Garbird: Your heirloom is "dehybridized," and as such, will render seeds that are true to the strain, if not X-pollinated. So we agree on that. Your intuitive comments are 100% correct. Absolutely those hybrid tomatoes can provide pollen that might get to your heirlooms, and that would ruin your seed stock...but would have no effect on the taste or nature of the tomatoes coming from your heirloom vine. Only the SEEDS are affected. (Just thought I'd throw that in, as the misconception has been voiced before.) And, given your astute intuition, you should see the logic of this. While the pollination gets the fruit to set and develop, the genetic specifics are relevant only to the resulting seeds, not flesh of the fruit. Of course, the fruit of the subsequent generation would be entirely affected by the genetic nature of the plant that produces the fruit. But, back to your original inquiry... As your plants develop, I suggest you closely examine the flowers of your plants. You should notice that your hybrids typically have flowers where the male part (anthers) completely envelope the female part (pistil and stigma). This virtually assures self-pollination, and pollination at a high rate. Hence the prolific yield of the typical Early Girl or Better Boy. The heirloom, ironically, has a long female part (pistil) which tends to encourage cross-pollination, so anatomy is working against your desire to favor self-pollination. (I suppose the term "OP" (Open Pollination) comes from this anatomical aspect, but I am only surmising that...no confirmation from authoritative writings.) So, once again, common sense should be considered. And, as expected, heirlooms tend to have low yields...in my opinion, because the anthers of these flowers are often unable to "get to" the stigmas, which ride high and above the anthers. So I manually pollinate them. But I never collect my own seeds this way. I just want to eat the fruit! Again, trust your senses. If pollen from a different tomato variety might pollinate your heirloom, then the seed is junk. And I suppose that pollen from a different plant that is the SAME varietal should be OK...but I have never read that anywhere. I suppose I reserve the right to trust my common sense, too.

Heirloom tomatoes have perfect flowers (both male and female pats) and self-pollinate most of the time, without any special precautions. If you want to be ABSOLUTELY positive that they do not cross pollinate, then bag the blossoms before they open and leave them bagged until the fruit forms. Then you would need to somehow mark that fruit when you took the bag off so that you would remember which one to save seeds from. I saved seeds from 3 different varities last year and do not think that I had cross pollination problems (the PL came up PL, so I know those are pure). This year I have about 40 varities though..... Check out the FAQ over on the tomato forum for lots more useful info on saving seeds and cross pollination

I don't want to stir up a hornets nest but I would politely disagree that Miracle Grow "is as good as any". I think the chemical fertilizers are quite a bit less effective as the organic fertilizers. There is a lot of chemistry behind it and I woun't go into it right here but all fertilizers are not created equal. For fruit set try using one tablespoon of Epsom Salt in a gallon of water when you water. Your current fertilizer has way way way too much nitrogen in it. That is why you are getting lots of nice green growth but no flowers. You need phosphorus for fruit set and development, not nitrogen. A good fertilzer (say 5-10-10) would be better at this time. A low nitrogen (the first of the three numbers) is what you are looking for. If your soil is good then there is already enough N in the soil to take care of all the plant growth. Also, I assume your nighttime temps are above 55*. Tomato plants will polinate just fine in temps up to 90*. Since the blossom has both male and female parts it does help to walk out and shake the plant up a bit to help move the polen arond and get it to where it needs to be. Get away from the high nitrogen fertilizer. Get away from the blue stuff altogether. Mulch you garden to help the soil retain moisture and help keep the soil temp moderated. Tomato roots love soil that is cool and damp (not dry or doggy) If you want to promote fruit set then stress the plant just a little bit. If it thinks the environment is turning a bit hostile it will do what it needs to do to start making the next getneration, ie fruit set. But fruitset requires the other two parts of the fertilizer formula. If you use a good organic fertilizer when you plant and then a couple of more times during the season that is all you need. I hope you are mulching your garden. Zone 8 locals can get very hot and dry this time of year. One additional thing mulch does: it provides a nice material for the microbes to munch on and produce lots of CO2, something the plants like. The Microbes don't steal N away from the plants and they give off CO2. What a great symbiotic relationship. I know that when you wrote this thread it was May 22. At that time here in SoCal we were having the typical June Gloom. Overcast days, cool nights. I had lots of good growth and few flowers. But since the weather turned warn and sunny in June everything changed. Tomatoes are setting fruit like firecrackers. I must have 40 confirmed tomatoes on just two Big Boy plants. My peppers have exploded and I am looking at a trmendous crop coming very soon. I said in another post, tomatoes are setting so fast it seems like popcorn. If you get a better understanding on the science of soil you will switch to the organic fertilizers which help feed the microbial life in the soil which, in turn, will be so much more beneifcial to all the plants you want to grow. I guess the best thing I could say is to put the horse ahead of the cart and start feeding the soil and not the plants. If you feed the soil you will automatically be feeding your plants. By using the chemical fertilizers you are totally neglecting microbial life that is so crucial to healthy soil and your plants. After all, why is compost so beneficial to plants? It is all the microbial matter that is in compost. Don't kill it by neglect or stringent chemical fertilizers. Just my two cents worth. Tom

Cool Guys!!!! I just lost one tomato plant and I blame this so called "potting mix" I got from the nursery. They mix it themselves and it STUNK! I assumed they knew what they were doing so I mixed it with my vegetable potting mix Jungle growth half and half 4 days ago and my best looking tomato plant JUST KEELED OVER AND DIED. I am assuming it was whatever was in their potting mix because the other three are doing great!! I didn't call them because I just didn't feel like it. I was mad and when I am mad I talk crap. What I have left are Kotlas, Prairie Fire and Oregon Spring variety. I have read Al's (Tapla) posts on potting mixes and plan on trying that out in the spring. I just had already bought all the other stuff and couldn't find any pine bark fines and was not in the mood to go crazy looking for it. Spring time I will try out his recommendations. Thanks for the tips (q-tips) lol Halime