![]() In the interest of producing plants with the characteristics you are expecting, you will want to isolate your selected plants from other varieties. ![]() Saving seeds is about growing food, of course, but it’s also about preserving the genes from the specific varieties that you like – so that you can ensure more predictable results. If you need some ideas, you’ll find a selection of open-pollinated cultivars in our article on the 13 best varieties of these root vegetables. So choose an open-pollinated variety to start with, to make sure you know exactly what to expect when you plant your saved seeds. With hybrids, the seed may also fail to be viable at all. Seeds from hybrids may produce plants with desirable traits – or they may have undesirable ones. The first generation produced from the F1 hybrid will have these selected properties – but if you let those carrots mature, the seeds they produce are not guaranteed to produce true to type, or replicate and maintain the characteristics of the parent plant. When plant breeders create a hybrid vegetable, each parent plant is chosen for various desirable properties – for example, long orange roots from one parent, and super sweet flavor from the other. Hybrid cultivars are the result of cross-pollination between two distinct parent plants. Make sure you choose one that is open-pollinated rather than a hybrid. Photo by Kristina Hicks-Hamblinīut don’t pick just any cultivar. ![]() For most backyard gardeners, the easiest way to ensure that you get a seed crop which grows true to type is to plant a single variety – for reasons we’ll get to in the next section.
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