I've been saving seed from runners and french beans. Seed size varies
enormously, does that affect the result next year?
Pete C

On Oct 5, 5:57*pm, Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...



I've been saving seed from runners and french beans. Seed size varies
enormously, does that affect the result next year?
Pete C

* I sort and keep ones that are even, plump and firm with a shiny perfect
"skin". Only because that's what my grandfather did. Since I've never
planted the runty lumpy/dented/nicked *ones I don't know if selection
makes any difference at all :-)

* Janet

I just save the seeds from the best pods,
I've always understood if you plant from runts you will loose the
quality, select for improvement.

Dave Hill wrote:

I've always understood if you plant from runts you will loose the
quality, select for improvement.
I'm not sure about the seeds themselves if they came from good plants, but
surely a small seed will have less food in it, so the plant will be slower
at the starting gate?
I surely know that with garlic, planted from cloves, the biggest cloves
produce the biggest bulbs.

--
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

On 10/05/2011 08:07 PM, Gary Woods wrote:
Dave Hill wrote:

I've always understood if you plant from runts you will loose the
quality, select for improvement.
I'm not sure about the seeds themselves if they came from good plants, but
surely a small seed will have less food in it, so the plant will be slower
at the starting gate?
I surely know that with garlic, planted from cloves, the biggest cloves
produce the biggest bulbs.


With maples, larger seed is more vigorous; it doesn't always produce the
most interesting seedlings though.

I'd guess that for beans, bigger is better for the reasons Gary gave.

Thank you all
Pete C