Kitchen Garden Forum

I am new to having an allotment. I have been reading books but I have a question about F1 seeds. Is it possible to take for example a corn cob and save the seed for next year. I have had several answers from people about this. I have been told that if i save seed from an F1 runner bean it will not produce a true bean.

Hi Trevor. Welcome to the forum!

F1 seeds are hybrids, or crosses between plants, usually bred to produce plants bearing the best qualities of each. You would get a plant from saved seed but not exactly the same as the one you originally grew, so possibly not as good either.

There are folks on here far more knowledgeable than myself who will be able to tell you more on this subject but I think that is the gist of it.

Look forward to hearing of your progress with your allotment! Happy gardening.
Cheers.

Hi Trevor

A warm welcome to the forum.

If you click HERE you will find all you need to know about F1 seeds.

Many thanks for your thoughts. Will try a row just to see what the result is.

A link for you to look at the heritage option as opposed to F1, i use mostly heritaage varieties because I can save seed from year to year and plants adjust to local soil and growing conditions. I do use a few F1 seeds,and sweetcorn is one, haven't found a heritage variety of sweetcorn that does as well F1 seeds. Generally F1's are dearer and developed for the food industry and supermarkets, to travel well, look good and crop all at once -
not for tenderness, flavour, variety, and staggered cropping which is better suited to the home gardener.

http://www.earthportals.com/free.html

Hi Trevor,
There is no reason why you should not experiment by growing the progeny of an F1 plant as an experiment. With all experiments you must understand that there could well be a very disappointing outcome.
Just for information, I do not know of any F1 Beans of any sort so the person who gave you that information is not really the person to listen to.
JB.