"Baz" wrote in message
...
Due to neglect, most of my "Sweet Million" toms have split.
They are very expensive, £2.99 for 15 seeds so I would like to save my own
for next year.

How can I do this easily and without too much mess?


I may be missing something but I thought that unless the tomatoes were self
fertile then fertilisation involved s e x.
Given that, you have to be in a very carefully controlled environment to
ensure that the fertilisation is from the same variety.
IIRC commercially they keep the plants in closed greenhouses to keep stray
pollinators away.
This of course assuming that fertilisation within the same variety will
breed true.
We have presumably all seen two brown eyed parents produce a blue eyed child
through a pairing of recessive genes.

I am assuming that F1 hybrids are a controlled cross between two specific
but different parent varieties.
So for a single attribute there will be two different parent gene pairs
(call them AA and BB) which gives you the F1 genotype of AB and so
fertilisation between these gives you the standard results from Mendelian
genetics i.e 1* AA, 2* AB, 1*BB.
Vastly complicated over a variety of genes but they will generally not breed
true for more than 50% of any one gene pair.
Now got myself deep into the mire of partially understood genetics from a
long time ago but I am assuming that breeding within a variety will produce
some variation due to different mixes of dominant and recessive genes but
breeding between varieties will produce a much greater variation.

Gnah!

Anyway I think that the seed suppliers stay in business because they can
give a greater guarantee that the seeds will produce what you expect than
the gathering of seeds from the wild.

Cheers

Dave R
--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

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