What is a cucumber hybrid? Natural product or hazardous mixture. What is F1 Seeds What is F1 Hybrid

What are hybrids? How are they produced? What are the benefits hybrid seeds before varietal seeds. Why hybrid seeds are more expensive than varietal seeds. Why seeds obtained from hybrid plants are not recommended for cultivation in subsequent years.

Hybrid seeds are the fruit of the patient work of breeders. On sale there are seeds of hybrids of the first generation. The hallmark of a hybrid that distinguishes it from a variety is the symbol F1. For example "Farmer F1". F - These are children (from the Italian Filli). 1 is the generation number.

Hybrids are obtained by artificial pollination of flowers of different varieties of the same crop. For such crossing, parents are carefully selected until the planned positive result. And when the result is achieved, the hybrid is patented. Parental forms are usually kept secret. One of the parents does not always have best performance, from the point of view of the fruit consumer, however, it may have unique abilities to resist dangerous diseases. So when using a variety of characteristics of parents when crossing, children can be "born" who inherit resistance to diseases from one parent and excellent yields from the other. Just like people do. Fashion model says - " beautiful figure I received from my mother, and an expressive look from my father.

Sometimes F1 hybrids outperform both parents in a number of positive ways. Breeders call this miracle heterosis. And hybrids with such signs are called heterotic. On the packaging with seeds, this feature is certainly mentioned. Today there is great amount hybrids, which are a serious competitor to varieties in the seed market. Hybrid seeds are expensive, and plants from them grow powerful, strong and abundantly fruiting.

Hybrid plants produce very little a large number of seeds compared to varieties. This is one of the reasons for their high cost. Vegetable growers - lovers are advised to buy exactly expensive seeds, because in the end they will become cheap, bringing a plentiful and high-quality harvest. Cheap seeds are a lot more fiddly, and the end result is usually only satisfactory. Often there is a complete lack of harvest, as a result of unwisely purchased cheap seeds, they turn into gold.

Do not store seeds obtained from hybrids for sowing on next year. Since in the second generation there is a “scattering” of the positive characteristics of the hybrid into parental forms, the quality of which will not satisfy the vegetable grower for the reasons stated above. What of them can grow, only the author of the hybrid knows.

One of the easiest for experienced and rather difficult for beginner vegetable growers is the question of which seeds to buy - FI varieties or hybrids. What is the difference between them, except, of course, that FI hybrid seeds sometimes cost several times more than ordinary varieties . This and other questions are answered exhaustively by the breeder, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences S. F. GAVRISH.
AT last years on the shelves of stores selling seeds vegetable crops, along with the usual varieties, F1 hybrids appeared. In principle, externally, except for the Latin letter F with the number 1 (F1), standing before the name of the variety (for example, tomato F1 Druzhok), these packages are no different from any others. But the price of hybrid seeds is much higher than that of conventional varietal seeds. And this is no coincidence.
To understand what is the difference between them, first of all, you need to know how their seed production is conducted.
For many years in our country, both in large state vegetable farms and in household plots, only seeds of ordinary varieties of vegetable crops were used. By the concept of "ordinary variety" we mean a separate set of plants created and grown by a breeder with certain economic (productivity, early maturity, marketability), morphological (number of leaves and their shape, fruit size and color, etc.) and other features. The most important feature varieties is its ability to retain all its positive and negative properties in the next offspring. When obtaining and harvesting seeds from plants of a common variety, especially from self-pollinating (tomato, pea, bean) or partially self-pollinating vegetable crops (pepper, eggplant, lettuce, beans), in subsequent offspring we will get plants with almost exactly the same set of traits. This ability to transfer all its properties to offspring makes it easy to maintain and propagate, even on a personal plot, varieties of self-pollinating crops. But with mass harvesting of seeds, when regular selection of the best plants for a given variety is not used, within 3-5 years, some characteristics characteristic of this variety may be lost. There is, as vegetable growers say, a degeneration of the variety. Therefore, with a well-established seed production of varieties, even self-pollinating vegetable crops, once every 3-5 years it is necessary to purchase seeds of the elite of the variety you like. It is better to buy them not in the market, but in stores owned by specialized enterprises engaged in the creation, reproduction and sale of seeds of vegetable varieties (Sortsemovoshch, Russian Seeds, Semko, Gavrish, Manul).
It is much more difficult, but it is also quite possible to propagate or support a variety of any cross-pollinating vegetable crop - cucumber, cabbage, zucchini, carrots, beets, pumpkins, watermelons, etc. Here, the presence is nearby flowering plants another variety of this crop (for example, on a personal plot) leads to over-pollination, and consequently, to a partial or complete loss of characteristics characteristic of this variety. And the closer the two are different varieties, the stronger the cross-pollination occurs. At the same time, in the offspring we receive, a mixture of signs of two, three and more varieties, as a result, the variety disappears and we have a set of plants with completely different characteristics and properties and low productivity. A bee or bumblebee carrying pollen freely flies from flower to flower at a distance of up to 2000 m.
Therefore, the reproduction of even simple cross-pollinating varieties in your backyard requires special knowledge of the biology of flowering of a particular crop. If, however, spatial or any other isolation is observed, as well as forced self-pollination, then in the next offspring a well-selected variety will basically retain all the properties inherent only to it.
Thus, simple variety it is possible for several years to obtain and harvest seeds from which plants will grow that have retained all its main features.
It breeds differently. hybrid variety or hybrid F1. Two centuries ago it was known that when crossing two different varieties in the offspring, the size of plants increases markedly, their growth and development are accelerated, and precocity and productivity increase. This phenomenon, that is, an increase in vitality in the offspring obtained from crossing two different varieties, is called heterosis. And the more contrasting the parental varieties, the more they differ from each other, the higher the heterosis.
The practical use of the phenomenon of heterosis began in the 20-30s of our century. For all vegetable crops, heterosis is carried out and F1 hybrids have been obtained, which are widely used in production. In countries with developed agriculture, ordinary varieties are practically not grown in vegetable growing. They have been replaced everywhere by F1 hybrids. In our country, one of the first to use the phenomenon of heterosis in production, the replacement of conventional varieties with F1 hybrids is rather slow. In many cases, this is due to the fact that with such a low level of agricultural technology that exists in most vegetable farms, the advantages of F1 hybrids over conventional varieties are leveled. But in protected ground, where every meter of area is accounted for, only F1 hybrids of cucumber and tomato are used.
What are the advantages of F1 hybrids over conventional varieties? Thanks to the crossing of two specially created and well-selected initial parental lines, the plants of F1 hybrids are more uniform and even in their biological and morphological features than regular varieties.
F1 hybrids also differ in precocity and more high yield, resistance to adverse environmental factors and product uniformity. Their valuable quality is their good adaptability to the often changing and not always favorable environment. AT extreme conditions cultivation ( in early spring, with sudden changes in air temperature or summer heat), F1 hybrids develop much better than conventional varieties. High level adaptation to adverse factors contributes to obtaining consistently high yields.
In hybrids of the first generation (F1) by correct selection initial parental lines partially manage to overcome negative correlations, for example, between productivity and precocity. The combination of these two economically useful traits in one genotype in the F1 hybrid is one of the most valuable achievements of heterotic breeding.
Not less than important requirement applied to F1 hybrids is their genetic resistance to diseases and pests. This is especially true when growing vegetables in film greenhouses. The specifics of the protected ground microclimate, prolonged cultivation of one or two crops in one place leads to a significant accumulation of pathogenic microflora and fauna. Chemical Methods control of diseases and pests in greenhouses is not always effective and reliable. In addition, tomato or cucumber fruits intended for consumption in fresh must not contain pesticide residues. Therefore, the genetic resistance of F1 hybrids to diseases due to the combination of the traits of the two parental lines is always higher than that of ordinary varieties. F1 tomato hybrids with group resistance to three or four diseases (tobacco mosaic virus, brown leaf spot, fusarium, verticillium) and root-knot nematodes have already been obtained and used in production.
Friendly emergence of seedlings, uniformity of plants, high quality and uniformity of fruits, genetic resistance to diseases and pests - positive traits F1 hybrids due to their biological uniformity. Therefore, for personal plot, if possible, it is necessary to purchase seeds of only F1 hybrids.
Unlike conventional varieties from hybrid plants, harvesting seeds is unacceptable. The offspring due to splitting is so pestle
eye and heterogeneous, that about any high yield out of the question. The fact that the seeds of F1 hybrids must be purchased at the store every time is their only drawback. But since the germination of tomato and cucumber seeds lasts 5-7 years, you can immediately purchase them with the expectation of several years.
Get your own hybrid seeds in conditions household plots, without having the original parent lines, is impossible. Therefore, if you see F1 hybrid seeds for sale from private traders, then this is probably not true. Buying hybrid seeds on the market puts your crop at risk.
Now about the price of seeds of F1 hybrids. All work on crossing two parental lines to obtain hybrid seeds is carried out, as a rule, manually in protected ground. For example, in a tomato culture, when obtaining F1 hybrids, it is necessary to castrate (that is, remove stamens) all opening flowers on the maternal line, harvest pollen from the opened flowers of the paternal line with a vibrator and very carefully apply it several times (within two to three days) on stigma of pistil. The work on hybrid seed production continues every day for two to three months. One person per season can get only 3-4 kg of hybrid tomato seeds. Therefore, the price of hybrid seeds is several times higher than that of conventional varietal seeds. But the cost of seeds is only 0.5-1% of the value of the resulting products. Undoubtedly, any vegetable grower, when choosing seeds, prefers the F1 hybrid, and not the variety.

Why are F1 seed bags much more expensive than "regular" varieties, and there are very few seeds in them (5-10 pcs.)? Why are their descriptions especially enticing: “resistant”, “yielding”, “highly decorative”, “large-flowered”, etc.? It happens that sellers warn: "It is impossible to collect your seeds from hybrids, as there will be splitting in the future." Finally, from amateur gardeners one sometimes hears that "hybrids are probably the same as transgenic plants, they are unsafe for health."

Hybrids F1 and F2

A hybrid is an offspring obtained from crossing two genetically heterogeneous parental forms: species, lines, varieties, etc. agriculture, as a rule, use first-generation hybrids (i.e., the first offspring from crossing parents), which denote Latin letter F and the number 1. If you collect seeds from F1 hybrids and sow them, then on next year second-generation hybrids will grow, or F2 (this designation can be found on bags with flower seeds).

What are their advantages?

Different parents used in crossing may have some advantage (for example, one is disease resistant, the second is early maturing), and the resulting hybrid will have both advantages at the same time (in this case it will be both early maturing and disease resistant). Thus, by specifically selecting parents for crossing, it is possible to obtain hybrids with a complex of positive traits that cannot be collected in one "ordinary" variety.

A hybrid is an organism resulting from the crossing of genetically different forms. Obtaining hybrids is a common practice in zoology and crop production. Experts cross different breeds and varieties to obtain species with new properties.

Read about the varieties and benefits of hybrids below.

What are the benefits of a hybrid?

A hybrid is an opportunity to combine the advantages of two in one organism. For example, there are two varieties of cucumbers, one variety has excellent disease resistance, the second - early ripening. Competent crossing of these two varieties at the output will give an early ripe and disease-resistant hybrid.

Named hybrids

Each crossing procedure always has a strong theoretical justification, but, nevertheless, not all hybrids meet the expectations of researchers; at the same time, there are hybrids that are so successful that they even get separate names.

Bester is a hybrid of sterlet and beluga, it was obtained in the USSR back in 1952, but it is still being bred, because it combines fast growth beluga with early ripening sterlet. Bester is very prolific, has a length of up to 180 cm and a weight of up to 30 kg.

Also widely known hybrids: a mule is the result of crossing a donkey and a horse, a kama is a hybrid of a one-humped camel and a llama, a liger is a hybrid of a lion and a tigress.

What is a hybrid in the automotive industry?

Today, the word hybrid can often be heard in relation to a car. In this case, he means a car that uses more than one source of energy as fuel, for example, a classic internal combustion engine and an electric motor-generator.

A hybrid car (hybrid) is a vehicle that is equipped not with the usual internal combustion engine, but with the so-called hybrid power unit. The main difference between hybrid cars is that vehicles of this type are driven by the use of several energy sources: thermal and electrical. In other words, a hybrid car has several types of engines on board that power the car.

As for the very concept of a hybrid engine, this term is misunderstood by many as a special power plant. In fact, the term "hybrid" should be understood as several engines different type, which are combined into a complex single system on transformation various sources energy in useful work. In modern automotive industry, hybrid cars are equipped with two types of power units: an electric motor is paired with an internal combustion engine.

Read in this article

The main advantages and disadvantages of hybrid cars

One of the first developments was a scheme in which each of the power plants is activated when certain conditions. If the car is idle or the movement occurs at low speed, then the electric motor turns the wheels. To accelerate and further maintain the speed, it is connected Gas engine. The subsequent development of technology has led to the fact that on hybrids there are several options for implementing the interaction of a familiar engine and an electric motor. Such interaction can be:

consistent;
parallel;
series-parallel;

Consistent interaction

The sequential circuit is reminiscent of electric vehicles, as the movement vehicle implemented through the operation of an electric motor. The internal combustion engine in this design is connected to a generator, power is supplied from the generator to the electric motor itself, and a charge occurs in parallel battery. On one charge lithium ion battery with increased capacity, it is often possible to travel about 50 km. way, after which the internal combustion engine is activated, which extends the specified segment up to 10 times (about 500 km.)

Parallel interaction

Hybrids with parallel interaction of installations suggest the possibility of both separate operation of the internal combustion engine and electric motor, and simultaneous operation. This design It is implemented by combining with the help of special couplings of an electrical unit, an internal combustion engine and a transmission. Such hybrid vehicles receive a low-power electric motor that not only drives the car, but also gives power during acceleration. Often such an electric motor is a starter and car generator, structurally occupying an intermediate position between the internal combustion engine and the gearbox.

Serial-parallel communication

In this design, the internal combustion engine and the electric motor are connected by means of a planetary gearbox. A feature of this implementation scheme is that each power plant can be turned on and off, while giving a minimum or maximum of power to the wheels. Moreover, the specified power is given separately or simultaneously. In the device of such a circuit, there is a generator that feeds the electric motor of the hybrid.

The market leader in hybrid vehicles today is Toyota Corporation, which uses a series-parallel implementation called Hybrid Synergy Drive.

Electric motor, internal combustion engine and generator are combined in common system through a planetary gearbox. The internal combustion engine gives a minimum of power at the "bottom" (Atkinson cycle), allowing you to save fuel. A hybrid car with such an interaction scheme assumes:

Economy mode of driving only on electric traction with the engine off, during which the electric motor is powered by the battery.
Maintaining the set speed by distributing the power of the internal combustion engine to the wheels and the generator, from which the parallel operating electric motor is powered. The battery is also recharged.
The mode of intensive acceleration and serious loads, when the internal combustion engine and the electric motor work in parallel. In this mode, the electric motor is powered by the battery, without power take-off from the generator.

Exploitation of hybrids: busting the myths

Hybrid cars are a novelty that has not been fully improved and has many flaws. This is a myth, as the Toyota brand has been in full-scale mass production of hybrid models for almost 20 years.
In hybrids, the batteries are drained, which leads to problems. This is true, but only partially. On the early stages technology development, such cases have occurred, but today high-precision electronics do not allow deep discharge of the battery.
Hybrid cars are more likely to break down, expensive, and difficult to repair. This is a myth, as hybrid vehicles are no less reliable than conventional diesel and petrol ICEs. Most service stations comprehensively service hybrids on a par with conventional cars. Moreover, the gearbox in hybrids eliminates the presence of frictions, which makes such a transmission simple and reliable, which cannot be said about various types automatic transmission. As for the internal combustion engine, the engine in hybrids often runs on low revs, does not reach peak loads. If we also take into account the Atkinson cycle, then the engine life of a hybrid engine is much longer than a conventional engine.
The ICE of a hybrid has less power, such cars lose in dynamics compared to their counterparts. Yes, the power of internal combustion engines in hybrids is less, but due to the addition of an electric motor, the total power of the units significantly exceeds the power of conventional analogues with one gasoline engine.
The consumption of a hybrid car in practice is not much different from a conventional car. This is partly true, since the consumption rate of hybrid cars directly depends on the driving modes. To achieve maximum economy, it is necessary to change the driving style to slow, calm and smooth, avoiding acceleration, active throttling, etc. In other words, strong pressure on the gas pedal will instruct the control system to start the internal combustion engine.

The idea of saving fuel in hybrid cars is to drive on electric power at speeds up to 60 km/h for as long as possible with a charged battery, which is often enough in dense city traffic. It should also be added that the system takes into account a large number of factors: outdoor temperature, the degree of warming up of the internal combustion engine and , battery charge, driving downhill or on a hill, etc. AT different conditions a hybrid can use an internal combustion engine, or it can move only on electric energy.

A hybrid battery is hard to find commercially and takes up a lot of space in the trunk of a car. This is a myth, since batteries for hybrids are always available for order in auto stores, and are also presented wide selection on various Internet resources. Concerning free space, the battery practically does not take usable space in the luggage compartment.
You can't put gas on a hybrid car. This is a myth, since global manufacturers produce equipment that is compatible with a hybrid car.