Which tomato seeds should I even bother saving?

14 years ago

I have a question that may be a little stupid but here goes. I have planted 8 different varieties of tomatoes this year (including Rutgers, Early girl, better boy, mortgage lifter, and several more that I can't name off the top of my head) What I want to know is, besides the mortgage lifter which I know to be an heirloom, are any of these worth saving? I know non heirlooms don't always breed true and I'm not sure whether these are hybrids or not. I guess I'm basicly wondering what the rule of thumb is here.

Comments (9)

digdirt2
14 years ago
Rutgers and ML of the ones you name. Would have to know the names of the others.

EG and Better Boy - don't bother saving.

Dave
mojavebob
14 years ago
Better Boy and Early Girl are hybrids so the seed won't produce the same plants. Rutgers is open pollinated like Mortgage Lifter.
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Carolyn ,does the fermentation method destroy all pathogens ? If so is this due to the long soaking ? You stated above "only hot water treatment can be used for the bacteria" which isn't used in the fermentation method .So please explain. Would the clorine method be more effect with a longer soak time ? What diseases can these pathogens cause ? ***** No, fermentation does not remove all pathogens as I think I said above when I said that it lessened the amount on the seed coat and since infection is a quantitative process it means a lesser chance of passing on certain seed borne pathogens. Above I said that all bacterial and viral pathogens, to date, have been found in the endosperm of the seed and that's the interior part of the seed so they are not removed by any method except the specialized hot water treatment. I can't answer the question about a longer soak time with chlorine being more effective since I don't know any data available to say which pathogens can be lessened and how effective, so there's no baseline to go from. Which diseases can these pathogens cause? I don't know how to answer your question b/c I don't know which pathogens you're referring to. ( smile) In WI where you live the most prevalent tomato diseases are the foliage diseases and the four major ones are Early Blight ( A. solani), Septoria Leaf Spot, Bacterial Speck and Bacterial Spot, but the first two are fungal and I do know that Dr. Dillard's results showed that those two fungal ones were lessened with Fermentation. You also can have occasional Verticillium, but rarely Fusarium, and I do know that Fusarium is lessened on the seed coat but can't remember if Verticillium is but would assume so. The long ago words about what fermentation could accomplish are as follows, but the data that came later proved some of them to not be true. Helps remove the gel on the seeds; very true, so you end up with fluffy seeds the same as you'd buy. Inactivates seed borne pathogens; later data has indicated which ones The acid conditions of the fermentation kill viruses; not true since those viruses tested to date are not on the seed coat. Commercial seed producers often TSP to treat their seeds b'c it's known that TSP can destroy TMV ( Tobacco Mosaic Virus), but don't ask me how b'c I don't know. LOL TSP treated seeds are pretty easy to ID b'c the seeds are smaller than normal, not fuzzy, and much darker in color. The mold that forms on atop the the fermentation has fungi that produce antibiotics that can kill or lessen any bacterial pathogens; not true b'c as said above, those bacterial pathogens tested to date, and that's not ALL of them, are in the endosperm of the seed. Hope that helps. Carolyn, who also thinks that many home growers as well as many of the smaller seed companies who sell tomato seed, and many of them produce their own seed although some subcontract out and some buy wholesale off the shelf ro a combo of those methods, use fermentation b'c they don't want to use anything other than the natural means that the tomatoes do themselves as to dropped fruits leading to more of the same kind, all a part of the natural life cycle of the tomato. And I forgot to mention that both TSP and actual acids are two other ways that commercial seed producers produce their seed. Lots of info on the net about that.
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carolyn137
14 years ago
Seed saving is interesting and fun to do but it certainly isn't mandatory.

Personally I can't see the sense of saving seed from varieties that are well known and very available.

I only save seeds from hard to get more rare tomato varieties.

But if you list the other varieties you're growing I'm sure that someone here can tell you which are OP's and which are hybrids.

Carolyn
missingtheobvious
14 years ago
songbird, by all means do save your seeds. You have to begin somewhere. Why not try this summer, just so you can see how it goes?

You can even try different methods to see what you like best:
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/seedsave/2002084456024410.html
http://wintersown.org/wseo1/Tomato_Seeds.html
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/A_Beginner%E2%80%99s_Guide_To_Saving_Tomato_Seeds_Using_Fermentation

Then germinate some of the seeds, to see if you were successful.

That way, when lightning strikes your only surviving plant of that super-rare variety you could only find three seeds of (because they're so popular, and they barely average a dozen seeds per tomato), and all you have left is one fruit ripening on the kitchen counter, you'll already know what you're doing, so you won't feel quite so pressured.
littlesongbird18
Original Author
14 years ago
Okay so I checked my tomatoes and I have Celebrity, Bradley, Big Beef, Better Boy, Mortgage lifter, Rutgers and one more that is a yellow that I can't find the tag for. I know that EG and Better Boy are hybrids but does anyone know about the others? (aside from the ML which I know is an heirloom) I love saving the seeds even tho these are common plants because it gives me that much more money to spend on other goodies next year if I don't have to buy my tomatoes. *grins* Cuz gardening is an addiction, right?
catman529
14 years ago
Personally I can't see the sense of saving seed from varieties that are well known and very available.

I would save them because I can get as many as I want and not pay for a new pack of seeds + shipping fees.

My only worries this year are cross-pollination - I've seen insects visiting the flowers, as well as one or two varieties where the stigma protrudes out beyond the anthers...basically asking for pollen drifting from other varieties. But I'll save seeds from at least some of them, and I'll try and get as many as possible so I can trade some of them in for new varieties to grow next year.
missingtheobvious
14 years ago
Celebrity and Better Boy are hybrids.

Bradley and Rutgers are heirlooms.

The original Big Beef is a hybrid. There is an OP version, but I don't know if it's commercially available. I assume that if you bought yours in a store, it's a hybrid.
tripacer
14 years ago
I am a newbe, but I'm surprised that no one has suggested covering the blooms with brides veil material, before the blooms open, so there is no possiblility of cross pollination. Shake them a couple times a day to increase pollination. Of course, don't forget to remove the veil and mark the tiny tomatoes with yarn or something. Do a search for more details.
Best wishes, Don
elkwc
14 years ago
Another advantage to saving seeds the first time of something that is readily available you can always get seeds in case you need them. You probably won't have any problems and they will do fine. But I started on seeds I knew I could get more of or didn't care if I had them in case I did something wrong the first time. That way when it came to the seeds I really wanted to save because they aren't readily available I was confident in what I was doing. Jay

Which tomato seeds should I even bother saving?

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digdirt2

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Which tomato seeds should I even bother saving?

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