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I have been having a rethink about F1 hybrid seeds. I grow quite a few and I thought "Why not, if they are an improvement on open pollinated varieties." Technology moves on and if we didn't keep up we'd still be shivering in caves.
F1's to me are the thin end of the wedge and I'm personally going back to traditional veg. All F1's don't come true by seed, and a lot are infertile. The plants grown from the ones that do give seed that grows, bear no resemblance to the original.
Taste doesn't come into the equation and the nutritional value is way down on traditional veg. Scientists are now starting to clone and splice animal DNA into plants and these CAN cross pollinate with existing plants. We have no idea of the long term affects of this on the gene pool!
We need a huge gene pool to give us the diversity for life to go on. Nature doesn't interbreed plants for size, yield etc, it throws up all sizss for diversity.
I fear we are sacrificing our long term future for short term gain.
One thing that does bring a smile to my face is that open pollinated seeds are usually cheaper than others anyway.
F1's to me are the thin end of the wedge and I'm personally going back to traditional veg. All F1's don't come true by seed, and a lot are infertile. The plants grown from the ones that do give seed that grows, bear no resemblance to the original.
Taste doesn't come into the equation and the nutritional value is way down on traditional veg. Scientists are now starting to clone and splice animal DNA into plants and these CAN cross pollinate with existing plants. We have no idea of the long term affects of this on the gene pool!
We need a huge gene pool to give us the diversity for life to go on. Nature doesn't interbreed plants for size, yield etc, it throws up all sizss for diversity.
I fear we are sacrificing our long term future for short term gain.
One thing that does bring a smile to my face is that open pollinated seeds are usually cheaper than others anyway.
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