Should I Separate Different Varieties from One Another?

[TBoneJack]

I'm a first-time tomato grower. I've got 5 different heirloom varieties in 15-gallon fabric pots. They will be flowering soon.

Do I need to separate them a certain distance to ensure they don't cross-pollinate?

Thank you.

[joseph]

In my garden, I do everything I can to facilitate cross pollination of tomatoes. I figure that I get stronger plants if they cross. Plus I get to trial lots of new varieties that almost always do better than highly inbred heirlooms.

The further apart they are the less likely they are to cross. Quadratic equations best model pollination, so doubling the distance between plants reduces the likelihood of crossing to 1/4 what it would have otherwise been.

[Stvrob]

The answer depends on whether you intend to save seeds or not. You can always bag blossoms if it worrys you.

[TBoneJack]

Originally Posted by joseph

In my garden, I do everything I can to facilitate cross pollination of tomatoes. I figure that I get stronger plants if they cross. Plus I get to trial lots of new varieties that almost always do better than highly inbred heirlooms.

The further apart they are the less likely they are to cross. Quadratic equations best model pollination, so doubling the distance between plants reduces the likelihood of crossing to 1/4 what it would have otherwise been.

Cool. And thanks.

You've given me some things to think about. I was all excited about trying some heirloom varieties, without thinking of cross-pollination. It's kinda important to me to try and get the classic types of tomato from each variety, but it's also impractical to set 5 pots far away from one another.

I should have known there would be some kinks in this new hobby of mine.

But in Craig Lehoullier's book, there's a picture of him with all his pots sitting close to one another; many different varieties.

[TBoneJack]

Originally Posted by Stvrob

The answer depends on whether you intend to save seeds or not. You can always bag blossoms if it worrys you.

I don't intend to save seeds.

[Lee]

If you don't intend to save seeds, then no it doesn't matter how close they are.
If you do intend to save seeds, observe your pollinator activity.
No pollinators=no cross pollination. (Tomatoes are self pollinating and will not cross by wind.)

In my garden now, there are 0 pollinators near the tomatoes. I've been hand pollinating the zucchini to get those to set. So, I will save seeds from any fruit that set early.
Later in the season as the pollinator activity increases, I will not save seeds from those unless I bag the blossoms or observe no pollinators during active flowering to fruit set.

This is what works in my garden, yours may differ, but the key is observation of pollinators.

Enjoy!

Lee

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by TBoneJack

I don't intend to save seeds.

You will get true to type tomatoes to try this year regardless of whether they cross or not. If there is any crossing, it won't show up until next year if you saved the seeds and then planted them.