I have to say I have bought all of my seeds this year off eBay. Pumpkin seeds, bean seeds and even wild garlic at a snip of the price. Not to mention some poppy seeds that have given me the most spectacular display I have ever seen!!!!
I bought some peas and strawberry seeds from ebay last night, so I'm hoping they'll do well. I'm going to keep my eyes open near the end of the season for sad strawberry plants that need some TLC. I'll snap them up.
I feel I'm missing something with this seed saga, why are they so dear?
What's so special about them.
Does anyone have good experiences from never buying a single seed. That would be interesting, to find someone whos had success from never buying a seed for years and has had very little issues with diseases etc...
F1 plants are normaly bred for their uniformity and can have certain genetic moderations. Most are sterile and even if there is success from the seed it will never be true to the parent plant. They are also quite often trademarked!! F1 seeds are normally more expensive due to the producers having to control the parent plants pollination to keep them true!! In a nutshell (although i have an F1 apache chilli plant that i grow sucessfully every year from harvested seeds 8 years and counting now!)
So the seeds from most F1 plants aren't reliable, you might get a plant from the seeds but the quality may be suspect. I'll have to do some research because I'm in the dark a bit, I'm unsure what the point of them is. Is it just a show piece or maintain a strain, keep it true.
Not sure but will do some digging, thanks for your help.
F1 plants are basically designed around money, correct me if I'm wrong. All the plants are engineered so farmers can predict their crop, they can crop all the plants at exactly the same time, saving money and making the most money.
They also are unreliable breaders, which is a design advantage to the people selling them as they will always be able to sell more.
I'm not sure if the F1 is something I'd be interested in, in my wee rustic garden.
F1 seeds in the garden are produced from a specific cross between two known parents to produce a plant with known characteristics. It could be colour, height, uniformity of maturity, or anything.
When someone comes on this forum and says 'What can I do, all my broccoli has flowered?' 10 to 1 they used F1 seed and every plant matured at the same time.
If those F1 plants in the garden are pollinated by bees which collected pollen from random plants in other gardens, the resultant offspring could have equally random charteristics. Some good, some middling, some rubbish.
Saving seeds from F1 plants gives you F2 seeds. F2 seeds won't produce true to the F1 parent plants because, in simple terms, you're starting to unravel the gene combinations created and stabilised in the breeding of the F1 plant.
F2 seeds will usually produce fruit recognisably similar to the F1 fruit but with variations. The further you go down this road - F3 seeds, etc - the greater the variations you'll see.
I know some tomato growers with too much time on their hands who delight in trying to grow out F1 tomato plants to try to determine the original varieties used in the F1 creation. Most seed companies who create F1 varieties decline to reveal the varieties they use.
The more varieties used in the creation of the F1 plant, the longer it takes to trace its origins. I know one chap who spent 10 years on one plant. As I say, too much time on his hands.
I like the idea of free seeds and the challenge and it's a winter passtime, dealing with all the dry deadheads etc... I also discovered that the seed prices drop near the end of the season, like buying summer clothes in the winter, cheaper, stock up on next years fruit and veg now, just got some seeds from the ALDI for 39p a packet so there's something to be said for having fun gathering seeds and having a balance, snap up the seeds when they're out of season and a decent price.
Saw a beautiful aubergine plant, absolutely gorgeos, very ornamental and could really see that gracing the corner of my greenhouse seasonaly, I will go see online if there's any seeds. I couldn't see any in the shops.
I'm really loving this make do and mend approach to gardening, recycling the garden rubbish as much as possible. Saw last night, the experiment with nettles vs comfrey, very interesting. I like the technical side to this, the science behind it all, feed the fruit potassiam when the fruit appears, feed the plants nitrogen when the leaves start showing to get strong leaves, get the plant good and strong, as soon as the fruit shows, get the potassiam mix in the water.
The thing is at the moment, all my tomatoes are very strong and really leafy, very thick trunks and really vibrant and strong leaves, so must get some potassiam rich feed for them....I know this is not about seeds but any ideas on the best feed to use?
Back to seeds, I've a feeling the tom seeds I'm in the process of separating are f1 as they're supermarket cherry toms. Might stick out the process to see. I must watch that and only take from my plants at the end of the year. I'll see how these ones do next year, I'll grow a plant in a big pot to judge it.
have you tried charity shops for seeds? I bought some spectacular poppy seeds last year and they were amazing this year .10p a packet..... I love to seed swap with work mates I always have packets land on my desk!!!! I'm an avid (armature) chilli grower and people are always bringing me seeds from there travels I have had some corkers... You were talking about strawberries did you see the garden on the move (Hampton court) pallett lettuce? I loved it so much am gonna do one for strawberries next year as I am having to get rid of my raised beds......
have you tried charity shops for seeds? I bought some spectacular poppy seeds last year and they were amazing this year .10p a packet..... I love to seed swap with work mates I always have packets land on my desk!!!! I'm an avid (armature) chilli grower and people are always bringing me seeds from there travels I have had some corkers... You were talking about strawberries did you see the garden on the move (Hampton court) pallett lettuce? I loved it so much am gonna do one for strawberries next year as I am having to get rid of my raised beds......
The garden on the move pallett lettuce, you'll have to enlighten me...
I tried collecting seeds from a snake's head fritillary a couple of months ago. I let the seed pods swell on the plant then chopped & tried to open and collect the seeds. I got in such a mess I've ended up with zero seeds. I'm going to try again with the foxglove this week see how i get on with that.
I dont find seeds to expensive for the volume you get to what you would have to pay for one plant. I'm always picking up a packet of something and putting them away in my seed tin.
top right painted sage green. It's just an old pallet sealed at the sides and back with barrier matting then filled with soil and planted . They used lettuce but I'm thinking it would be perfect for strawberries.... Just trying to find a pallet!!!!
Posts
I bought some peas and strawberry seeds from ebay last night, so I'm hoping they'll do well. I'm going to keep my eyes open near the end of the season for sad strawberry plants that need some TLC. I'll snap them up.
I feel I'm missing something with this seed saga, why are they so dear?
What's so special about them.
Does anyone have good experiences from never buying a single seed. That would be interesting, to find someone whos had success from never buying a seed for years and has had very little issues with diseases etc...
So the seeds from most F1 plants aren't reliable, you might get a plant from the seeds but the quality may be suspect. I'll have to do some research because I'm in the dark a bit, I'm unsure what the point of them is. Is it just a show piece or maintain a strain, keep it true.
Not sure but will do some digging, thanks for your help.
F1 plants are basically designed around money, correct me if I'm wrong. All the plants are engineered so farmers can predict their crop, they can crop all the plants at exactly the same time, saving money and making the most money.
They also are unreliable breaders, which is a design advantage to the people selling them as they will always be able to sell more.
I'm not sure if the F1 is something I'd be interested in, in my wee rustic garden.
F1 seeds in the garden are produced from a specific cross between two known parents to produce a plant with known characteristics. It could be colour, height, uniformity of maturity, or anything.
When someone comes on this forum and says 'What can I do, all my broccoli has flowered?' 10 to 1 they used F1 seed and every plant matured at the same time.
If those F1 plants in the garden are pollinated by bees which collected pollen from random plants in other gardens, the resultant offspring could have equally random charteristics. Some good, some middling, some rubbish.
Saving seeds from F1 plants gives you F2 seeds. F2 seeds won't produce true to the F1 parent plants because, in simple terms, you're starting to unravel the gene combinations created and stabilised in the breeding of the F1 plant.
F2 seeds will usually produce fruit recognisably similar to the F1 fruit but with variations. The further you go down this road - F3 seeds, etc - the greater the variations you'll see.
I know some tomato growers with too much time on their hands who delight in trying to grow out F1 tomato plants to try to determine the original varieties used in the F1 creation. Most seed companies who create F1 varieties decline to reveal the varieties they use.
The more varieties used in the creation of the F1 plant, the longer it takes to trace its origins. I know one chap who spent 10 years on one plant. As I say, too much time on his hands.
I like the idea of free seeds and the challenge and it's a winter passtime, dealing with all the dry deadheads etc... I also discovered that the seed prices drop near the end of the season, like buying summer clothes in the winter, cheaper, stock up on next years fruit and veg now, just got some seeds from the ALDI for 39p a packet so there's something to be said for having fun gathering seeds and having a balance, snap up the seeds when they're out of season and a decent price.
Saw a beautiful aubergine plant, absolutely gorgeos, very ornamental and could really see that gracing the corner of my greenhouse seasonaly, I will go see online if there's any seeds. I couldn't see any in the shops.
I'm really loving this make do and mend approach to gardening, recycling the garden rubbish as much as possible. Saw last night, the experiment with nettles vs comfrey, very interesting. I like the technical side to this, the science behind it all, feed the fruit potassiam when the fruit appears, feed the plants nitrogen when the leaves start showing to get strong leaves, get the plant good and strong, as soon as the fruit shows, get the potassiam mix in the water.
The thing is at the moment, all my tomatoes are very strong and really leafy, very thick trunks and really vibrant and strong leaves, so must get some potassiam rich feed for them....I know this is not about seeds but any ideas on the best feed to use?
Back to seeds, I've a feeling the tom seeds I'm in the process of separating are f1 as they're supermarket cherry toms. Might stick out the process to see. I must watch that and only take from my plants at the end of the year. I'll see how these ones do next year, I'll grow a plant in a big pot to judge it.
have you tried charity shops for seeds? I bought some spectacular poppy seeds last year and they were amazing this year .10p a packet..... I love to seed swap with work mates I always have packets land on my desk!!!! I'm an avid (armature) chilli grower and people are always bringing me seeds from there travels I have had some corkers... You were talking about strawberries did you see the garden on the move (Hampton court) pallett lettuce? I loved it so much am gonna do one for strawberries next year as I am having to get rid of my raised beds......
The garden on the move pallett lettuce, you'll have to enlighten me...
I tried collecting seeds from a snake's head fritillary a couple of months ago. I let the seed pods swell on the plant then chopped & tried to open and collect the seeds. I got in such a mess I've ended up with zero seeds. I'm going to try again with the foxglove this week see how i get on with that.
I dont find seeds to expensive for the volume you get to what you would have to pay for one plant. I'm always picking up a packet of something and putting them away in my seed tin.
jgmc3 http://www.rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events/RHS-Hampton-Court-Palace-Flower-Show/2013/Gardens/Garden-directory/A-Moveable-Feast
top right painted sage green. It's just an old pallet sealed at the sides and back with barrier matting then filled with soil and planted . They used lettuce but I'm thinking it would be perfect for strawberries.... Just trying to find a pallet!!!!