Charlie wrote in message
...
On Fri, 22 May 2009 09:51:19 -0500, "basilisk"
wrote:


"Bill who putters" wrote in message
...
Aimed for Florida folks but useful for other locations too.

Bill

http://brevard.ifas.ufl.edu/Forms%20.../Heirloom%20ve
getables%20trifold%206121.pdf


Or http://preview.tinyurl.com/ojb8tt

What do they mean by open pollinated?


Essentially it means that there is no human intervention in the
reproductive process in order to maintain a relatively pure strain.

Check out this. And, once again, I highly recommend Suzanne
Ashworth's "Seed to Seed".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_tomato


It was always my understanding that potato leaf tomatos were pollinated
by insects and the varieties that had regular leaves were self
pollinating,
even
to the point of being pollinated before the blossom actually opened.

Is this incorrect? Does it mean that you can't save the seeds from a
regular
leaf variety?

Yes you can save seeds from these.

I have alot of varieties of tomatoes planted and would like to save seed
but I don't want to waste my time with a lot of (probably bad) crosses
next year.

Varieties include:
Brandywine
yellow zebra
black krim
beefsteak
cherokee purple
golden globe
break of day
green zebra
and a couple more that I am having trouble
remembering right now.

Some of these are fairly close together, within a 100 feet, but all
are within 200 feet.

What say you wizards of the gardens.

basilisk


If your plants are seperated by that distance you are more than good
to go on saving seeds. I save seeds from varieties growing next to
one another and have no crosses yet, though possible it is unlikely.
Just as with beans. They are self fertile and rarely cross on their
own.

Potato leaf varieties will do fine if separated by the length of the
garden. Don't save seed from any double fruits.

Charlie

Thanks
this confirms what I believed, this is going to be my first year saving
tomato seed, I have been starting my own plants from seed for several
years now and enjoy the great variety available from seed.

Besides the limited variety of nursery raised plants they have been costly,
as I try to set out about 100 tomatos a year.

I always save a few squash seed and plant a couple of hills from them,
it's always fun to see what they have cross pollinated into.

basilisk