Ii it better to buy vegetable seeds in a packet, than to harvest seeds from your own vegetables for later use?

Question

I grew some okra from seed I took from last years crop. They are very stunted.

Answer 1

I don't think that it's a "racket" by the seed companies to get you to buy seed in packets. It's the knowledgeable advancement that botanists use in plant genetics that makes you have to by hybridized seed. Seed in the F2 generation, will not grow true to form. In other words, it will not be just like the plant that it came from and will most likely take the growing and production habits from one of the parent plants, which in the long run may have an undesirable trait. In order to get a healthy maximum producing plant, you will need to buy seed in packets which have been bred for maximum yield and perfect plant growth. Hope this answers your question.

**Billy Ray**

Answer 2

If you buy seeds from a store, like Target or Home Depot, or even from catalogs like Gurney's, they are most likely hybrids. A hybrid is when they breed two different varieties together, which can give you the best genes from both parents. However, the next generation of offspring from the hybrids usually has pretty messed up genes, because they aren't mixing in the same way as the first generation.

You best bet is to start with heirloom varieties. These are vegetables that people have been growing for many years, with no hybridization, so generation after generation the genes are good.

In my opinion, it is better to harvest your own seeds. You can select seeds from the strongest plants, so after a few years you will have selected for the best genes for your soil and climate. If you are interested, you should try to find books or websites about seed saving, and depending on the kind of vegetable, you might want to pollinate them by hand, or somehow protect them from cross-pollination with your neighbor's plants.

Answer 3

Yeah it better to buy it in packets unless you can find a source thats not hybred as most vegtable seed is these days.They either don't produce a second crop or bear very small fruit as you experienced.Its a racket the seed companies have to keep you buying seed...Look for a source of non-hybred on the net I'm sure you'll find some that you can collect your own seed from.

Answer 4

My wager might want to be no, except you're speaking organic and organic produce or stuff from a farmer's marketplace, or perhaps then no longer continually. I bear in suggestions listening to at the same time as i turned right into a newborn that fruit changed into dealt with with something to kill its means to reproduce (as if all and assorted is going to attempt to plant a cherry tree). It sounds life like, and that i actual do not lower price the probability, yet i imagine there's a extra robust clarification: no longer something interior the international it extremely is a hybrid is in a position to reproduce. Mules and ligers are sterile for a reason. they are freaks of nature! And that apple you're biting into might want to correctly be juicy, crunchy, and sweet, notwithstanding that's a freak of nature too, crossed between many breeds of alternative apples to grant optimal style and perfect features for baking, eating, etc.

Answer 5

Generally speaking, yes, because of the reasons stated.

About your okra, make sure you get it in soon enough so it has a long hot growing season, but not so early that the ground is still cool.

Okra is my favorite vegetable!