The reason is that most hybrids seeds don't breed true and you will find many discussions scattered all over the forums on the problems associated with saving seeds from hybrids. They revert to one of the parent stock or a mutated form of one of them depending on the stability of the parent stock. Sure they will germinate and grow and the tomatoes they produce may be fine, then again they may not be. ;) Either way, the odds are they won't be the same. Open pollinated (often called heirlooms) breed true assuming there was no cross-pollination. Dave

When the basil flowers turn brown then you will find the seeds inside. I usually pick them before the top flowers turn brown. Parsley as soon as the floret turns brown pick it and place it in a bag. Shake to loosen the seeds Zinnia Let the petals turn brown. At the end of the petal are the seeds.

Its important to keep them in a cool, dark, dry place. I keep mine in a container in the refrigerator. The germination rate will go down some each year, faster on somethings than others. Onion are said to only be able to be kept for 1 yr, I had a 5 yr old package with about 60 seed so I planted them (just to see) not thinking I would really get anything from them. 14 seeds germinated, thats almost 25%. So I would not count on most germinating when they start getting old, but I would not just discount them. I've also planted 3 15 yr old tomato seeds and had 2 of them germinate. If your using older seed its a little more of a gamble but like the lottery you never know if you don't try it. If more grow than you can use, you can always share. Good gardening, Mary

This year my tomatoes have suffered from wilt. I don't know which wilt for sure -- it's the one with dark brown patches on the lower leaves surrounded by yellow, which eventually causes the leaves to die. **** Peter, you/ve asked about wilt then said that the leaves have dark brown spots. What you're describing is a foliage infection and wilting is not a symptom of those kinds of infections. Hybrids have no disease resistance/tolerance to foliage infections and nor do most OP varieties. Matt's Wild Cherry is what's called a cerasiforme and so I can see it might not come down with those kinds of infections. If plants with foliage infections have shed the bacteria and/or fungi to the soil in a preceding year then splashback infection can occur and mulching can help but not prevent reinfection. Sterilizing the stakes isn't going to help b/c if you've had infected plants in there before the soil already has those pathogens there. And new infections can occur by windborne or rainborne means and you can't do anything about that other than to do what most others do and that's to protect the plants from when you first set them out. Many folks use Ortho Garden Disease Control which is Daconil. Daconil is synthetic but can be applied up to the day of harvest and has a lower toxicity than does Rotenone, which is approved organic by every organic certifying agency that I know of. Daconil is an anti-fungal so you need to know that the foliage infection you have is fungal in nature. If you go to the Tomato Pest and Disease Forum ,link at the top of this first page, look for Problem Solver #2 and then for links to disease sites. The two most common fungal foliage pathogens are Early Blight ( A. solani) and Septoria Leaf Spot. If the foliage infection is bacterial in nature, usually either Bacterial Speck or Bacterial Spot, then you need to consider using a copper containing product such as Kocide or similar. You can also go to Google, select IMAGES and enter the disease to find pictures. Copper containing products have some activity against fungal pathogens but they aren't as effective as Daconil. But you really need to know if you're dealing with a bacterial or fungal foliage pathogen and sometimes both can be present at the same time. Windclimber has suggested using compost tea but from all the feedback I've seen over the last decade or so they aren't known to be very effective. The basis for their use is to compete with the foliage pathogens on the leaf surface, presumably blocking the specific attachment sites where the pathogens bind by competition. If applied to the soil they have no activity in blocking those leaf sites. What Daconil does is to bind to those specific sites and is effective in preventing the fungal folaige pathogens from attaching. Turning over the soil, not just rototilling it, where you grow your tomatoes also helps by burying the pathogens that are on the surface of the soil after bing shed. Hope that helps. Carolyn