No, those are misconceptions, except under extraordinary circumstances.

1) "unless it is an heirloom seed it would not be viable". More hybrids than not will be fertile if seeds are collected from them. The rare cases are those from species so distantly related, that their chromosome counts are not normal and thereby affect the reproductive process. You can buy seeds with those types of chromosome counts, and they often produce seedless offspring or are infertile, but it's a long process to even produce them, not likely to happen spontaneously in your garden. So, that's essentially a false assumption.

2) "And if it does grow a plant it will never bear fruit. She said that she was always told that any and all hybrid seeds are genetically altered to not set fruit. No genetic alterations are done on hybrid seed. She must be thinking of GMO seed and that's an whole different ballgame than you'll find on a retail seed rack. All of my hybrid tomatoes for instance are fertile, I'm sure and their seed will still produce a tomato as well as an heirloom. The only difference is that if bred against itself, the seedlings it produces will not consistantly be similar to the parents in all respects. Some may, others may not. It's long and complicated to explain and has to do with ratios and statistics. LOL. Trust me, the odds are good you'll have babies off the seed. They just may not be what you expect.

Amen to Calliope's statement. Hybrids will for the most part be viable. Exceptions are the few (very few in the case of vegetables) interspecies crosses) Heirloom has become a catch- all word. That are lots of commercial open pollinated cultivars. Heirloom should mean something that was developed by a private family and handed down.

All blackeye peas are open pollinated, they will cross with other peas so you can get mixed peas. The difference is basicly that hybrids are deliberately crossed to get a product with specific characteristics. When planted the second generation will have some revert back to the parents.

Sometimes I save seeds from vegetables and fruits I've purchased, dry them, and plant them. They are viable.

Lorna

Yes hybrid seeds are viable but they do not maintain their characteristics and usually exhibit the nature of a parent. This can be a big disappointment at times. As stated, there is also such a thing as sterile hybrids where no viable offspring can occur for example seedless(parthenocarpy). The only way to consistently grow such hybrids is to cross the parents for each generation.

But if you are going to save and plant seeds from hybrids, be sure to mark and identify your plants as such. You will get deviations - fruit that do not look or taste anything like what you expected - some good, some bad. So if you have them marked as saved hybrids you won't be surprised. ;)

Dave

so does that mean that all tomato seeds sold on the market are heirloom seeds? if not, how is it that hybird seeds are sold if they will not produce true?

No. Both open pollinated and hybrid seeds are available for tomatoes and a number of other vegetables. F1 hybrid seeds were developed to deliver a product with minimum variability. If you save seeds from the growout of an F1, a percentage of them will revert back to the characteristics of the parent plants. Open pollinated plants do have more variability, but saved seeds will produce the same type of plants. (breed true)
If you are a seed saver, then stick with OP's and be carefull that they are not cross pollinated.

For those who have not already visited your thread on the Bean Forum, it may be worth pointing out that no F1 hybrid seeds are sold for cowpeas, beans or other legumes. Because of their particular pollination mechanism, it is impractical to produce F1 hybrid seed for them. There are also other categories of vegetables for which only open pollinated seed is sold. However, without going into the reasons for it, seed for tomatoes, peppers, corn and some other categories is very frequently F1 hybrid.

Jim

Thank you everyone for your help! Last night I went out and noticed that my black-eyed peas have emerged! It will be interesting to see what fruit I get out of them. I appreciate all the advice.

Happy Gardening - Kara