Tomatoe seed

I have grown some excellent Tomatoes this year on plants given to me by a friend, BUT...he doesn't know their name !
Could I collect seed by letting one really ripen and then squeeze the seed out, wash it free of the pulp and dry it on absorbent paper and keep it to sow next year?
Or is it not as simple as that?
Has anyone ever tried this?
Might I be wasting my time ??

 

Peter, it is as simple as that, but, if the tomatoes you were given are F1 hybrids then you will end up with one of the parent plants and not the variety you grew. David.

 

Peter,it is worth trying if only to test it against F1 varieties in the spring. I have often found tom seedlings coming up in the poly tunnel at work and grown a few on and they were good but F1 hybrids are better, at least you know what they are.

 

I'm a bit naive here, but what are F1 hybrids? Also whats the problem with having the one of the parent plants and not the variety you grew? Are they not the same? Is it to do with just being a clone like taking a cutting?

 

Hi N G normally with a f1 hybrid you cross pollinate 2 different varieties to get the best traits from both e.g if in the case of tomatoes you had one variety that was a heavy cropper and another that was a nice flavour and cross pollinated the flowers in theory the resulting seed should grow a heavy cropper with good flavour, if you then kept the resuting seed the offspring would not necessarily be consistantly the same you can get reversal to either one or the other parent.If on the other hand you were to take a cutting of your heavy cropper good flavoured tomato then the plant will be identical as your are using the exact same genetic material so anything taken as a cutting is a clone.

 

Ive done it with toms from Sainsburys and peppers and chillies as well and it works fine

 

A very good idea Shiney, I would never have thought of that. David.

 

Really good information guys...I for one will be giving it a go!
Thanks Helen.xxx.