KEEP YOUR OPTIONS OPEN
It’s that time of year again when the seed catalogues start to arrive. With a profusion of choices available, picking your seeds can be a daunting task.
You will need to consider your plot size and local conditions, and the foods you and your family like will influence your decisions. Another choice you’ll have to make is whether to grow open-pollinated or F1 hybrid seeds.
F1 hybrids are the first generation result of planned crosses between specially selected parents. This planned parentage results in a single generation seed with very specific characteristics, such as: bolt resistant, fast maturity, disease resistant, productivity, fruit size or colour. Only the breeder of the F1 hybrid variety knows exactly which two parent plants are needed to produce the seed and thus becomes the exclusive source of that variety. The seed companies protect their interests by patenting their F1 hybrids and breeding varieties which, in effect, puts them firmly in possession of the most crucial element of our food supply, the seed, by privately owning those “sow once” genetically homogeneous seeds and controlling their availability. If you want to
