Seeds open pollination varieties

Most breeding programs are aimed at the development of hybrids, although other projects are for the improvement of open-pollinated varieties and synthetic culti-vars. In view of the improvements in yield, disease resistance, uniformity, and self-compatibility achieved in some modifications, open-pollinated varieties have been replaced by hybrids. Varieties have been produced with increased oil content of seeds and/or improvements in oil composition. 

In spite of these hopeful pronouncements and intentions, if one examines carefully many of the agricultural innovations of the twentieth century—innovations that seemed purely technical and hence neutral —one cannot but conclude that many of them created commercial and political monopolies that inevitably diminished the autonomy of the farmer. The revolution in hybrid seeds, particularly corn, had this effect. Since hybrids are either sterile or do not breed "true, the seed company that has bred the parents of the hybrid-cross has valuable property in hybrid seed, which it can sell every year, unlike the open-pollinated varieties which the farmer can select himself. ... 

Seed from open-pollinated varieties of com can be saved for replanting, but hybrid seed tends to revert to the character of the original inbred lines after the initial expression of optimum traits in the hybrid generation. The hybrid is proprietary in character as the particular inbred lines can be kept secret. The farmer is motivated to use the proprietary hybrid over purebred varieties because of the relative advantages of the hybrid in terms of such qualities as superior yield and increased disease resistance. Kloppenburg... 

I am about three-fourths of the way through the catalog, dazzled by the pictures of plump hybrids and beautiful open-pollinated vegetable varieties, but when I start adding up the bill for my choices, I get into triple digits very quickly, and I start to think that maybe we should just grow and save our own seed at the student farm. 

Synthetic varieties are based on several (more than two) well-combining parental lines or clones which are grown together in a polycross scheme with open pollination for seed produc tion. The uniformity and performance is not as high as at Fj hybrids but the method is simpler and cheaper and the seed quality acceptable for crop production until the second or third generation. Synthetic cultivars are known for chamomile (Franz et al., 1985), arnica (Daniel and Bomme, 1991), marjoram (Franz and Novak, 1997), sage (Aiello et al., 2001), or caraway (Pank et al., 2007). 

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