Are You Saving Seeds from your Toms This Year?

[garden5]

If you are, what measures do you take to make sure they flowers don't cross pollinate?

[TZ -OH6]

There is another thread or two where I gave the statistics for cross pollinating. The easiest thing to do for tomato plants is to go to Walmart or a craft store and get a pack of 5"x7" organza drawstring sachets from the wedding/party section. Find a truss that has one or no buds open yet. Remove off any open flowers and put the bag over the truss. Remove the bag after al flowers are faded or the green tomatoes start to get too big, then tie a brightly colored string or ribbon on the truss.



I have a very good success rate bagging early in the season, not so good later in the season for some reason. I also save seed from the first fruit of the season because I hav lower cross polination then, but some gardens are the opposite and have high cross polination early in the season. Germinating 50 seeds from each of several fruits of your potatoleaf varieties is a quick way to tell.



For pepper plants it is easer to bag the whole small plant with Tulle netting.

[engineeredgarden]

I just plant "keepers" at least 25 feet from each other, so any chance of cross-pollination is avoided.

EG

[TZ -OH6]

25 feet won't make a difference to the bees. Some of the bee crosses I have grown out had daddy plants 20-30 feet away with many other plants inbetween.

[gixxerific]

Yeah I want to say it's like somewhere in the half mile range to REDUCE the chance of cross pollination.

So TZ what do you consider early n the season? Is it too late now? I went though a rough time with the heat wave and haven't seen a new flower for a while until lately.

[TZ -OH6]

I usually get around to bagging the second or third truss of the season (mid June) and then when those bags come off and are used again (Late July-early August?) things can be OK or bad. Last year was terrible for the second go around, the year before was not too bad. Last year was a cool season so later bagging should not have been bad from heat.

I notice that the mid-late season trusses last year were really short and I had a hard time getting the bags over them.

I would say that it is never too late to try because 1) I don't know what the exact problem is, and 2) you can get good seeds out of mature green fuit if frost nails you.

[garden5]

I just read that post of yours, TZ. It was really informative. I'm wondering if plastic sandwich baggies wouldn't work, too.

[Ozark Lady]

No, you can not use plastic to bag the blooms. They need airflow and moisture. If you put a sandwich bag on it, it will rot and not develop any fruit at all.
If you were trying to root a stem then the plastic would work to hold soil to allow roots to grow in, because the roots need that humidity there.

Use something the blooms can breathe through, but bugs can't get through. Light also must pass through.

[lj in ny]

I just bagged mine yesterday. I meant to do it a little earlier but I just got around to getting the bags.