Are You Wasting Money on Expensive Seeds?

Do you buy new seeds or clones everytime you grow?  Have you ever figured out how much you spend each year on this?  With a few supplies from HTGSupply.com you can clone your own plants or you could try your hand at plant breeding and pay next to nothing to continue growing... 

I have been breeding some plants for many years. I have not bought seeds for peppers, dill and many flowrers in years.  I do this 1) becasue I can (I have a Ph.D. in plant breeding) and 2) I am cheap and don't want to pay money to corporations for seeds which I can get myself and 3) I like it, it is my hobby.  However, I was traveling this summer and decided to get some new seeds to include in a breeding program.   What I have noticed is that the 'new' seeds/plants  have more vigor, they are growing faster and look healthier than 'my' plants. This observation was bitter sweet, my strain from many years of breeding was not as good as the one's I paid money for... but I have some awesome new plants to grow and cross with each other and 'my' plants.   I should say  that in the past I have also compared my plants with other people that paid good money for seeds and I won that compitation.  Buying seeds from big companies is not always going to get you the best product if you don't do your homework.
Most people (including me) can not afford to grow the thousands of plants required to establish a successful and longlived breeding program that can make lots of awesome seeds. This does not mean you should keep forking out money to the seed companies every time you grow however.  If you are curious, have a little time and want to save your seed money for other things you might want to try your hand at cloning and/or breeding.   I will be writting about the benefits of buying seeds, and or breeding and about some things that corporations can do to FORCE you to buy their seeds with terminator genes
I continue this buying seed debate in a later post about buying and saving seeds
I have written an introduction to breeding and about plant sex, and went into some breeding technques too, if anyone is interested.  I am ALWAYS happy to expand on or answer questions about past posts.  The more questions I get the better resource this blog will be, so tell a friend if you like what you see.

Good Growing,
Dr. E.R. Myers