Saving seed from garden grown Heirlooms
Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 10:59 am
ok....been listening to a lot of youtube videos about growing heirlooms and tomatoes in general and I have another question.....
several times the presenter has said something like....since heirlooms are open pollinated, so if you save seed, the next year you will get the same type of tomato....very good, and I understand the difference between heirlooms and modern hybrids in this respect
however, I was wondering....if you have a garden with several heirloom tomatoes in it, how can you be sure that each variety has only pollinated itself?....
that is, if I have a brandywine next to a big rainbow, how can I be sure that the brandywine has not pollinated the big rainbow and vice versa?....I mean, bees and insects are in the garden doin' their thing, right?...who is to say that one did not visit a flower on one plant and then fly straight to another plant?
is there some mechanism that I am unaware of that does not allow cross breeding of this kind....cause it seems to me, if I save seed from a plant in such a situation, I am taking my chances on the parentage of the resulting seeds
please, anybody...this has got me real curious
several times the presenter has said something like....since heirlooms are open pollinated, so if you save seed, the next year you will get the same type of tomato....very good, and I understand the difference between heirlooms and modern hybrids in this respect
however, I was wondering....if you have a garden with several heirloom tomatoes in it, how can you be sure that each variety has only pollinated itself?....
that is, if I have a brandywine next to a big rainbow, how can I be sure that the brandywine has not pollinated the big rainbow and vice versa?....I mean, bees and insects are in the garden doin' their thing, right?...who is to say that one did not visit a flower on one plant and then fly straight to another plant?
is there some mechanism that I am unaware of that does not allow cross breeding of this kind....cause it seems to me, if I save seed from a plant in such a situation, I am taking my chances on the parentage of the resulting seeds
please, anybody...this has got me real curious