[Fossilman]

Hello, I have been gardening for many years and I do not use hybrid seed. The short answer is that you can plant the seeds and they will grow. But the resultant tomatoes may or may not be the same size and may not taste the same as the tomato that you collected the seeds from. Hybrid seeds are a cross or 2 or more varieties with different characteristics. So when you plant seeds from them, they may turn out like one or the other original varieties which can be very different from the original hybrid seeds. I would recommend that you plant heirloom/open pollinated seeds if you want to collect your own seeds in the future.

[TCam]

Thanks for you answered. So the company that I order them from must crossbreed them and sell me those seeds. Is that right?

[Fossilman]

I can’t say for sure what the seeds they are selling are, but hybrid generally means the plant or seeds are the result of crossing 2 or more different parent plants to make the hybrid.

[TCam]

Thanks for your help.

[BiggKidd]

Let me see if I can help. When you order hybrid seeds the seeds you get have been crossed with one or more other types of plants. So at minimum you have a+b to make the seed you get. Now it could be a multi cross a+b+c+d+e or a+b and c+d with those seeds call them g and h crossed again to give you the seed you ordered. But anyway the seed you get from those hybrid plants will usually grow just fine be they will not be the same as the tomato they came from. Hope that helps.

[Hippocrates_Garden]

all the seeds are hybrid seeds, period. Unless they existed at the beginning of time and have not been changed since then, they are a hybrid, the are the result of cross-pollination at some point in the past.

Those that can be planted and produce “true to form” meaning say a Cherokee Purple resulting in a cherokee purple, have been at some point selected, saved, planted, harvested, selected, saved etc for multiple generations (of the plant) until almost 100% grow “true to form”, that may have taken 20, 30, 50 “generations” to become “stabilized” Thus, technically they are a “stabilized hybrid”

Most of the problem with being able to save, plant and get the same thing comes from the seed you buying be a “first generation” (aka F1) hybrid. Not only are you unlikely to get the same thing from saved seed, but it may be patented and thus be guilty of patent infringement if you save and reuse.

Add to that the GMO’s which, unless you had to literally sign a contract to be able to buy, and it likely included a mandate to use certain chemicals, only purchased from the same company, you haven’t bought “GMO” seed, so unless something really new is happening, this is not a concern for your home garden.

Anytime someone says you “can’t” do plant this, or that, or “Can’t” compost x or y, they are likely overgeneralizing to the point of absurdity, or have no actual idea what they are talking about.