Saving seeds from one tomato vs. another

[NarnianGarden]

As a hobby gardener who only uses one, or two seeds of a given variety, saving seeds from one or several fruits won't make much difference. I understand the logic behind it, but it doesn't matter on a practical level.
If I chose to plant, let's say, two seeds of a Black Krim I grew myself, and if I wanted to make sure those have enough genetic variability and are from different fruits, then I should keep the seeds of fruit A separate from seeds of fruit B. If they were all in one envelope, how could I ever know I have used seeds of different fruits?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by NarnianGarden

As a hobby gardener who only uses one, or two seeds of a given variety, saving seeds from one or several fruits won't make much difference. I understand the logic behind it, but it doesn't matter on a practical level.
If I chose to plant, let's say, two seeds of a Black Krim I grew myself, and if I wanted to make sure those have enough genetic variability and are from different fruits, then I should keep the seeds of fruit A separate from seeds of fruit B. If they were all in one envelope, how could I ever know I have used seeds of different fruits?

The issue I have with a person saving seeds from just one fruit is different from what you posted above.

All fruits on a single plant shoud have the same DNA, regardless of size, etc.

There is genetic variability within a variety.

So if someone wants to preserve that variability it is suggested that several plants of the same variety should be grown, then several fruits from plant one should be used for seed processing, better if fruits, from two plants, etc.

On a more practical basis for the home gardener, it's much better to save seeds from many fruits on a single plant, if that's all that someone has, and the issue is different, it's one of the possibility of X pollination if blossoms are not bagged.

Just xed seeds from ONE fruit can mess up all the seeds from the fruits on one plant, but those crossed seeds are diluted out by all the non xed seeds.

There have been times in the past when I had about 2 K seeds of a variety and would have distributed way over one thousand when the first offtype plant appeared.

Makes sense?

I was going to go over all of this and much more when I do that FAQ, but I honestly don't know when I'll get to it, and that for several reasons and it really doesn t matter if I do not get to it soon, since saving tomato seeds starts when one first sows the seeds and how they grow the plants. As well as what degree of seed purity they need and how to ensure those various degrees of seed purity,

Carolyn

[NarnianGarden]

Carolyn, I can see the logic - but I still argue that if one wants to make sure they keep the seeds pure, then seeds from every fruit should be kept separate (so if there was cross-pollination, those seeds won't contaminate the whole crop. Also the gardener knows which batch he/she is using)

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by NarnianGarden

Carolyn, I can see the logic - but I still argue that if one wants to make sure they keep the seeds pure, then seeds from every fruit should be kept separate (so if there was cross-pollination, those seeds won't contaminate the whole crop. Also the gardener knows which batch he/she is using)

And I can see your logic as well, as long as one is saving seeds just for home use, but many here and elsewhere make seed offers, trade seeds, list varieties in the SSE YEarbooks, etc, send seeds to some seed sites for trial, and need many seeds to satisfy those activities.

So they can't save seeds from individual fruits and keep them separate.If they did grow out seeds from individual fruits from X number of varieties, which could be hundreds of varieties in some cases, it just wouldn't work.

Carolyn

[ddsack]

I have had a few bee crosses in my garden in the years that I have been saving seeds, and as a result I now do use a method similar to what Narnian suggests. I may combine all the ripe fruit on any one day, but I usually save 3 or 4 batches during the season and when dry, I keep these batches in separate dated envelopes as well as marking them as 2013-A, 2013-B, 2013-C and so on. The next year, if I use the A batch and get an off type, I still have other unmixed seed I can fall back on for the true variety. Saves having to buy new seed. But I grow primarily for my own use, so it's not a big deal.

Often I will scrape the seeds off the cutting board when I eat a particularly nice tomato, and just use Wintersown's original ajax/comet cleanser method of seed saving because there are too few seeds to bother with fermentation. I note on my seed packet, if I didn't use fermentation for that batch, but have never seen any difference in germination. I totally re-did my seed organization last winter, so now all small dated packets are kept in one larger envelope for that variety, with notes on dates and comments on the outside. Easier to track down offending packet if something should go wrong.