propergating tomatoes from seed?????

After all the replies I think I will buy tomato plants as usual. Seems to be the best bet. Thanks guys

 

Sorry, forgot to include the link:

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/
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Its a good plan

Saves a month, or more, of growing seedlings on windowsills - where they may have insufficient light and grow "leggy"

Only downside is that there are usually fewer varieties available as plants, than as seed. But if your local Garden Centre has what you want Bob's-you-Uncle!

(Don't be in too much of a rush to buy them, you've got to look after them until last-frost when they can go outside, or if you have a greenhouse then you need to wait until the minimum temperature is consistently above 10C - probably early May)

 

Just wondering, but a lot is said about growing plants from seed saved from F 1 plants, but I just wonder how many have actually tried it.

Most info seems to come from seed merchants who have a vested interest in telling us it wont work.

Now I'm not saying that what is said is wrong, but I do think quoting what they tell us without actually trying yourself is perhaps allowing them to put the blinkers on us.

Its true you will get a plant slightly different from the original, (that happens anyway in non hybrids), but the ordinary gardener will probably not notice the difference, especially when it comes to toms, in fact even commercial growers dont expect all their toms to be ready at once, its not that kind of crop.

If you are greenhouse growing I doubt very much if it matters where the original plants were grown, as I believe most are grown undercover.

You find nothing out if you dont experiment yourself.

I would not use the same approach regarding flowering plants as I've found a large amount of F1 flower seed is actually sterile.

 

Fair point

My view is:

If you are growing a "crop" then best to maximise your chance of a harvest.

If you have time to experiment then that's a different project!

There are all sorts of F1's, some are crosses between individual parents that would be fine in their own right. So the "children" are probably either going to be Parent A, Parent B, the same as the original, or something close to that - not much to lose.

But if the parents are A) a useless fruiting variety chosen for its superb disease resistance and B) a variety chosen for its superb flavour but that catches every Cold that is going the rounds then the children will most likely be like one of the parents.

It depends on the Dominance of the "Useless fruiting" and "Always-sickly" genes - but its a fair bet that they are dominant, because if they weren't it would be possible to breed those characteristics out by just using selection over several generations, without having to go the much more expensive F1-cross route.

I have certainly read of people growing from specific F1 varieties and getting great crops for many generations thereafter.

But I don't want to encourage:

A) people trying it if what they must have, first and foremost, is a decent yield food crop.
B) Newbies trying it and then being disillusioned and giving up vegetable growing :(

 

Well I guess thats always been me, try things out for yourself.

I'd not recommend anyone planting the whole greenhouse up with saved seed and hoping for the best, but I would say, grow a couple of plants of your fav supermarket types along side others.
You might be surprised, you might not.
And you can then build on that in future years, I've never found anything in growing plants an exact science.

As I might have hinted earlier, my knowledge of genetics is not great, so I only speak, as I find.:D

 

That's definitely a good plan.

I wish I had more time / patience to keep my own seed ... but buying seeds in the 50p-a-packet end of season sale only costs £10 - £20, and I figure he time to clean and store seed for all the crops is not worth the effort.