There is nothing wrong with good reliable open pollinated cultivars. Peas and Beans are a good examples as is Carrot Autumn King, cheap to grow, tasty and with superb winter hardiness. With the crop being able to be left in the ground all winter, what could be better? But for some crops F1 hybrids are a huge improvement on open pollinated cultivars and here are my top picks for must try F1 Hybrid cultivars and the reasons I grow them.

Elimination of some diseases – Two of the most devastating diseases in the vegetable garden are club root in brassicas and downy mildew on bulb onions. New F1 Hybrid brassica cultivars such as Calabrese ‘Monclano’ and Brussels Sprouts ‘Crispus’ will mean you can grow a completely unaffected high quality crop on infected soil. Onion ‘Hylander’ grown from seed has very high resistance to downy mildew meaning that in a wet summer your onions will thrive and not be affected by what is often called the potato blight of onions.

• Increased vigour – Sowing a F1 Hybrid early carrot such as ‘Nairobi’ will always guarantee an early, vigorous crop of the very tasty carrots. Over the years I have grown many early carrots but this is the best of the best.
• Increased uniformity – Carrot ‘Sweet Candle’ is unbeatable for mid-season production its uniformity a favourite for the show bench.
• Increased Yield – Cucumber ‘Carmen’ and ‘Louisa’ are outstanding cultivars, with heavy crops of long straight, tasty fruit and good resistance to powdery mildew. Both are all female types meaning that no male flowers are produced. Pollination leading to bitter cucumbers is completely avoided.
• Extension of cropping season – Tomato ‘Sungrape’ and ‘Supersweet 100’– both of these full flavour cherry cultivars are vigorous plants with a very long cropping season and have the ability, given suitable weather conditions, to provide fruit on Christmas day!
• Improved flavour – This is somewhat subjective to the individual, and many people will argue that open pollinated plants taste better. Whilst I accept this view it is certainly not the case in many crops with hybrids bred specifically for improved taste and texture. Of course the reverse is also sometimes true especially where improved shelf life is the paramount consideration at the sacrifice of taste. But I think that anyone who has grown and eaten Sweet Corn ‘Lark’ would agree it’s the tastiest sweet corn ever!

Although some of the F1 hybrid cultivars may seem expensive, losing a complete crop to a disease is even more so. When inbuilt disease resistance is available from sowing right through to harvest together with improved flavour, vigour and uniformity if you have not tried F1 hybrids perhaps it’s time to give them a go in 2023.