Generic seeds

If I find a good variety I stick with it but I am always open to try something new (if it's cheap enough   ). I really like hybrids in some situations because they can have better vigour, yield, disease/pest resistance, bolt resistance, storage quality, uniformity of shape, earliness, cold/heat tolerance... Do they taste better? Probably not. And there are still many older varieties which perform very well, but we only have about 15 square metres of growing space so there's not much room for anything which underperforms. The seed sellers do often overexaggerate about new varieties, but that's pretty standard for any marketing blurb.

I started off buying everything open-pollinated from Real Seeds but have gradually introduced hybrids where I thought certain qualities were lacking. Looking at my seed spreadsheet, the hybrids are mostly sweetcorn (earliness), kohl rabi (don't go woody quickly), tomatoes (blight and other disease resistance), pak choi (bolt resistance), cabbage (cold tolerance), overwintering onions (mildew resistance, bolt resistance), cucumbers (all female flowers) and courgettes/squash/pumpkins (mildew resistance).

For me, tomatoes is one area where new varieties are exciting. Recent blight resistant varieties have really impressed me and I think they're going to keep getting better. If that allows more people to grow tomatoes outdoors then I don't mind the seed sellers making a bit of extra profit! I still wouldn't buy the seeds full price though   .