Not Isolating Heirlooms and Saving Seeds?

[johnhamilton1]

I enjoy growing a variety of different tomatoes in my small garden. This year 18 plants that are 9 different varieties, mostly heirloom. Is it a waste of my time to save the seeds from let's say my Cherokee Purple because they may have cross pollinated with the other varieties? Should heirloom plants be isolated if you are going to save seeds? What is accepted practice for those gardeners growing heirlooms and saving seeds?

[Worth1]

No its not a waste of time, you will get a cross every now and then but it isn't likely.
Save your seeds and dont look back.
If you trade or give seeds to someone just tell them how you saved them and where they come from.
Also save seeds from many tomatoes not just one.
This will decrease the odds of a cross big time.
You can also bag the blooms too.

Worth

[carolyn137]

Two links for you to read.

http://www.southernexposure.com/isol...es-ezp-35.html

Jeff is conservative on his isolation distances since he was doing seed production for SESE at the time.

Some of the pictures are missing for this next one since Houzz bought out Garden Web, but the main information is there and you might recognize some of the names of folks who participated in doing this FAQ. This one is more geared to the home grower.

However, the SESE one describes in detail the many factors/variables involved in NCP ( natural cross pollination).

http://faq.gardenweb.com/discussions...ss-pollinating

Speaking just for myself I never saved seeds from popular varieties with lots of seed sources, rather, the ones that were hard to get seeds or new ones I was growing, with some exceptions, since it's less work to just raise plants from seed, and cheaper, as I see it.

BUT, I think anyone growing OP varieties should be required to do some fermentations, kind of like a rite of passage to qualify for being a certified OP ( open pollinated) tomato grower.

Carolyn

[carolyn137]

Sorry Worth since while I was fetching links, etc., I didn't see your post before I did mine.

Carolyn

[Lee]

Do you have bees visiting your tomato flowers? If not, you will get 0
cross pollination. So save all the seeds you wish.
If you do, try saving seeds from the time of year when pollinator activity is low or non-existant. Otherwise you can use tulle bags to prevent the bees from visiting protected flowers.

Lee

[AlittleSalt]

"BUT, I think anyone growing OP varieties should be required to do some fermentations, kind of like a rite of passage to qualify for being a certified OP ( open pollinated) tomato grower."

I AGREE

I have a thought on this. Lets says you plant 3 plants of the same kind side-by side-by side. Then just save seeds from the middle plant.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

"BUT, I think anyone growing OP varieties should be required to do some fermentations, kind of like a rite of passage to qualify for being a certified OP ( open pollinated) tomato grower."

I AGREE

I have a thought on this. Lets says you plant 3 plants of the same kind side-by side-by side. Then just save seeds from the middle plant.

Salt I save most of my seeds from tomatoes that are starting to rot.
This insures a very high germination rate.
Plus the seed coat is almost nothing by this time.
Worth

[AlittleSalt]

I do that too Worth.

Every once in a while I'll cut into a tomato that still has green jell and seeds inside. It may look and feel ripe on the outside, but I don't add those seeds to the mix. Of course, with GWR I leave them on vine until they are about to rot - just be sure the seeds are ready to save.

[johnhamilton1]

Such great information! I am so impressed with the quality of this site. Thank you all so much.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

"BUT, I think anyone growing OP varieties should be required to do some fermentations, kind of like a rite of passage to qualify for being a certified OP ( open pollinated) tomato grower."

I AGREE

I have a thought on this. Lets says you plant 3 plants of the same kind side-by side-by side. Then just save seeds from the middle plant.

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

[MrBig46]

I have a garden full of active bumblebees. They fly from plant to plant and infallibly always find flower which has good quality pollen. Will gain pollen from ten plants and flies off. Soon they will return and continue. For me it is terribly difficult to obtain uncrossed seeds. I can not do without bagging.
This year I started giving bags to whole plants at a time when the plants had only the first hints of flowers. After three weeks, I am these big bags removed and put smaller bags on individual inflorescence. When there were miniature fruit, so I removed the bag and marked the fruit from which I will be obtain the seeds.
This is what I did with more than ninety odrůd- terrible work.
Vladimír

[Hellmanns]

I select and mark individual plants early in production. I then save seed from the smaller fruit late in the season. I find that crossing is more likely from early fruit, especially from larger varieties that have mega blooms and large exserted stigmas.

[seaeagle]

This may be a little off topic but I didn't want to start another thread.I just fermented some seeds from Pruden's Purple.I am doing a germination test now.Let's say these come up as potato leaf and all the rest of my tomatoes in the garden are regular leaf.Is it a pretty safe bet that they haven't been crossed and are true?I know it's a kinda technical question so I won't be holding my breath for an answer

[seaeagle]

MrBig46 said " I have a garden full of active bumblebees. They fly from plant to plant and infallibly always find flower which has good quality pollen. Will gain pollen from ten plants and flies off. Soon they will return and continue. For me it is terribly difficult to obtain uncrossed seeds. I can not do without bagging.
This year I started giving bags to whole plants at a time when the plants had only the first hints of flowers. After three weeks, I am these big bags removed and put smaller bags on individual inflorescence. When there were miniature fruit, so I removed the bag and marked the fruit from which I will be obtain the seeds.
This is what I did with more than ninety odrůd- terrible work."
Vladimír

That is so nice, you just gave a new meaning to the word "bagging."It Does look like a lot of work though

[tam91]

Originally Posted by seaeagle

This may be a little off topic but I didn't want to start another thread.I just fermented some seeds from Pruden's Purple.I am doing a germination test now.Let's say these come up as potato leaf and all the rest of my tomatoes in the garden are regular leaf.Is it a pretty safe bet that they haven't been crossed and are true?I know it's a kinda technical question so I won't be holding my breath for an answer

I think the answer depends upon if regular or potato leaf is dominant. Carolyn would know.