on this forum suggested planting the varieties in alphabetical order which I'm going to try although I wanted to alternate determinate and indeterminate to leave more room when the first die off and are removed which would mean two alphabetically ordered sets, oh my.

[jimtheworzel]

I tend to grow F1's for difficult crops such as brussels, caulis etc.

so do i   op crops tend to blow  esp sprouts