08/27/2026
Seed Savers: Please read the original post immediately below the illustration!
🌱 What Does "True to Type" Mean?
When a seed grows true to type, the new plant looks and behaves like its parent.
That means it will produce the same:
🍅 Fruit or vegetable
🌸 Flower colour
📏 Size and shape
🥕 Flavour
⏰ Maturity time
🌿 Growth habit
For example:
You save seeds from a Waltham Butternut Squash
Next year...
✅ The plants produce Waltham Butternut Squash.
That's true to type.
But if those Waltham Butternut Squash were planted near Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, and you saved seeds from the butternut squash,...
Next year when you plant those seeds, they might be
❌ Different colours
❌ Different flavours
❌ Different sizes
❌ Different maturity times
The seeds are still alive—they're just no longer true to the original variety.
This is why understanding pollination is so important.
Some plants, like lettuce, peas,beans, and tomatoes, usually pollinate themselves, so they are much more likely to grow true to type. Peppers can be insect or self-pollinated.
Others, like squash and corn, cross much more easily and need isolation or controlled pollination if you want to preserve the variety.
🌱 Every heirloom variety we enjoy today exists because gardeners carefully saved seeds that grew true to type from one generation to the next.
