How do you know seed will produce?

15 years ago

If I collected seed from a plant that was originally purchased from a nursery or garden centre last season how do I know that the seed is viable and will produce a plant? I am hearing lots about hybrid plants and that the seed is no good. Well... how do you know? Sorry for such an elementary question.

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Comments (7)

duane456
15 years ago
I've found it's pretty much trial and error. You have to experiment. That's what makes it interesting.
Duane
dorisl
15 years ago
Yep, what duane said,

Whatcha got?

:)
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ramazz
15 years ago
Plant a bunch of them. If they sprout, the plants probably won't look exactly like the one you bought, but you will never know unless you try.

Becky
terrene
15 years ago
You can conduct a seed germination test. It's real easy. I did it a few weeks ago on some Tomato, Cucumber, and Chile pepper seeds that have been in my seed drawer for ages. These seeds were OLD - packed in 1997 and 1998 - and I was curious to see if they would sprout.

I used a flat Tupperware container lined with paper towels. Thoroughly wet the paper towels with a sprayer, and then laid 4 seeds of each veggie in the container. Labeled seeds. Spritzed the seeds once a day to keep them moist and store in a warm, dark place. Leave the top of the container cracked so they have air. When they start to sprout you can put them on the counter.

The cucumbers sprouted in 3 days. The Tomatoes and then chile peppers a few days after that. Out of 12 seeds, 10 sprouted with healthy sprouts. 1 Cucumber was a deformed sprout and 1 tomato didn't sprout at all.

For seeds that need cold stratification, you could accomplish that by putting the seeds in some moist vermiculite or sand and put them in the refrigerator and wait for them to sprout.
stage_rat
15 years ago
You can do internet searches and sometimes find the answer. You could google something like: "echinacea razmatazz true from seed" and see what pops up. Sometimes the Plantfiles entry, or comments on there, will tell you if seeds are sterile or come true. Sometimes you'll read opposing information on different sites, so do read more than one.
trudi_d
15 years ago
"I am hearing lots about hybrid plants and that the seed is no good"

Malarky. Tired dogma.

There is profit in stability, almost all hybrids will produce viable seed and among them most will be true or so close to the parent plant that you can't tell any differences.

Also, if you look at patented plants they all reproduce true from seed. That is a requirement to get the patent.
remy_gw
15 years ago
Hi,
Most hybrids will make seed that are viable. There are few sterile flowers out there, but the vast majority make good seed. They can be fun to grow seedlings from.
Some hybrids offspring will be markedly different than the parent. Some plant families look very much alike and if you make a hybrid, it won't vary much from the rest so the babies from the hybrid probably won't either. Now some plant families are much more complex and the seedlings will vary greatly like say seedlings from a rose. Also, if an interesting trait of the chosen hybrid is recessive, it may not appear in the babies or in very few.
Remy