If you are new to gardening, you are probably wondering what these terms mean and how they affect seed saving.
Open Pollinated:
If your goal is to save seeds, it is best to do it with seeds from open pollinated plants. This means that if you isolate or distance any varieties within the same plant species, you will get a plant similar to the parent plant.
Open pollinated seeds are more genetically diverse which allows a plant to adapt to the local environment.
Open pollinated seeds can cross pollinate via wind and insects and make an unintended hybrid. Since it is more difficult for a home gardener to isolate varieties because of space issues, we are going to talk about a way to help prevent cross pollination next.
Typically, open pollinated seeds are cheaper to purchase and are identified as OP by the seed companies. All heirloom seeds are open pollinated and are past down from generation to generation within a family or community.
Hybrid:
If your goal is to get a desired result, it is best to use hybrid seeds. Basically hybrids seeds are commercially cross pollinated to achieve a result such as increased production, disease resistance and/or pest resistance.
Hybrid seeds are not good for seed saving as the plants might produce seeds that won’t grow at all or won’t be the same mix as the grandparents.
Since hybrid seeds are more expensive to produce, they are more expensive to purchase. Hybrid seeds are often identified by the seed companies as F1.
As for my garden, I’ve been growing an heirloom and open pollinated roma tomato called San Marzano and a hybrid one called Super Marzano. The San Marzano tomato is in the middle in the photo. I really prefer the Super Marzano which is way more productive and disease resistant.
