Minimum number of plants (tomatoes)

19 years ago

Hi everyone...

I know that with corn that it is recommended that you grow at least 16 to help with pollination. Are there any other vegies or fruit that have minimum requirements like this? Or varieties of plants, eg different varieties of tomatoes.

You see...I have room for 14 tomatoes this year, is it ok to plant 14 varieties? Not that I would, but is it a bad idea?

thanks

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Comments (5)

Spatzbear
19 years ago
It's fine to plant 14 varieties. It's good fun, actually. You don't need them for pollination, as tomatoes are self-pollinating. So, even if you only planted 1 tomato plant, you'd be fine. But then, where's the fun in only 1 plant? *winks*
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sarah_may
19 years ago
You have a choice of 3,000 - 4,000 varieties so why limit yourself to only 14?
If you want to save seed you just have to cover the flower with a little tulle bag before it opens, then mark that tomato & remember not to eat the seeds.
welcome to the tomato wonderland!!!!
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DerbyTas
19 years ago
Sarah May you are so conservative...the Seed Savers Org of USA has 5,400+ vars (as of 2001) and there are people all around the world creating more crosses (and stabilising them...mostly) all the time
Lips....you might need to know that tomatoes will cross even though most of the pollination is done before the flower opens up (they self pollinate) but a small percentage of the pollen may stay viable for a few hours or even a day or so after the flower is open and there is a very small chance for crossing by insects (mostly)
So...a couple of points...
If you are not keeping your seed it is no problem
If you are keeping seed but not sharing it then who cares
If you are sharing it then...know ..
Beefstaek varieties (those mostly used for sandwiches) are the most likely to cross
Currant types have never been known to cross(yet)
If you keep the different varieties apart (say5-8m)and plant a tall crop between them..say climbing beans then you should be ok too
I have had sevaeral varieties that I grew this year from seed sourced on these forums that were obviously crossed...a Yellow Brandywine that had a couple of red fruiting plants for example and a Pink Ping Pong that had flattened fruit, a nd two others so if you are sharing seeds then you do need to know a few things...there are several very good books
If you interested I can post them here later...got to rush
cheers
Peter
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adamus
19 years ago
Fourteen is a good amount to start. One big, one small, one red , one white etc.
(we have another in our clutches)*wink*
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Raymondo
19 years ago
Let's get technical. Corn is an outbreeder which means it prefers pollination by another corn plant, though it can pollinate itself. Tommies are inbreeders meaning they're quite happy to pollinate themselves. Like Peter says, they will cross pollinate though. The little native bees seem to like tommy flowers, much more so than the European honey bee, so if you have those around, crossing can occur quite readily.
Have fun.
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Minimum number of plants (tomatoes)

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Spatzbear

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