The term “open-pollinated” refers to a plant's ability to propagate itself naturally, either using self-pollination or cross-pollination by means of insects or wind. The seeds of open-pollinated crops can be saved and when they are planted out, they will be "true to type" or, in other words, the same as what you planted last year.

In an agricultural setting, the term 'open-pollinated' is used to differentiate inbred F1 hybrid crop varieties (created in isolated environments) from genetically diverse crop varieties that are propagated by the free exchange of pollen between plants of the same variety or cultivar.

Open-pollinated garden crops undergo a process of selection by the seed saver or plant breeder to improve and adapt a variety over time. This is the traditional method to evolve agricultural crops as they respond to the challenges of their unique surroundings. This process allows the seed saver to select for desirable traits and mutations within the crop population. "Open-pollinated" is a broad term that includes many different types of plant populations including heirlooms, landraces, grexes, swarms, stabilized crosses, ect. These are more technical classifications, all of which are considered open-pollinated.

What Are Hybrids?

The term “hybrid” has been the subject of much confusion for growers. The term “hybridized" is used as scientific classifications to denote when two distinct varieties have been crossed to make a unique offspring. However, the offspring of such a cross is not called a hybrid variety. Hybridization is how nature evolves herself. It is a natural process of pollen exchange between two distinct varieties and many open pollinated crops that we enjoy today have undergone that process in their creation at one point or another. When natural hybridization occurs the offspring is known as an "open-pollinated cross". This distinction is important because "hybrid varieties" or "F1 hybrids" that you find in seed catalogues are a very specific class of crops. They are the result of a particular process involving much more than simple pollen exchange.

The creation of an F1 hybrid begins with at least two distinct varieties known as 'parent lines' that often times begin as open-pollinated varieties. The parent lines are kept isolated from one another and they are continuously inbred over several growing cycles. This inbreeding process includes the selection of a singular desired trait within each distinct variety and a narrowing of the gene pool. After multiple generations of inbreeding and selecting, the breeder will have eventually isolated the desired trait and achieved what is referred to as “pure and stable parent lines”. The genetic variability has been reduced to such a small degree that the cross between these two “pure and stable parent lines” will be very predictable and the isolated qualities within each parent line will express itself in the offspring. The offspring is referred to as an F1 hybrid, or 1st filial (first child). This generation exhibits what is referred to as "hybrid vigor" or heterosis. Although not yet fully understood, heterosis is when the parent lines, each genetically homogeneous and quite fragile, have benefited from the introduction of the much needed new genetic information and their offspring, the F1 hybrid, exhibits "supercharged growth". Heterosis one of the main goals of F1 hybrid breeding; however, this phenomenon is not exclusive to F1 hybrids. Heterosis is present any time a cross between two distinct varieties takes place and open-pollinated crop breeders also tap into heterosis-- but without the generations of inbreeding. When the seeds of hybrids are planted out they will not be true to the variety that you harvested. They will revert back to an amalgamation of genetics from the original parent lines. You can save seed from hybrids but it will be a mix of varying forms, flavors, colors and performance. Many growers note there can be stunted growth as well. F1 hybrid breeding is essentially "unfinished work" because the breeders have not stabilized the desired traits into a single form or variety that is able to reproduce year after year, which means they have created a product that must be purchased at market year after year.

F1 hybrid varieties are a unique class of crops and should be understood as such. F1 hybrid breeding isn't inherently a bad thing but it has almost exclusively been used as a means of market domination. The techniques of hybrid breeding can be useful when one wishes to harness specific genetic traits in a relatively short period of time. Using those techniques to create a monopoly in agriculture; however, has created inequitable seed access and the corporatization of a natural process.

The Hybrid Mythos

Hybrid seeds are often advertised as being superior to their open-pollinated counterparts. This has been put forth by hybrid seed producers in order to bolster their product. OP varieties are as high performing as hybrid varieties— provided you choose the right cultivar (variety) for your unique locality and environmental conditions. Hybrids are often created under very high input systems and in order for them to reach their full "potential", they must be hyper-fertilized and often need the addition of pesticides and bactericides (organic or otherwise) to achieve high yields. Most hybrid varieties are not bred by organic farmers for organic soils nor are they selected in organic environments. We have seen many instances of crop failure in a wide variety of hybrid crops on organic farms for that very reason. By comparison, OP varieties, if developed and continually selected properly, can be specifically bred to thrive in organic growing environments. Many hybrids are created for long-term storage and transportation at the expense of all else, and for this reason they tend to be less nutritious and oftentimes have half the flavor that open-pollinated varieties have, especially when compared to many of the heirloom varieties. A 2004 study entitled “Changes in USDA food composition for 43 garden crops, 1950-1999” analyzes the reduction of nutrition in hybrid crops over the span of fifty years. (We will explore this research paper in an upcoming blog post, but for now you can find the paper on PubMed here.)

Are hybrids are bad? Are OPs the best? Life is far more nuanced than our polarizing mental faculties make it seem. Hybrid technology, like any technology, has a place. It has the capacity to develop a particular trait in a relatively short period of time. However, the hybrid seed industry has used this technology to privatize seed varieties thus accumulating massive monetary gain. In addition, the corporate alliance of seed and agro-chemical companies have merged to such a large scale that 60% of the world's seed is controlled by just five companies, most of which are also the biggest suppliers of agro-chemicals. It is important that we take an honest look at potential biases and intentions of a technology and consider what may be misleading or not fully disclosed regarding its limitations.

What Drives Hybrid Technology?

There are a few issues that came with the rise of hybrid seed production beginning in the 1930’s. Hybrids allow an easy way for companies to theoretically own varieties without having to get expensive plant patents, such as a PVP or Plant Variety Protection. With the identities of inbred parent lines kept as proprietary information, the hybrid seed company have the "ingredients", so to speak, to make that very specific F1 hybrid. Those inbred parent lines must reproduce with one another each season in order to create the current stock of seed for sale in the marketplace. This ensures that customers must come back to the seed company each season in order to grow that particular F1 variety. As hybrids rapidly replaced OP varieties in commercial seed catalogues, farmers and gardeners had fewer and fewer options of crop varieties to choose from-- if they wanted the option to save their own true-to-type seed. This privatization of seed dovetails with the prohibitive cost of hybrid seed at market. There are varieties today that generate upwards of $100,000 per pound of seed. That is on the upper extreme of price per pound, but it does suggest an incentive to develop hybrid seed and neglect open-pollinated crop breeding.

Creating a monopoly on hybrid crops is so effective and the economic gain so high, that the seed industry has not put the effort into properly selecting and developing outstanding open-pollinated varieties. The myopic focus on F-1 hybrid breeding has led to an agricultural crop biodiversity crisis as many of the older OP varieties have been lost. Some statistics estimate that in the US alone, as much as 90% of the OP varieties that were around a century ago are now gone. The tragic irony, of course, in such a corrupt situation is that if we continue to lose OP varieties, we also lose the genetic source material from which we can make future varieties of both OP and hybrid crops. Even if only 40% of OP variety loss has occurred, a large part of the remaining 60% are frozen in seed vaults and not being actively grown out, adapted and selected in response to our dramatically changing climate year after year. Eventually they could become ill-adapted to our mounting climate pressures, or worse. Any interruption in the routine maintenance of a seed vault's inventory by means of inadequate funding, natural disaster, war, etc. could render countless precious varieties from around the world extinct. If we do not have OP varieties with superior performance, how can we continue to adapt and evolve our agriculture?

Any organism or ecosystem is only as resilient as it is diverse. Monoculture is the antithesis of life. We need many thousands of OP varieties of every crop to be grown out all over the world that are actively being adapted to unique places and selected for unique traits valuable to those communities. Not only does this make life rich in beauty, expression and flavor but it also creates strength, security, resiliency and abundance.

In this video Frank Morton, renown seed breeder of Wild Garden Seeds, speaks on the development of hybrid technologies and the shifting roles of farmers, breeders and seed companies beginning in the 1930s.

Rigorous Selection: Why is it important?

At Bhoomi Devi Seeds we are focused on the rigorous selection and development of open-pollinated crop varieties. Ideally, open-pollinated varieties undergo "rigorous selection" as they respond to various environmental pressures. This is opposed to "randomized selection" which is the practice of selecting seed at random paying no attention to traits or mutations that offer resistance to the multitude of environmental pressures that plants contend with. By attentively selecting a variety over a long period of time, you can accumulate beneficial traits like pest and disease resistance, high yields, and excellent flavor whilst winnowing out negative ones. The seed itself becomes a living library of genetic material. Rigorous selection of open-pollinated crops produces superior varieties that can match and exceed the performance of F1 hybrids while maintaining the most critical aspect in the cycle of life: genetic diversity.

If the driving machine behind food and seed production moves away from OP and exclusively towards hybrid crops, then naturally all of the industries that serve our collective agriculture will shift to meet that demand. We need a balance of hybrid and properly selected open-pollinated crops in modern seed production. If OP production is not carried out on a large scale, we will see irreversible losses to our already diminishing agricultural crops. The genetic information held within a seed is extensive. These capsules of potential are the link between our past, present, and future. If they are gone they cannot be brought back- particularly if their wild ancestors are endangered or on the very brink of extinction. If these treasured varieties vanish, we lose thousands of years of intricate selection representing the interwoven plant-human partnership and we lose the very source from which we can further adapt our agricultural crops to meet our modern challenges.