Saving Seeds from a Hybrid Tomato

[ninnymary]

I have a tomato from Fredricks called Tomato Tye Dye. It is a beautiful color, just the size I like them, and is delicious! It is not the Berkely Tie Dye. Tag says it's a hybrid. I've googled saving seeds from hybrid tomato and they say it will not be true to the parent if it is a first generation. It will also not have the vigor.

I don't know what generation it is and the tag doesn't say F1, which I think is the generation. Are the chances good that seeds saved from it will produce next year the delicious tomato that I love?

Why did I have to fall in love with a hybrid?

Mary

 

[majorcatfish]

mary some areas people can grow heirlooms and others can not...

for example tried growing poblano peppers <Heirloom> always rotted before i could pick, now grow highlanders <f1> rare to have a bad one....

cant grow san marzano <H> but can grow mariana tomatoes....

location location.

if you plant thoses seeds it might return to the parent plant could be the gold tomato or the red tomato, or you might get another season out of them.... nothing wrong with hybrid seeds....

 

[Ridgerunner]

Did you read thejenx' thread about growing potatoes from seed. Those seed were crosses, which means hybrid, sort of. That's just the way potato seeds are, crosses. Some of the results were somewhat close to the parent, some not. That's what it means with a hybrid if you save seeds, you don't know what you will get. Some could be pretty close, some could be way different.

I could not find that when I googled Fredricks tomato tye dye. I found a Fred's Tie Dye, a purple one with stripes. Is that what you meant?

Fred's Tie Dye

75 days, determinate tree-type — The rugose, regular leaf dwarf plants are among the taller growing of the dwarfs. They are vigorous and productive with fruits that are medium to medium-large sized (five to six ounce average), round, purple with jagged gold and green stripes and the deep crimson flesh of black tomatoes. 'Fred's Tie Dye' has a rich, intense, balanced flavor.

It was selected from a cross between 'Dwarf Wild Fred' and 'Pink Berkeley Tie Dye' made by Vince Lavallo, who also named it.

I found that write-up on "Victory Seeds". The way I read that write-up I'm not sure it is a true hybrid. I think it may have stabilized pretty well, though you can still get an occasional throwback. Where did you get the original seeds? Are we even talking about the same tomato?

 

[ninnymary]

Ridge, I don’t think we are talking about the same one. Here is the tag.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah, Burpee sells those seeds, they are hybrid. That's a different one than I was looking at. You can even get Burpee to mail you plants. I did not see the seeds or plants from another source. Totally different from the one I found.

I think you'd be a lot better off getting some seeds and planting those instead of trying to save hybrid seeds. You would likely be disappointed.

https://www.burpee.com/vegetables/tomatoes/tomato-tye-dye-hybrid-19964.html

 

[ninnymary]

Apparently they are from Burpee.

Mary

 

[Nyboy]

Mary if you had a large garden I would say go for it. But you have limited space, might not want to gamble

 

[ninnymary]

Mary if you had a large garden I would say go for it. But you have limited space, might not want to gamble

Yeah not going to try it. I'll pick something else. I hate it when all I want is a package of seeds for $3.59 and they charge $2.99 for shipping.

Mary

 

[digitS']

Mary, don't you have a local garden centre that sell Burpee seeds? No guaranty that it would be on their rack but it would be worth checking. Tomato Growers Supply also carries Tye Dye hybrid.

Carol Deppe in "Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties" says: "There is an extensive hybrid seed industry for tomatoes, even though they don't display inbreeding depression and thus there is no special biological advantage to the hybrids."

That's interesting and I guess that this is based on the reality that tomatoes are usually self-pollinating. That's kinda a step beyond "purebred." Still, I wonder ... no advantage ..?

For just about the first time, my tomato volunteers are not cherries. Three plants have medium-sized yellow fruit!!! I think that they are Lemon Boy F1 offspring.

It took me a long time to try Lemon Boy. I don't like the name ... who wants to bring a tomato to the dinner table that tastes like a lemon?! Anyway, there are so many gardeners who like Lemon Boy that I decided to grow it. Glad I did! Big, productive, healthy plants.

The volunteers' fruit has Lemon Boy color. Plants aren't robust in the least and fruit is half the size of the Lemon Boys on other side of the garden. All that might be problems from volunteering. Anyway, there are several coming around to full ripe and I am going to try the first one, right now!

Tastes fine. Skin is a little tuff ... good with green beans and little smokies ... Can you believe that they are volunteers and ripe for me this early!?? Well, Lemon Boy is a nice early tomato ... I have had them for several weeks. Should try these and the hybrid together ...

NCState says Lemon Boy is a 1984 release. "Resistance: verticillium wilt race 1, fusarium wilt race 1, nematodes, alternaria stem canker, gray leaf spot." Oh Boy! Wonder if that was the aim in hybridizing. Wonder if I might lose those qualities ...

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

F1’s will not breed true. What you are buying is a controlled genetic package.

Line A bred to line B all offspring are AB for all genes-not true but true for this discussion.

AB bred to AB gives you 1/4 AA, 1/2 AB, 1/4 BB for every gene. Now if you have 20 genes that make a difference (there are many more than that-closer to 100) there are almost an infinite number of F2’s possible-all with unique genetics.

Bottom line, if you really like this tomato, pay for the seed. $6 for enough seed for 3-4 years or put up with a less than tomato, pay the $$$$. This coming from someone who has been accused of being so tight I squeak when I walk.