On the other hand, the mainstream
organic and professional growers are using F-1 hybrids to get
better crops, longer shelf life, disease resistance or other
specific characteristics.
Breeding methods are similar as long
as the breeding relies on natural reproductive ability and
maintains genetic lines. Our breeding program is aimed at
selecting the F-1 hybrid that grows better under the organic
growing conditions. It is mainly related to a balanced
triangle between quality, yield and pest resistance. Every F-1
hybrid selected for production has to be authorized by the
officials during all stages of production from the parental
lines, crossing, F-1 seeds and purity control. Hybrid seeds
are important to the organic industry in order to get similar or higher
crop yields as compared to the conventional production.
Certified organic seeds (open
pollinated or F-1 hybrid) can be used for organic and
non-organic production in order to get the same crop. Our
breeding programs in cucumbers and flowers are carried out at
our experimental stations under organic growing conditions.
Other F-1 hybrids - where we get the parental lines from the
Israeli Agricultural Research Center (ARO) and from the
Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem -
are first checked at our experimental stations. To date, we
have already released for organic production varieties of
sunflower, cucumber, melon, squash and sweet basil. Next
season we plan to add sweet corn, pepper, tomato and onion.
