On Sun, 1 Feb 2004 12:24:14 -0000, "David Hill"
wrote:

"...........You may get a good one like the one you saved, it's parents or
grandparents...you'll have to then save seed from those and cross back with
the parent.. and do that several generations in order to fix the traits you
like. ......."

Sounds good,....BUT........"Cross back to the parent"?.
have you forgotten that the parent tomato is dead and gone before you even
sow the seed, let alone have it there to cross back to.
You just have to have several seasons of selection with the hope that the
trait that you want doesn't die out.

Ok, I probably should have said parent Stock.. I was sleep typing. ;-)

You save seed from the "Freeze Proof Tomato" and plant some of that
seed (T1) and get an assortment of plants with varying qualities.
You choose the plant that has the qualities you want in fruit and
plant. Save seed from it (T2)

You plant the (T2) seed and get a bunch of plants and you choose the
best plant and fruit type from the resulting offspring.

In the mean time you plant some more (T1) seed. Choose a plant that
has the qualities you want.

Cross the chosen offspring from (T2) back to the (T1) offspring.

You can also choose to plant T1 seed and get an assortment of plants
with varying fruits, you can choose several plants of the sort you
want from that very first planting of saved seeds and choose immature
blossoms on those plants and isolate them from one another, and then
choose which plant is going to provide pollen and which shall be the
receptor.. on the receptor, remove all the male plant parts so they
cannot self pollinate. When the pollen ripens on the other flower,
pollinate the female and again isolate and mark that flower, so you
can save seed from the resultant fruits.

I guess there is line breeding and crossing back and all sorts of
techniques used to fix traits, but it all starts with a "parent
stock"... and that's what I meant,

I'm certainly not a plant breeder, but I'd like to learn more about
it, and intend to by a book .. can't remember the exact title at the
moment, I have a lousy memory, Breed your own vegetable varieties, or
plant varieties, something like that. It's always been of interest to
me, just haven't been able to pursue it yet.

Janice