Saving seeds from dwarf varieties

[socalgardengal]

I was wondering how stable the lines are so I could save seeds to plant next season. I have dwarf wild fred and dwarf czech bush. Would they grow true or would I be wasting time? One more question, can seeds be saved from OP varieties say like from a Rutgers or others. Would they technically be a hybrid? Thanks for any help

[Doug9345]

As far as I know the varieties from the dwarf tomato project weren't released until they were stable. Seeds can be saved from any open pollinate variety and they should come true to type.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by socalgardengal

I was wondering how stable the lines are so I could save seeds to plant next season. I have dwarf wild fred and dwarf czech bush. Would they grow true or would I be wasting time? One more question, can seeds be saved from OP varieties say like from a Rutgers or others. Would they technically be a hybrid? Thanks for any help

I was trying to answer and I realize you have a strange way of asking questions.

Would they grow true or would I be wasting time?

Yes.....I mean no........I mean yes/no.

One more question, can seeds be saved from OP varieties say like from a Rutgers or others. Would they technically be a hybrid?

Yes....I mean no......I mean yes/no.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by socalgardengal

I was wondering how stable the lines are so I could save seeds to plant next season. I have dwarf wild fred and dwarf czech bush. Would they grow true or would I be wasting time? One more question, can seeds be saved from OP varieties say like from a Rutgers or others. Would they technically be a hybrid? Thanks for any help

You can save seeds from any OP and they should come true, UNLESS there's been a cross pollination or a mutation, the latter being less probable. I've linked to a great site on how to prevent X pollination and can do it again if you want me to.

I'm sorry, but I'm not following you when you ask if you can save seeds from Rutgers and would they technically be hybrid.

There are about 7 different Rutgers listed in the SSE YEarbooks, some of them have VF, or VFN bred in but that makes no difference whatsoever since they are not hybrids to start with and saved seeds won't be hybrids either.

Carolyn

[socalgardengal]

LOL, I don't understand myself sometimes either! I was under the impression that varieties bred and released by universities were hybrids. I guess I'm looking for some clarification. I'm very new to growing and just want to make sure that the seeds I'm trying to save aren't hybrids and/or are stabilized. I would hate to share seeds and them not be true. Thank you

[socalgardengal]

I read alot of what is said on the threads but it's an overload of information sometimes

[Doug9345]

Many that are released are hybrids, but not all. Actually the hybrids parents are released to a seed company and it is up to the company to produce the seed. I see where North Carolina State University released two OP tomatoes protected with pvp licenses.

Rutgers was released so long ago (1934) that just about all tomatoes at the time were OP

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Doug9345

Many that are released are hybrids, but not all. Actually the hybrids parents are released to a seed company and it is up to the company to produce the seed. I see where North Carolina State University released two OP tomatoes protected with pvp licenses.

Rutgers was released so long ago (1934) that just about all tomatoes at the time were OP

Actually Rutgers was first released in 1928.

Only th earliest of hybrids have two parents, more modern ones having many parental inputs. Universities and state colleges used to do a lot of breedin, and only a few continue to do so, such as NCSU where Dr. Randy Gardner bred so many and although retired continues to do so.His cooleagues at NCSU continue to do so.

Seed production for his Smarty F1, Plum Regal F1 and Mt magic F1 was contracted out to Bejo Seeds in the Netherlands and they had crop failures which is why those seeds were not done ASAP, much to the dismay of many of us.

And the U of Florida still is heavily involved in breeding as well.


Petoseed still does breeding and they subcontract out to mainly the Far East for seed production.

Just trying to clarify since "parents" are not really sent to companies, but I'm not sure how you define "companies".

Carolyn

[nctomatoman]

Just to summarize on the main question - any of the 17 released Dwarf varieties are stable, and will come true from saved seed.

[socalgardengal]

Thank you everyone for helping me understand all this. It gets confusing at times