Sara's Galapagos and cross pollinating

[Douglas_OW]

I plan on growing Sara's Galapagos next season and have some questions about crossing. I read the writeups, at GW and elsewhere, about this issue, but I'm not sure that I understand it properly. I have read that Sara's Galapagos have exerted stigmas that can be a problem in terms of cross-pollination. Which of these possibilities is something that I should be concerned about if I want to save pure seeds:
A. Don't plant them near other tomatoes since they might serve as a source of foreign pollen in terms of cross-pollination. This would be a problem for me because I plan on growing many other tomatoes. I wasn't planning on bagging all of my tomatoes for seed saving. I would want to isolate the Sara's plant as much as possible.
B. Regular tomatoes nearby may lead to cross-pollinating currant type tomatoes. This wouldn't be a particular problem for me. I wouldn't mind bagging some blossoms on the Sara's Galapalos to save some of it's seeds.

Jim

[frogsleap farm]

Jim - short answer is that exerted stigma will lead to higher incidence of cross pollination on the plant exhibiting this condition. It has no impact on neighboring plants. If you want to use Sara's G as a female in a cross, just make sure you emasculate before the stigma is exerted.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by frogsleap farm

Jim - short answer is that exerted stigma will lead to higher incidence of cross pollination on the plant exhibiting this condition. It has no impact on neighboring plants. If you want to use Sara's G as a female in a cross, just make sure you emasculate before the stigma is exerted.

Jim, and now the long answer as opposed to the above.

Amy Goldman brought back fuirts from the Galapagos and got them thru customs, somehow, and sent the fruits to me. I had asked her to bring me back some S. cheesmanii, but one look and I knew that wasn't what I had.

I contacted Dr. Roger Chatelet at the UCDavis Rick Center which is the center for study and acquisition of species tomatoes.

Knowing what island she got it from he was able to tell me that it was probably a stable interspecies cross, possibly between S.pimpinellifolium, the currant tomato, and a cerasiforme or a S.lycopersicon.

So it isn't a true currant tomato.

Fact is that only about half of pimps have exerted stigmas anyway.

And the person who said he's more worried about his regular garden tomatoes cross pollinating his currants is Keith Mueller who posts at GW as Olerist, I think, he has several user names.

I grow it almost every year and have never had any problemns with X pollination and I haven't heard of anyone who has.

I think it's one of the best tasting wee fruited varieties I've grown. I've never checked it to see if it has exerted stigmas, just never bothered, and have no problems with it at all.

Amy named it for her daughter.

I post at GW as well and haven't seen any recent threads or posts about it so you must have done a search to read some back threads.

Does that help?

[mjc]

And now the other answer...if you really want to be sure of 'true' seed...bag. A fine net bag, large enough to cover a whole group of flowers isn't hard to put on and once the fruit has set, not hard to take off...just mark that bunch and you are good to go. A few minutes work and no worries.

Unless I'm 'monocropping' I try to bag all my saved tomatoes...even then I tend to take the fruit for seed from the middle of the patch. I cage my peppers (usually two of the same per cage or alternate day caging).

I planned on bagging a couple of stems of Sara's Galapagos this year...and several other cherry/small fruited ones I'm going to grow...I find them pretty easy to bag (cherries/small ones).

[Douglas_OW]

Thanks to all for your answers, both long and short. Sara's is often referred to as a currant, or currant like fruit, and sources have warned about the possibility of cross pollination with standard tomatoes. I'll ignore those references.

This is an excerpt from a GW FAQ "How Do I Prevent Tomatoes from Cross-pollinating?"-

Home growers are growing more and more of what are called currant tomatoes, which are in a different species from our garden tomato. All currant tomatoes (L. pimpinellifolium) have exerted stigmas. Some folks highly recommend that you don't plant currant tomatoes near garden tomatoes ( L.lycopersicon) since they might serve as a source of foreign pollen in terms of cross-pollination. Others say that they'd worry more about regular garden tomatoes cross-pollinating currant tomatoes, and a third group might say that not all currant tomato varieties are of concern as regards cross-pollination.

Overall, the GW FAQ seemed less than decisive, hence my original question. I'll bag some Sara's for saved seeds, and worry less about bagging other tomatoes. That will make my life easier.

This all reminds me of a Will Rogers quote:

There are three kinds of men.
The one that learns by reading.
The few who learn by observation.
The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

I read, but I didn't learn what I wanted to know. I'm trying to work my way up thru the hierarchy of men, or at least stay in the middle of the pack.

Jim

[frogsleap farm]

An exerted stigma increases likelihood of cross pollination because the stigma (think female) is exerted beyond the anther cone (think male), as in this drawing. When the stigma is confined within the anther cone, and not exerted, self pollen is abundant and pollination from neighboring plants is restricted. The position of the stigma has no influence on the likelihood of the plant being more or less capable of contributing pollen to neighboring plants/flowers.

[carolyn137]

Douglas, if you look at the end of that FAQ you quoted from which was from GW you'll see my user name, Carolyn137 as well as few other user names that you'll recognize.

When that FAQ was done, which is about 8-10 years ago now, and I think it's still an excellent one, the fact that about half of the currants did not have exerted stigmas was not known to any of us who participated in writing that FAQ. And there's no easy way of getting anything in those FAQ's changed now.

Besides, most of us who used to post at GW came to Tville when it started in Jan of 2006, for several good reasons. Some of us still post there but most don't.

[Douglas_OW]

I'm squared away now; thanks to all who responded.

Carolyn,
I rarely visit GW. That FAQ was referenced in a Tville thread about crossed seeds and currant tomatoes, and I was looking for some clarification in terms that even I could understand. And now, I've got it.

Thanks,
Jim

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Douglas, if you look at the end of that FAQ you quoted from which was from GW you'll see my user name, Carolyn137 as well as few other user names that you'll recognize.

When that FAQ was done, which is about 8-10 years ago now, and I think it's still an excellent one, the fact that about half of the currants did not have exerted stigmas was not known to any of us who participated in writing that FAQ. And there's no easy way of getting anything in those FAQ's changed now.

Besides, most of us who used to post at GW came to Tville when it started in Jan of 2006, for several good reasons. Some of us still post there but most don't.