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thetick_gw

Creating a better heirloom vs. creating a hybrid

20 years ago

I am giving a seed-saving demonstration and I want to be sure I have my facts straight about open-pollinated and hybrid plants. I have just started learning about hybridization. Can you please tell me if the example below is accurate and, if not, what should be changed to make it more accurate?

Many thanks!

This is the simplistic example I plan to presentÂ

If I want to create a better heirloom Brandywine tomato for my region (and my taste), I ensure the plant pollinates itself and save the seeds from fruit that have characteristics I favor. The resulting plant is said to be "open-pollinated" (which seems to be a misnomer since I had to ensure it was not pollinated by another variety of tomato).

If I want a different type of Brandywine, say a fruit that is more like a roma, I would pollinate the Brandywine with the pollen from my favorite heirloom roma tomato, like MartinoÂs Roma. I would save seeds from fruit that have characteristics I favor  namely a roma-like Brandywine. Planting these seeds would result in a "F1 hybrid" plant; meaning it is the first generation (a filial) that resulted from crossing two pure parents. If I plant the seeds from these F1 Brandy-Roma fruits, the resulting plants will likely resemble either the Brandywine or the MartinoÂs Roma. These plants are "F2 hybrids".

If I want to stabilize the Brandy-Roma and try to grow the plant without having to cross the parents each time, I would plant the seeds from the F2 Brandy-Roma and ensure that the resulting plants pollinate themselves. I would save the seeds from fruit that have characteristics I favor  namely a roma-like Brandywine. I would repeat this planting, self-pollinating, and seed-saving process until all the plants in a single generation consistently produce favorable roma-like Brandywine fruits. At this point it can be said I have created a new "open-pollinated" variety.

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