If i stabilize a watermelon hybrid so it becomes an open pollinated variety, can i get in legal trouble for selling the seeds? Why are why not?
Although F2 seeds do not have the same traits as f1s, if all the F2 seeds came from the same exact fruit, will all the F2 plants be identical to the other F2 plants?
Earleen
The seed producers are way ahead of you. The seeds you make are hybrids and will perform poorly. You will spend years of research figuring out combinations.
frank
There is nothing illegal in all of this:
1. When you buy a melon, you also own the seeds.
2. If you plant the seeds next time, all the fruit will not be the same. Some plants give you fruits of one parent's plant, some will give you the fruits of the other parent and some fruits will be like the hybrid.
3. If you plant any of the parents' seeds providing that the plants are protected from pollinators either by distancing or special cages, you will get the same seeds again.
4. You still would not know what methods the hybridizers used to come up with the seed that you bought.
Matthew
I'm not an expert in this field but I'm going to guess that if you sell watermelon seeds their watermelon seeds.
Unless the company that made the hybrid watermelon seeds can identify some specific characteristic that only their hybrid watermelon seeds have that no other watermelon seeds have and they have some kind of a patent on it.