My Son is Saving Seeds

[Catherine+two]

But first the back story...

I have been a seed-saver for years, but have not been careful about isolating my tomatoes in the past. My favorite tomatoes for about 10 years are Amber Colored, Glacier, and Maritime Pink, but it wasn't until this summer that I stepped back and took a good look at the plants that grew from my saved seeds.

The plants and tomatoes that grew from the Glacier and Maritime Pink seeds (two each) look suspiciously similar--indeterminate, regular leaf, pink fruit Hmmm, my Glacier seems to have morphed into Maritime Pink. Alternately, the labels got mixed up. Well, I have plenty of seeds for both of those varieties (yes, perhaps crossed), so I won't save any this season, I'll plant fresh from my saved stash next year, and I'll be more observant about the results. If it is a matter of mixed up labels, that should straighten it out. If not, well, these tomatoes still grow well in my climate, so I will keep growing them, but perhaps as "Was Glacier," and "Was Maritime Pink."

I knew I needed to save new seeds for the Amber Colored this year, so I planted four. They all have MUCH larger leaves than the G/MP plants, although I don't think they are PL (from the pictures I found on the web) and I think they might be described as rugose, the plants are semi-determinate (they keep setting fruit, it wasn't all set and ripened at one time), and they are all loaded with small-to-medium golden fruit. Well, the fruit size and color is right, anyway (good flavor, too). But two of the plants are about 18" tall, and two are 36" tall.

And that is where my son saving seeds comes in. I decided to save seeds from the 3-ft tall plants. He is simply fascinated by the 18" plants that are just falling over under the weight of their fruit, so he is saving seeds from them. We have discussed the idea that the plants he grows from the seed may not breed true to what he is seeing this year, and mine may not be true to what I am seeing, but that we are selecting different traits. He has had his own vegetable garden since he was 5 (he turns 10 next week), always with at least one full-sized and one cherry tomato plant, a squash, two peppers, and pizza herbs, so I am pretty sure he will be willing to follow his "own" tomatoes for at least a few more summers. This time we will take pictures so we can follow them over the years and see how our plants in five years or so match the originals.

Following my previous convention, these will be "Was Amber Colored Tall," and "Was Amber Colored Short."

Catherine

p.s. In the future I will try to do a better job of isolating my different varieties (I plan to try about 10 new ones next summer, too) so the "pure" seed stays more true to type.

[Mudman]

It is great that you are passing on all your knowledge and passion about gardening to your son. My kids saw me collect some marigold seeds this year and asked how to do it. I showed them and they began to collect thousands of them. They then asked about other flowers and we collected more. Now my 5 year old son has his own bean seed collection from my yardlong, rattlesnake, purple pole beans. And this is the thing that makes me the most proud. I showed my mother, who never, ever does anything different, how to save flower seeds (because she spends a fortune on plants every year) and she said she is going to save some this year to plant in the spring!