Grow Your Own Magazine

hello im new to the allotment scene and have been given some seeds by a friend some are marked as f1 on the packet what does this mean
im stumped

It just means their are specially selected and grown, i prefer heirloom seeds but its up to you!
Thanks
Adam

F1 means that they are the product of a cross. If you save the seeds yourself then they will not end up being the same thing you grew the year before (genetics).

holy moly frankenstiene fruits
cheers guys

yeah I tend to keep clear of f1's especially if you're thinking of saving their seed - but on the other hand they've often been crossed for specific purposes (say carrot root fly resistance) so they're not necessarily totally evil!

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

F1 means first generation Cross where two seed parent specifically crossed will produce the variety on the front Bit like chooks for egg laying. You can save the seeds yourself but they won't come true to type, they may be better, they may be worse.

Another couple of problem with F1 seed is that

1) It is expensive & you tend not to get so much in a packet as it has to be produced under conditions that don't allow for crossing with other varieties (I deliberatley didn't say laboratory conditions as this gives rise to GMO ideas & they're not grown like that, they are close pollenated)

2) It is very uniform in habit, great if you want to sell 25 acres of peas to Mr Birdseye not great if you want to have a reasonable cropping period (say a few weeks)

As you've been given them you've got nothing to loose!! so sow away without any worries.

When it comes to next year (or later on this year even) & you want to buy your seeds, just have a think - do you want to save your own seeds? if you want to , then buy open pollenated varieties If your not bothered well carry on as you are. You may not want to get involved in seed saving yet, but if you do, get Sue Stricklands book on seed saving & start with the easy ones Peas & Beans.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Hi Dinky Doo - very useful information, I didnt know either! (ha ha!) but at least they didnt cost anything! good luck and let me know how you get on. dexterdog

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

It means it is a hybrid number one therefore you can't take seeds

There is an F1 hybrid cabbage that is clubroot resistant. Seeds are very expensive so I have toyed wth the idea of seeding one. This should give me an F2 second generation which hopefully will retain some of its parents resistance? Watch this space in about a years time!!!

Hi Snadger, It won't work I can tell you now, We have trialed these seeds for the company that the seeds in question came from and we have done hundreds and if not thousands of trials on these seeds and if you try this quite honestly you will end up with a crap variety that will have NO resitance to clubroot at all.
You just can't save seeds off F1 varieties it doesn't work.
Sorry.

Adam...

I saved the seeds from a carrot flower (can't for the life of me remember what I'd planted as it grew from last years plot.... )

Anyway.... will these seeds be naff too as they would have been an F1 variety?

Also... the seeds are spikey..???

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Shortie

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter

Carrot seed is spikey Shortie. sow it & see you've nothing to loose.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

How do you mean 'trialed these seeds' ? Have you grown them in clubroot infested land? and more to the point do they work? Do the plants still get clubroot but show no syptoms? Or is there something in the plant which puts a guard round the plant? And finally what is an F2 then? ( In laymens terms please!) And finally, finally where are the clubroot resistant other brassicas, cauli, sprouts etc Any ideas?

http://www.aquatext.com/list-f.htm

Here you go Snadger

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

F1 is partly a question of your ideology. Do you want a specially created cross or do you want an heirloom variety that can't be bought in the shops?

Thanks Nick...Been doing a bit of reading for myself..aparrently the so-called F1 clubroot resistant cabbage is a cabbage / Kale cross! I have four species of Kale growing on my allotment and they all appear to be free of clubroot. a All i've got to do now is get my rabbits taill out and cross polinate with a semi-resistant cabbage This is all said tounge in cheek (take note sfs) but if it worked for Cox's Orange Pippin ( a chance seedling) why not for me?

I thought the whole idea of an heirloom variety was that it was tried and tested (normally bread from 1700's to 1800's) and VERY available in shops?

Snadger, We have trialed these seeds at our test grounds. We have grown these in both clubroot infested land and non infested land.
There isn't any other clubroot ressistant brassicas avalible yet, but you will have to wait and see if there are any clubroot rissitant brassicas coming out in the seed catalogues like everyone else

Personally I never grow F1's if i can help it as they all crop at the same time and are uniform in size, taste is not usually an F1 requisite either.

This year I have grown Heirloom purple podded peas, golden podded peas, butter beans, borlotti beans, pink fir apple potatoes plus others i imagine.

None of the other 15 to 20 kinds of veg that i grow on my allotment are F1's

Nuff said...say no more ...nods as good as a wink!!!!

Well s's were written as f's weren't they

Does anyone have seeds of a Yellow Podded Broad Bean? I've got the Crimson flowered one but Apparently there used to be a yellow podded one that sounds interesting.

What do you think of the purple podded peas Snadger, I was given some the other year & they tased awful. Not at all sweet so I didn't bother with them.

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

To be honest Nic I quite like them! I think they are quite sweet, and I intend trying a few like mange tout by cooking the whole pods as they seem to stay 'flat' for quite some time before they fill out with peas.

might give them another go with some different seed then.

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/