Allotments 4 All

I dont know if anyone listens to 'The Potting Shed' on BBC Radio Scotland. I love it even more than GQT!

Anyway there was a bloke on it the other day talking about seeds from flowered F1 varieties resulting in a rubbish crop of insipid flowers and veg too I think? Apparently though if you plant the seeds of the rubbish offsprings you get great results.

Has anyone experienced this?

There was also someone else talking about planting/pruning trees and types of trees. It was a great show. Here it is on listen again....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/programmes/beechgrovepottingshed/

There's no reason why you shouldn't keep the offspring of an F1 going, and by selection over several generations, end up with a decent variety.

This is the basis of traditional plant breeding. Cross two parents to produce an F1 generation all the progeny being identical. If these are allowed to self pollinate the resulting F2 generation show a considerable amount of segregation and will contain plants varying from absolute rubbish to showing  some potential to maybe fantastic potential. The best plants are selected and grown on for a number of generations with further selection for desired characters and stability and trueness to type before being evaluated in trials, multiplied if commercial potential is shown and eventually sold. It can take many years and registration is expensive.   

And by careful selection and crossing of the seedlings from an F1, You can re-create the original F1 seeds.

It's a pity people don't take the trouble. You'd need a lot of space and time to do it, but there's no reason whatever why we shouldn't have, say, a supersweet corn variety which breeds true. At the moment, corn is the one veg where I'll use F1's, and that's only because the alternatives just aren't as good.

If you save seed of the yellow varieties of courgette, some of revert to green, They are just as good.  I aslo keep an unknown variety of tomato. This grew out of some household compost and produces a good, tasty tomato that grows outdoors. It is not one of the varieties that I was growing at the time.