Planting hybrid tomatos along side heirlooms is perfectly fine and will not affect the fruit at all.

There is a possibility of any 2 tomatos cross pollinating, but the odds are against it as tomatos have what are called perfect flowers. The male and female parts are in each flower and they self pollinate, often before the flower even opens.

There is still a chance of their crossing, but it's small.

If you want to save seeds you best bet is to bag a branch in something that won't rot and is breathable such as an old pair of panty hose or similar to keep pollinating insects out. Once you see fruits set you can remove the bag and mark the branch. Let those tomatos ripen fully on the vine and save the seeds only from those.

As long as you are not saving seeds, no problem with a mixture of OP's and hybrids. If you want to save seeds you will have to take the same precautions you would take with two or more different cultivars of an open pollinated species.

Thank you so much for your reply justaguy2. Would that be the same advice for any veggie (cucumbers, zucchini's, and such?).

The current garden I'm planning is 10 times the size of any previous garden I've planted (mainly due to the addition of corn), so I'm trying to soak up as much info as possible. In previous years, I've lived in a subdivision, and used a small space to garden in. I have 5 children and we all love our veggies (believe it or not!) and I'd like to plant an appropriate amount per person now that we have 40 acres to work with. Of course, I'll only be using an acre or less for our garden, but that is still quite a bit more than I've done in previous years. There is so much wonderful variety that I'd like to experiment with, but I just don't want to do so and unknowingly be shooting myself in the foot. You know?

Also, as I am a real "planner", do you know of any good programs that will allow me to plot out my space?

Thanks much!

Stacie

Stacy,
I use an Excel spreadsheet to layout my garden. I first create the outside border, using one square to one foot of garden. Then I merge cells to create the individual sections for each vegetable.

Here's last year's fenced garden:
{{gwi:25960}}

Would that be the same advice for any veggie (cucumbers, zucchini's, and such

Unfortunately no, not if you want to save seeds. Self-pollinating vegetables include tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, peanuts, lettuce, and eggplant. But onions, cucumbers, corn, pumpkins, squash, broccoli, beets, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, melons, radishes, spinach, Swiss chard, squash, pumpkins, and turnips are all insect-or wind-pollinated and will readily cross with other members of the same family.

So if you wish to save seeds from them you have 2 or 3 choices - grow only 1 variety at a time, bag blooms as justaguy described above, or isolate by distance of 1/2 mile or more (not real practical but it is an option for professional growers).

Hope this helps and enjoy your garden. Get the kids involved with it too. We need more future gardeners! ;)

Dave

Would that be the same advice for any veggie (cucumbers, zucchini's, and such)?

Most veggies whether open pollinated(like heirlooms are) or hybrid will grow fine veggies no matter what other varieties they are planted by. If you don't intend to save their seeds, you don't need to concern yourself with cross pollination issues. Corn, however, is a bit different since the veggie we eat is the SEED. If corn varieties cross you will get a different corn than you planted. I can't ever remember just what types can be planted together without getting tough kernals. Some seed catalogs have the info and I'm sure others here can help you with that, also. Or do like I do and just plant one kind and make successive plantings for an extended harvest.

Ardent learner, don't worry about asking questions. It seems the more one learns, the more questions one has. And there is usually someone here who has the answer.