Defender Courgette

[Colin Miles]

Bearing in mind last year's thread complaining about the poor showing of Defender, I note that the KG May mag on Best cropping courgettes comments:

'Defender F1' (AGM 1993) one of the most popular garden varieties was disappointing with paler fruits than expected and likely an untrue stock'.

Anyone know what this means and the implications? Also, couldn't find the actual report on the rhs web site. But maybe it isn't actually published there, only the results.

[Geoff]

We are members of the RHS so I have emailed them about the lack of trial reports on the website - after all we are paying for them. There are a very few there of the style I would expect a proper scientific report to follow. I have read three very poor articles recently supposedly based on trial reports but so thin they must be written by journalists with little factual knowledge; the courgettes one you refer to, one on cherry tomatoes and one on early potatoes - simply not good enough.
The quality of a variety depends on its breeding, if it is open seeded it can get contaminated by another inferior strain (probably what has happened to Gardeners Delight); I'm not sure what can go wrong with an F1, presumably similar deterioration of one of the parents.

[Primrose]

I've always been very happy with Defender and have never experienced a the paler fruits complained of but I do find it grows rather large for the amount of space I have. I wonder if the paler fruits were a result of last year's lack of sunshine rather than any particular breeding/genetic problem?
Geoff - can you explain what it meant by "open seeded" please?

[Geoff]

Oops - open pollinated is the correct term. It is a variety that can breed true, if you collect seeds you will usually get the same again. F1s don't breed true.

[Primrose]

Does this apply to all F1's because I didn't think most Winter Squash varieties were F1's but collecting their seed and growing from them produces some very strange results.

[Geoff]

We need an expert! If you grow a row of an open pollinated variety you will probably be OK if there is not another variety nearby. The cucumber family are a particular problem, if they can find something to cross with they probably will - often described as promiscuous!. We usually make it easy for them by growing several varieties together. I'm not sure what happens if you grow a bed of one variety of squash for example.

[Geoff]

Got a reply from the RHS :

"We do indeed put all the trials reports on to the website and here is the link:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/award_plants.asp
Some of the final reports are not yet there but we are working on them e.g.courgette.
The process is much quicker than it used to be with printed Extracts from Proceedings which was normally at least a year or two behind the results being confirmed.
Do come back if you need any more information.
Best wishes
Linda Jones
Principal Trials Officer"

If you follow that link and work at it you can find proper reports, the only veg ones are 2006 trials or earlier. I have written back to her thanking her for replying and saying that I didn't realise there was such a delay from putting out some sort of press release of the results (which must be used for the articles like the courgette one in KG) to the publication of the full report.

[Colin Miles]

Thanks Geoff. Will be interested to read it. Certainly I was most disappointed with Defender last year. Am going for Partenon this year, though I note that the KG article would seem to indicate that there is no such thing as a truly parthogenic variety yet.