Re: Saving seeds from Hybrids
At 02:07 PM 2/8/01 -0500, you wrote:
>>Although Tomato seeds are normally self-pollinated, you could have had some
>>fruit pollinated by bees who brought in pollen from other tomato plants.
>>
>>Sungold is a hybrid variety (F1) so it's not predictable what the progeny
>>will be like. Some may resemble the original plant but others may revert
>>back to one of the parents of Sungold. That's the problem with trying to
>>collect seed from hybrids. It could be that your neighbour just got lucky
>>with the few plants that came up.
>>
>>Dehybridizing can be done but it usually takes about 7 generations before
>>the seed that you collect produces a stable line. Until then, you can have
>>all kinds of variations pop up.
>
>Hi,
>Yes, but the point I was trying to make and that I found interesting is
>that all the plants from the seed-saving efforts were true -- only my
>volunteers were unstable.
>
>As for the neighbor (not a next-door neighbor -- it's actually a good
>five-minute walk to her house), she has been getting the most delicious
>Sun Golds for at least five years that I know.
>
> From what you say, I suppose it is possible that the original plants had
> already been "dehybridized".
>
>Pat
Or it may be that the claim they were hybrids simply wasn't true. Seed
companies claimed that Sweet 100s were hybrids, but they weren't. Margaret L
