Viewing post #555352 by RickCorey

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Feb 13, 2014 5:47 PM CST
Name: Rick Corey
Everett WA 98204 (Zone 8a)
Sunset Zone 5. Koppen Csb. Eco 2f
Frugal Gardener Garden Procrastinator I helped beta test the first seed swap Plant and/or Seed Trader Seed Starter Region: Pacific Northwest
Photo Contest Winner: 2014 Avid Green Pages Reviewer Garden Ideas: Master Level Garden Sages I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! I helped plan and beta test the plant database.
I'm going to go way, way out on a limb and guess that heirloom vegetables don't vary as much as some heirloom flowers.

If some heirloom pea or pumpkin has a wildly unusual feature, like extreme size or leafless vines, you might lose that unusual feature in the 20% to 60% of seeds that are cross-pollinated.

But if the heirloom veggie is pretty normal, my guess is that most crosses will be at least half-way like the heirloom parent.

I know that when I saved seeds from some giant HYBRID zinnias with weird flower shapes, grown amongst normal zinnias, the "giant" and "weird" traits disappeared in the crosses, as if they were recessive traits, or ONLY appeared when certain rare combinations of genes were contrived.

But I am just guessing. "A pea is a pea" and the traits are mostly matters of degree.

If some heirloom pumpkin had something unusual like the "Moon and Stars" coloring or a very unusual shape, you might lose that.

Maybe squashes are wildly variable. I've never grown them.

Remember, those were mostly guesses.


>> the "new" variety may not produce as much food as the original variety.

If you were saving seeds from modern F1 hybrid varieties, I would agree. Some of those are highly optimized for yield, and losing the exact F1 combination would probably lose you the unusual yield that someone had carefully bred for (like a greyhound or thoroughbred racehorse). Saving seeds from F1 hybrids or their outcrosses is a waste unless you like experimenting.

But heirlooms are not F1 hybrids. They are more like stable workhorses and I would not expect crosses among most heirloom vegetables to drop the yield by much. You might even get "heterosis" where out-crossing can enhance vigor for a few generations.

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