"David WE Roberts" wrote in
:


"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.

I understood this when at school, but that was toooo many years ago.

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

Yes, but presumably a human would have to open the door to gain access to
this controlled unit, and at the same time an insect, or indeed anything
with pollen could enter this environment to contaminate it.

It is something I never understood and never asked.

Baz