Tomato yield per plant.

[imafan26]

Tomatoes are primarily wind pollinated and usually self pollinated. That is why shaking the flowers when they are ripe helps with fruit set. Insects can visit or you can hand pollinate the flowers if you want to cross them deliberately. Keep in mind if you breed tomatoes or any plant for that matter the first (F1) generation is a hybrid and will not breed true to seed. Many of the tomato varieties that you buy are hybrids. Open pollinated plants have been bred through many generations and kept isolated until the characteristics or genes have become stable. It can take 8-10 generations, breeding the plants only to each other; selecting only the plants with the traits you want to keep before you end up with a stable variety. OP plants are inbred. Hybridized plants may have more vigor as they may take on the best qualities ( and some of the less desirable traits) of each parent and will have a larger gene diversity. The seeds may or may not be sterile in succeeding generations, and "sisters" may look different if they inherit different traits. Cultivars must be compatible to be able to be hybridized. Tomatoes are rarely the problem since all modern tomatoes are close cousins and all of the original tomatoes only came the same general area in the Andes.

Species with more widespread orgins like orchids that have been around a lot longer and has had time to evolve and diversify cannot be bred indiscriminately. South American catleyas cannot be bread with Asian phalaenopsis. Even within the phalaenopsis there are sub genus so only tetraploid phalaenopsis can be bred, diploids cannot. I had to ask a grower how they could tell a diploid from a tetraploid phal since they look alike. He said, the only way you can tell is with genetic mapping.

Paul, my tomatoes look like yours. Mine are on 7 foot trellises and they do hang down. Only mine poke through bird netting and I have to use orange temporary fencing at the bottom of the cage since the 14 ft bird netting does not reach the ground and if the bottom is not secured by a barrier, the birds will go under the netting to raid the fruit. It does make it hard for me to harvest since I have to take out all the wires holding the netting in place at the "door" to pick the fruit and rewire the opening afterward.

Tomato Nut: if your tomatoes are mostly 5 ft or less it could be because of your soil, if you are growing organic less than 3 years your plants will be shorter, especially heavy feeders like tomatoes. If your soil is not rich to start with, tomatoes need to have a good rich soil and they are heavy feeders so you will need to make sure they get the nutrients they need at the right time. You may have a short season and grow more determinate tomatoes which set heavy over a shorter period of time on more compact plants. If the internodes of your tomatoes are short you have a determinate, if they are long then the tomato will be a taller indeterminate. Indeterminate tomatoes branch more and set over a longer time, but may take more days to harvest. Most of my tomatoes were 80 day to first fruit, however, in my climate tomatoes can produce until disease kills them about 9 months if they are fed and it does not rain too much.

[Taiji]

Don't keep records, but for me in the U.P. Big Beef Hybrids, Abraham Lincolns, and Large Red Cherry are the most prolific. In AZ the large fruited varieties don't do well for me. Large Red Cherry is extremely prolific in AZ, tho the fruits aren't as large as they get in the U.P.

[TomatoNut95]

One of these days I'm going to try to learn to cross-pollinate. Hmm, I wonder if a Roma mixed with a Micro Tom would result in a Micro Roma? Kidding!

Actually, I was wondering: @applestar, if you crossed a variegated foliage with a variegated foliage; for example, if you crossed your Shimofuri with my Splash of Cream: would the resulting offspring be variegated?

[Vanisle_BC]

PaulF is correct though, that accepted wisdom dictates that the seeds for saving should be harvested from the very BEST fruit from the very best plant.

Carrying that a wee bit further it's not a reliable tactic for reproducing all species of plant. In other species fruit can have 2 parent plants, thanks to pollen transfer by wind or insects. If the pollen-distributing parent was of a different variety from the plant receiving it, saved seed can produce plants and/or fruit with different characteristics.

The properties of the fruit are determined by the plant it grows on but the seed within it may have been hybridized by others.

Happily for tomato & pea growers this very rarely happens with those species. They're already pollinated before the flowers open - so long as the applestars of this world haven't been poking at them .

If what I've said is wrong, I'll be happy - and likely - to be corrected.

[Gary350]

I grow tomatoes for maximum quantity because we put 1 year supply of tomatoes in the kitchen pantry in mason jars every year. We only plant varieties we like best. Big Beef 12 plants. Beef master 4 plants, Big Boy 4 plants, Tomatoes are not big variety they average 7 to 8 ounces each. I sometimes plant 4 cherry tomatoes too.

I have found several tricks to growing lots of tomatoes. Plants are 18" apart so they shade each other in 100 degree hot sun. Plant deep stems has the ability to grow roots anyplace soil touches then. Dig a 10" flower pot size hole pour in a 16 oz food can of wood ash stir will into soil in bottom of hole. Very small amount of nitrogen is good but not much other wise you get very large plants with few tomatoes. Wood ash contains calcium for BER & potassium that produces lots of blossoms. Lots of blossoms become lots of tomatoes. I stake tomatoes in cages up to 6 ft tall. 3 years ago I got 550 lbs of tomatoes from 22 plants = 25 lbs per plant. 2 years ago we got about 450 lb of tomatoes I planted 2 kinds of cherry tomatoes. Last year 300 lbs of tomatoes I planted 3 new varieties that did not do well at all. Big Beef are the big producer if I only planted this 1 variety I will probably get 30 lbs per plant. I only water plants first week they are planted then never water them again all summer. I never baby my plants & never trim them. If mother nature does not take care of them they die. We are often gone camping 3 to 4 days every week for 2 months then be home in time to harvest and can quarts & pints in mason jars. I have several bird houses the birds seem to take care of most of the bugs. If I see mites or aphids I spray plants hard with water about 5 to 7 seconds that washes all the tiny bugs away. We use to can 120 lbs of tomatoes in the pantry in 2 weeks but new only 70 lbs kids grew up & moved away we are usually finished canning by July 15 or 20. Then I have lots of tomatoes to sell plus we eat tomatoes all summer and I give several away. Plants are 6 ft tall by July. When plants get 7 ft tall they get top heavy plants turn and grow down they usually touch the soil by Sept. Frost kills plants about Nov 7th. I pick all the green tomatoes day before frost then lots of green tomatoes ripen in kitchen we usually have ripe tomatoes for Thanksgiving & Christmas dinner. My garden is in the donut hole of 50 ft tall trees. Trees on all 4 sides. My tomato plants get cool morning sun from about 7:30 am to about 1 pm then full shade hottest part of the day until dark. We get too much spring rain garden is often under water but that never kills tomato plants. Rain slows down about May 10 then stops about June 15 then it is hot & dry as desert for 3 months. This is what works for me. I have ok soil, it could be better, no clay, ph 7 a little bit high. I am in zone 7, temperature sometimes drops to 15 we have 17 degrees F in the forecast 2 days in a row Sun & Mon.