Tomato - Use your own seed.

[Dynamite]

Hi there. Is it possible to use your own seed?

I have some Moneymaker, Sungold and Tumbling Tom seed packets which I bought this season.

I am just an amateur but is it possible for me to save the seeds from the fruits I grow this year and then use them to grow new plants next year?

Kind Regards........Rob

[maverick451]

Yeah its possible and quite common but you can only do it with open polinated varities, hybrid f1 varieties have different parents and probably wont come true from seed.

Moneymaker and Tumbling Tom I think are open polinated

Sungold is F1

There is a good guide here (if links are allowed)
Expert advice on saving tomato seeds

I use the fermenting method above with good success, my friend down the allotment just puts tomato seeds he has dug out the tomato on some kitchen roll and leaves them in the shed until sowing the next year.

He gets less germination % than me but its an easier way if you only want 1 or 2 plants

[Cadalot]

True you are not likely to get exactly the same tom from a F1 but is interesting seeing how much a like or different they are when they come, on my third generation of Crimson Crush from saved seed this year, two very different looking plants when I grew from saved seeds the first year but I'm continuing with the more Crimson Crush looking and tasting.

[Bren In Pots]

I save toms, broad and runner beans, radish, plus I leave things like lettuce, parsley to self seed.

[Zelenina]

Moneymaker and Tumbling Tom I think are open polinated

Sungold is F1

Tumbling Tom is also an F1 hybrid. But you're right about Moneymaker.

[jackarmy]

Not sure about that Zel

Tumbling Tom i think is open whilst Tumbler is indeed an F1.

[Zelenina]

Maybe, but I think it's the other way round, jack. But I expect someone will come along soon who really knows.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Tumbler F1.

Tumbler Tom open pollinated.

[MarkPelican]

Zelenina, I'm not sure about Tumbling Tom, I have both Tumbling Tom Red and Tumbling Tom Yellow (originally from Nicky's Seeds) and have happily grown them from my own seed without problem.

Its always possible that you will get a cross (even with open pollinated varieties, particularly the potato leafed tomatoes which seem to be more likely to cross.

[Zelenina]

Ok, a bit of research was called for. Tumbler does indeed seem to be a hybrid. So I was wrong about that and everyone else was right.

But there are some suppliers listing Tumbling Tom as a hybrid and some as open pollinated, so I still don't know who's right with that one. And maybe it doesn't matter. I think many F1s are bred from two very similar parents, with some very small or even invisible differences. So the F2s from seed saving can often be similar too. If you like a hybrid variety it's certainly worth trying.

But I know a lot of people have tried it with Sungold and got very variable results. It's apparently a very complex hybrid and hard to produce a similar OP variety from it.

[MarkPelican]

Zelenina, I think you make a good point. If you like a particular F1 variety, then there's no harm in trying to grow the seed (providing you don't try to pass on the seed to others as anything other than "an Open Pollinated version of and F1 Hybrid". A difficulty is knowing which characteristics have been inherited. I'm growing F2 seeds from Mountain Magic this year to see if they have the blight resistance of their parents. The difficulty (as I see it) is that the parents each have resistance to different forms of late blight so even if they don't get blight, it will only mean that the particular plants have resistance to the specific late blight that affects my allotment this year, not that the F2 is the same as the F1.

If you're growing for a specific colour, its probably easier to tell.

[Scarlet]

But there are some suppliers listing Tumbling Tom as a hybrid and some as open pollinated.

I'm pretty sure that tumbling tom is OP. What seed suppliers are listing it as otherwise? Is it just one seed supplier? I've not found any? There have been some seed suppliers that write them up wrong - I'm sure on purpose so that you'll buy fresh seed in the following year rather than save your own. There was one variety not long back that was changed after a grape wrote to them...can't remember who or what variety it was though. VC, I bet you can remember?

[veggiechicken]

It was a T&M seed that was listed as one thing as seed and another as a plant - I think!

Found it - Sweet Aperitif
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ato_89038.html

T&M list it as OP now Tomato 'Sweet Aperitif' - Tomato Seeds - Thompson & Morgan

And another edit.............but as F1 when sold with Sungold
Sweetest 'Tomato Duo' - Tomato Seeds - Thompson & Morgan

[Scarlet]

I'd love your memory!

[veggiechicken]

No you wouldn't! There are some very strange facts tucked away there