by Susan Klatz Beal

Created on: January 18, 2009

Although many very experienced gardeners save seeds from their flowers, saving seeds from vegetables can be a bit more complicated. Unfortunately, it is not a good idea to save seeds from all of the vegetables you grow. How then do you decide when NOT to save seeds?

Some vegetables for which seeds and plants are sold are hybridized. The theory behind hybridization is that by creating a hybrid, it is possible for botanical geneticists to take the best qualities of one variety of a vegetable and combine that with the best qualities of another variety of the same vegetable.

Why is this done? Quite simply, hybridization makes it possible to improve on nature by making certain vegetables more disease resistant.

If hybridization improves the disease resistance of a particular plant or vegetable, then why not save the seeds? Quite simply, it isn't possible to ensure that the seeds harvested from a hybrid plant will be pure. There's always the possibility of cross pollination. There is also the fact that some plants are particularly predisposed to certain problems.

By trying to grow seeds from a hybrid variety of a vegetable, it is distinctly possible that you will be reinforcing the diseases or problems that the hybridization was trying to prevent. Most good nurseries will indicate on the plant labels when the plants are hybrid varieties. The most disease resistant tomato varieties are typically hybrid varieties.

Some varieties of lettuce may be hybrids. A dwarf variety of Cos Romaine lettuce is likely a hybrid because Romaine originated on the Island of Cos in the Mediterranean Sea. It wasn't a small variety of lettuce, but rather one that grew in compact heads that typically grow upwards rather than outward.

Lettuce isn't prone to diseases the way tomatoes are. Any vegetable that is prone to diseases - whether bacterial, fungal or viral is one for which I'd be reluctant to save seeds. Unless you have a set up whereby you can separate your crops and keep a sufficient distance to make any possibility of cross pollination impossible, you can never be certain that you haven't unwittingly produced a hybrid on your own.

What are the best vegetables from which to harvest seeds? Any type of heirloom vegetable will always be pure. Heirloom vegetables are bred to perpetuate the original variety. When seeds are planted so that new seeds can be harvested from the newest crop, they are planted in a manner that will prevent any possibility of cross pollination.

Any seed manufacturer

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