Any caution taking seeds from fruit/vegetables I've grown?

[Skoorbmax]

Some googling indicates that growing fruit/veggies from store-bought produce is not necessarily going to work, as the store-bought stuff is the result of hybrid plants (or something) and in any case, their seeds are not "the real deal"; I.e. I cannot get a plant going with a normal harvest.

Given this, if I buy some proper planting seeds, can I harvest the seeds from whatever they grow indefinitely, or do they also at times suffer from the one-time-only deal?

[rainbowgardener]

Hybrid seeds to do not grow "true." That is if you save your seeds from hybrid plants (most of the commercial seeds you buy are hybrids), and plant them next year, the plants/ veggies may not be exactly the same as the ones you started with. You can't call it it the same variety. That is if you started with a California Wonder green pepper and save the seed, the peppers you get next year can no longer be called California Wonders. However, they will still be green peppers and likely to be pretty similar to what you started with.

So unless you specifically care about what variety you are planting/ growing it is fine to save your seeds and grow them out.

You can sometimes get interesting surprises. I save seeds from my petunias and grow them out, sometimes for several generations. Sometimes the resulting flowers have stripes or markings that weren't in any of the parent plants.

But that is saving seeds from plants you grew. Planting seeds from store bought produce may or may not work. Sometimes they have sterile seeds or have been treated so the seeds won't grow. But it's always an interesting experiment. Nothing to lose from trying. If the seeds sprout they should grow regular plants that produce a harvest, even if not the identical variety.

[Skoorbmax]

Hybrid seeds to do not grow "true." That is if you save your seeds from hybrid plants (most of the commercial seeds you buy are hybrids), and plant them next year, the plants/ veggies may not be exactly the same as the ones you started with. You can't call it it the same variety. That is if you started with a California Wonder green pepper and save the seed, the peppers you get next year can no longer be called California Wonders. However, they will still be green peppers and likely to be pretty similar to what you started with.

So unless you specifically care about what variety you are planting/ growing it is fine to save your seeds and grow them out.

You can sometimes get interesting surprises. I save seeds from my petunias and grow them out, sometimes for several generations. Sometimes the resulting flowers have stripes or markings that weren't in any of the parent plants.

But that is saving seeds from plants you grew. Planting seeds from store bought produce may or may not work. Sometimes they have sterile seeds or have been treated so the seeds won't grow. But it's always an interesting experiment. Nothing to lose from trying. If the seeds sprout they should grow regular plants that produce a harvest, even if not the identical variety.

Awesome, thanks!

That answers all my questions on this in one post

[GardenGnome]

When you buy some veggies try buying some Heirloom veggies not hybrid.
The heirlooms with grow the same.