I'd give Deppe's book another try. It's the best intro to this sort of stuff you're likely to find.

I'd go for Ashworth's Seed to Seed for general seed saving for a wide range of veggies and Deppe's book if you're more interested in breeding your won veggies, which is the focus of the book.

There's a good new FAQ on seed saving for tomatoes in that Forum and if you need info on seed saving for other veggies, I'd read Ashworth first and if the ansbwer isn't there, then ask in the appropriate Forums b/c not that many folks read this Forum.

Garnet, when bagging tomato blossoms you don't need to take off the tulle and pollenize with a Q tip b/c toamto blossoms are self fertile and pollenize themselves. There's a good discussion of this in the FAQ section of t he TOmato Forum where there's a new FAQ on preventing cross pollination , as I mentioned above.

Carolyn

Thanks so much! Id gathered that they are generally self-pollenizing, but Id read something about wind/vibration increasing the odds. Ill leave well-enough alone then ;-)

seems it might be book-hoarding time again!

>I read somewhere that Brassicas are a bit of an exception to that rule. Not necessarily the case. What often happens is that folks don't realize, because the plants are so radically different, that the same species is involved. For instance, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, caggage, cauliflower, collards, kale, and kohlrabi are all Brassica oleracea. Somebody might look at, say, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi and conclude that they have to be different species.

We see this more often with squashes. The classic example being that acorn squash and zucchini are both C. pepo, and can cross.

Don't forget, too, that brassicas are, by and large, biennials. So you can protect your seed crop by time-isolation. That is, variety A is being grown for seed in its second year, while you grow Variety B next to it during it's first year. Variety B won't flower, so there is no danger of crossing.

Brassicas are the exception to what I said about not needed a lot of land for a seed crop. To maintain vigor, seed should be collected from a minimum of 30 plants. Not too many home gardeners have the space or the inclination to tie up that much of their garden for two years growing a plant they won't even get to eat.