Why hydrid seeds?

🚜 Next season, 60% of our sowings at @ortoforesta will be F1 hybrids. This shift from our usual focus follows autumn trials with undeniable results: in our regenerating system, many F1s offered superior uniformity and disease resistance. We must be honest about field data, even when it challenges our ideals.

🧬 F1s are the offspring of two inbred parent lines. This triggers "hybrid vigour", but thi comes at a cost: the offspring won't breed true.

⚠ To produce these hybrids, breeders often use Cytoplasmic Male Sterility (CMS), rendering the "mother" line pollen-sterile. This creates a genetic bottleneck. Unlike Open Pollinated (OP) varieties or Landraces—which evolve with the land—an F1 is genetically static. It lacks the variability to adapt, and its dominance shrinks the planet’s agricultural gene pool.

💰 F1 seeds often cost many times more than OPs. The selection we made for this season is focussed on flavour and uniformity, but the industry often selects for yield and adaptability.

However, the deepest cost is political: F1s create a dependency on multinational corporations, breaking the tradition of seed as a community resource. The grower stops being a steward and becomes a consumer, reliant on external inputs.

🗣️ F1s aim for centralisation. In this, they are tools of a system prioritising control over sovereignty. The danger is blind dependency

Why use them then? Because we believe it’s possible to use a tool without submitting to its logic. We will use F1s as a way to temporary streamline things this season, but we won't be hypocrites; we'll own the contradiction.

📉 We are alert to the risk of an emergency measure becoming a permanent protocol, so we aim to scale back to 20% by 2027. A farm’s "regenerative" status should be measured by its direction, not a snapshot. Our horizon remains fixed on OPs and developing our own landraces.

🫘 Speaking of landraces, we’re working on Borlotti and Snowcap Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, Sunset Corn and Costoluto giallo Tomatoes! Let me know if you want to see them and I'll share some photos.