We usually don't think of hot house tomatoes as being as good as those grown in an open garden, and in the past, that was true. It's different, now.
I bought a very good tomato from a local grocer. It was a hot house tomato grown in Canada. It was so good, I saved some seed for future planting. The fruits of those seed were delicious and near perfect in appearance.
Getting this type results usually works for one year only. Second generation fruits won't be as good, so you would need to save seed from the best 'store bought' tomato, each year.
All the bell peppers I grow are from seed collected from peppers I purchase at a grocer. This year, I am growing green, yellow, and orange peppers. I plant three plants per five gallon bucket. My plants are loaded with small peppers. This will be my most productive year.
Last year, I grew some delicious cantaloupes. They too, were from seed collected from store bought fruit. If your garden will accommodate a small 'trial patch', then by all means, save the seed from purchased produce you find exceptionally good. You could be deliciously rewarded.
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From what I understand, heirloom open pollinated seeds do produce consistently from one season to the next. Which is why they are so popular now. They will likely never have the popularity with commercial seed growers that hybrid seeds do currently, for obvious reasons. A handful of open pollinated seeds will produce for a generation. No fun for Monsanto there.
The main reasons commercial growers purchase new seed each year are:
Better yield for one year-a guarantee against crop failure-extremely important for profit.
There have been accusations from the mass production growers that the seed developers have designed one use seeds to ensure continued sales and increased profit guarantees year to year. The problem, of course, has been finding proof.
If the plant/veggie you collected the seeds from was a hybrid, it might not produce a good veggie, but you haven't lost much except your time, so there is certainly no harm in doing so. Many home gardeners using heritage seeds save their own seeds from year to year.
You are right, Louise
When planting seed taken from hybrid fruits and vegetables, you will not get a copy of the parent plant. As I have stressed before, these seed could produce a near copy of the parent (as was the case with my pictured, first generation tomato), or an inferior version of the parent. And it is possible, though not likely, you could get a fruit or vegetable better than the original. As I said before, 'You wont know til you try'. That's why I suggested having enough garden space for a 'trial patch'.
A distinction has been made and pretty much universally accepted as to what constitutes a hybrid seed and what constitutes a non hybrid seed. This distinction serves as a necessary vehicle for communication. From a technical perspective, all seeds are indeed hybrids, but that information serves no purpose in the given context.
Ernest Hemingway wrote a novel he titled 'The Sun Also Rises'. One could have pointed out to Mr. Hemingway that the sun does not actually rise, and that what appears to be so, is merely an illusion created by the revolving Earth. Would making that point, a point most likely well known to Mr Hemingway, have served as useful information to anyone.
My post was merely to point out the possibility of using free seed to grow produce, quite often with desirable results. A fun venture, s'il vous plait. It was not meant to be taken as a technical treatise and no guarantees were expressed or implied.
I will not knowingly discuss sex, religion or politics at this forum. My comment made reference to a certain action of a certain person who happens to be a political figure. I did so without regards to his political party affiliations.
When writing for ThriftyFun, I try to keep the word 'Fun' (seen or unseen), as part of my material. That approach seems to have worked rather well, so far.
Lizzyanny
While heirloom seed do not produce an exact copy of the parent, (I pointed this out in another post), they, as you say, "produce consistently from one season to the next".
Perfect wording. Perfect timing. Thank you.
That's a real "Thrifty" idea. I think I'll try it out next sowing season. If good quality soil is used and rich nutrients, the seeds are bound to be productive. The proof is in the trying. Why not experiment a little and see what happens. One can always buy their garden plants to be sure of a harvest if the store produce seeds don't reap what is sown. It's a little extra time, but that would be a great reward to claim when plants look as healthy as yours do.
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