Not Isolating Heirlooms and Saving Seeds?

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Way back in time it was said to plant 4 of a kind in a row and save seeds from just the inner four.

Of course that doesn't work well at all, so three in a row wouldn't either.

The major question to be asked IMO is....if three in a row, how far are the rows on either side of that row, or more generally, how far away are any other tomatoes. Insect pollinators are known to fly a MILE at a time, their poor midget wings flapping in the wind,

Thankfully where I grew my tomatoes, several hundreds of plants and varieties each year in upstate NY, there were too many to bag or to isolate, but since my crossing rate was only about 5% , most self pollenized, I was willing to accept that.

Carolyn

Carolyn, I plant my tomato plants 3 feet apart in the rows, and the rows are 6 feet apart. I agree completely that there will be crosses. Plants like Sungold and Amish gold that grow 6 foot vines in all directions will absolutely cause crosses. I have little doubt that the Amish gold seeds I just put onto paper plates will have some percentage of crossing with the Russian Mini Yellow I planted 3' away. Both plants spread like wildfire. I will inform those I share seeds with of this possible cross.

The same holds true for the Yellow Riesentraube seeds I am in the process of saving. The YR has a Sungold growing all around it. If YR didn't have a point on the end, they would be difficult to tell the difference in sight to Sungold. Again, I will inform others of the probable cross.

The European Honey Bees we have and other pollinators will be causing crosses as well.

I just saw your post Carolyn - otherwise, I would have replied sooner.