When vegetable seed catalogues say "hybrid", what does that mean? And what are the other two terms? What should you as a home gardener be concerned about?
A hybrid variety is the result of pollination of one genetically uniform variety with pollen from another specific genetically uniform variety. A seed company chooses parent varieties that wiill produce first-generation "offspring" (F1 hybrids) with the special characteristics they desire. Hybridization or crossing, is done in a very controlled manner so that all of the plants grown from the seed will be genetically identical, and from the same cross. The pollination is often done by hand and under controlled conditions. Hybrids may be bred to be more adaptable to environmental differences such as cold soil, disease, or high altitude, more uniform in ripening, growth, and more predictable in quality. And hybrid plants may have what is called "hybrid vigor". All the best qualities with vigorousness.
But hybrids do not "breed true". They do not produce seeds that will produce plants exactly like themselves. This means home gardeners cannot save seed from hybrids, and must buy seed each year.
Open pollinated or heirloom varieties tend to be less uniform in growth than hybrids, but they remain consistent and the seed can be saved and replanted by the home gardener. Heirlooms are just that, seeds handed down through generations of gardeners from around the world. Open pollinated varieties are stabilized from years of culling and breeding.
Most lettuce, bean and pea varieties are open-pollinated, while most modern cabbages, broccoli, tomato, cucumbers, melons, and brussels sprouts, are hybrids. Hybrid summer squashes, cucumbers, corn, and carrots, dominate the US market, and farmers love hybrids for their uniformity of ripening and of size and color.
In future installments here I'll go further into the merits of both. I plant both hybrids, and I save seed from heirlooms.
