A Simple Sounding Complex Question

AlittleSalt · August 6, 2014

I ask a lot of questions here as I am learning about gardening. This question will help me learn about gardening a lot.

Today, I had to take a day off from fixing up the garden to get it ready for fall gardening. I was stuck inside, so I read up about countless varieties of tomatoes that many people here have written about.

There were varieties I wanted to try that after learning about them - I cannot grow them here in our Texas heat and expect an easy bountiful harvest. Just one example is: Galina's Yellow Cherry. It comes from Siberia and grows well in northern US climates. Not here.

There were others that sounded really fun to grow like, "Indigo Rose" that about half liked them, and the other half thought they tasted like a shoe or mowed grass.

I could go on and on, but what I've learned is that some varieties grow well and taste great in certain areas, but might be a complete bust in other places.

Sounds long-winded, but my question is: Once you have found the best tomatoes for exactly where you are growing them (Heirloom): Do you get better tomatoes in years to come from saving the seeds from the Heirloom crops you grew in your soil and then planting them each year or season?

I explained my question/theory to a younger friend that growing saved heirloom seeds year-after-year and replanting those seeds in the same garden was like the plants growing up in their "Hood" so-to-speak.

August 6, 2014	#1
AlittleSalt BANNED FOR LIFE Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 13,333	A Simple Sounding Complex Question I ask a lot of questions here as I am learning about gardening. This question will help me learn about gardening a lot. Today, I had to take a day off from fixing up the garden to get it ready for fall gardening. I was stuck inside, so I read up about countless varieties of tomatoes that many people here have written about. There were varieties I wanted to try that after learning about them - I cannot grow them here in our Texas heat and expect an easy bountiful harvest. Just one example is: Galina's Yellow Cherry. It comes from Siberia and grows well in northern US climates. Not here. There were others that sounded really fun to grow like, "Indigo Rose" that about half liked them, and the other half thought they tasted like a shoe or mowed grass. I could go on and on, but what I've learned is that some varieties grow well and taste great in certain areas, but might be a complete bust in other places. Sounds long-winded, but my question is: Once you have found the best tomatoes for exactly where you are growing them (Heirloom): Do you get better tomatoes in years to come from saving the seeds from the Heirloom crops you grew in your soil and then planting them each year or season? I explained my question/theory to a younger friend that growing saved heirloom seeds year-after-year and replanting those seeds in the same garden was like the plants growing up in their "Hood" so-to-speak.