Saving seeds from X number of plants

jmsieglaff · February 28, 2015

In a recent thread I saw this link posted (http://www.savingourseeds.org/publications.html) and was reading about saving tomato seeds (a good read BTW). Anyway, it reminded me about reading in various books and in within threads here about the proper way to save tomato seeds--specifically about saving seeds from a fairly large number of plants to maintain genetic diversity.

So my question is how many people when they save seeds are saving them from a large number of plants or at least the 'minimum' number of plants? The diversity of tomato growers here is large, from backyard gardeners to backyard breeders, to market growers, to full scale commercial breeders, so the answers will vary substantially I believe.

I am a backyard gardener who has started saving seeds. I enjoy trying new varieties and don't have space to grow multiple plants of each variety, I'd rather grow one plant of 8 or 10 varieties than 4 or 5 plants of 2 varieties. Am I doing a disservice to the tomato world by saving tomato seeds from one plant? Obviously when breeding a tomato you need to save seeds from single plants based on the traits you are looking for, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about saving seeds of stable OP varieties.

I've done a lot of reading about tomatoes, but one thing I do not quite understand fully is the concept of maintaining genetic diversity for inbreeding plants like tomatoes. If an heirloom has been grown for decades or even 100 years and over that time nearly all loci have become homozygous, where is this genetic diversity? Or is the genetic diversity related to so many (thousands of loci??) that there are still a few heterozygous loci and some segregation going on an this somehow results in vigor/production (lack of inbreeding depression)?

Maybe I've opened a can of worms, but I want to understand the concept fully. I have found saving seeds enjoyable and wonder if my growing setup (one plant of most varieties) is an issue with saving seeds.

February 28, 2015	#1
jmsieglaff Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Southern WI Posts: 2,742	Saving seeds from X number of plants In a recent thread I saw this link posted (http://www.savingourseeds.org/publications.html) and was reading about saving tomato seeds (a good read BTW). Anyway, it reminded me about reading in various books and in within threads here about the proper way to save tomato seeds--specifically about saving seeds from a fairly large number of plants to maintain genetic diversity. So my question is how many people when they save seeds are saving them from a large number of plants or at least the 'minimum' number of plants? The diversity of tomato growers here is large, from backyard gardeners to backyard breeders, to market growers, to full scale commercial breeders, so the answers will vary substantially I believe. I am a backyard gardener who has started saving seeds. I enjoy trying new varieties and don't have space to grow multiple plants of each variety, I'd rather grow one plant of 8 or 10 varieties than 4 or 5 plants of 2 varieties. Am I doing a disservice to the tomato world by saving tomato seeds from one plant? Obviously when breeding a tomato you need to save seeds from single plants based on the traits you are looking for, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about saving seeds of stable OP varieties. I've done a lot of reading about tomatoes, but one thing I do not quite understand fully is the concept of maintaining genetic diversity for inbreeding plants like tomatoes. If an heirloom has been grown for decades or even 100 years and over that time nearly all loci have become homozygous, where is this genetic diversity? Or is the genetic diversity related to so many (thousands of loci??) that there are still a few heterozygous loci and some segregation going on an this somehow results in vigor/production (lack of inbreeding depression)? Maybe I've opened a can of worms, but I want to understand the concept fully. I have found saving seeds enjoyable and wonder if my growing setup (one plant of most varieties) is an issue with saving seeds.