Harvest seeds

At the end of summer, seeds can be collected from a particularly large number of plants for sowing next year. Who has no experience in it yet, it starts best with the various summer flowers such as mallow, Wicke, Poppy, Lupine, Foxtail or gold lacquer. Who wants to harvest seeds from his vegetables, he should pay attention, that he doesn't choose F1 hybrids. These are not suitable for further breeding, because they will "split" into countless varieties in the next year.

F1 hybrids – Breed plants from the seed bag

The first seed catalogs land in the mailbox of passionate hobby gardeners at the beginning of the year. The diversity of the offer is often overwhelming. Some people are amazed at the addition "F1-Hybride" after the variety name on the seed bag. The employees of the Bavarian Garden Academy reveal the secret of this name.

"F1" is a term from the genetics of Gregor Mendel and means first daughter generation "Branch 1". When crossing two plant parents, which are inherited for a certain characteristic, The next generation creates offspring that look the same, which, however, are mixed for exactly this characteristic. For example, if you cross a true breed, red flowering plant with a pure blood, white flowering plant, only offspring with the flower color pink are obtained. But what does this mean for the hobby gardener?

The seeds of the F1 hybrids are usually much more expensive than normal seeds. This results from the lengthy and complex selection breeding, which is necessary, to get real parents, and from labor-intensive seed production. Only when the genetic material of “mother” and “father” has very specific properties, success is guaranteed. The "bastards" created by crossing the two parents, the F1 hybrids, then all show the desired characteristics in a uniform manner.

F1 plants germinate, grow and bloom evenly and produce fruit at the same time. Therefore, F1 seeds are mainly used in agriculture, because because of the automation, even stocks are preferred in this area. The F1 hybrids are as well, to the delight of the hobby gardener, mostly more resistant, vigorous, promise a more abundant harvest or more impressive flowers (the geneticist calls this luxurizing the hybrids or the heterosis effect). However, these high-performance plants in the garden must be adequately supplied with water and nutrients, otherwise the harvest will not differ significantly from the "normal" varieties.

It is not worth, obtain seeds from the F1 plants yourself. The offspring will not necessarily have all the good characteristics of the "breed plants". Pollination took place again for the seed to emerge, the genetic makeup is recombined again. This can lead to completely new and unwanted properties. Plants from self-obtained seeds of F1 hybrids do not promise a successful harvest. So buy your seeds anew every year.

But you shouldn't wait too long to harvest the seeds, so that they don't fail on their own. For most plants, they are ripe before their final dark color.

However, immature seeds need to be dried thoroughly, otherwise they will go moldy. Who wants to be on the safe side, he cuts off the whole plant and puts it in a pillowcase. This is then hung up in an airy manner. Over time, the ripe seeds fall out and collect in the pillow. To catch everything, you can still easily edit the cover with the carpet beater. Then you just have to sift out the contents and keep them cool until the next sowing, store in a dark and dry place. It is especially important, that the seeds are also labeled, otherwise it can happen, that next spring you will not know exactly any more, which seed is from which plant.