A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 How to keep plant strains pure

I've just bought lots and lots from the heirloom seed companies (I know, sorry guys that I didn't ask for them here, husband says I need to buy seed by the pound to plant enough to feed all our CSA farm members) and only now did I realize I might have a problem saving seeds from one year to the next.
How do you keep your plant breeds pure? insects and wind can send pollen everywhere. What do you do? I figure to have about 30 varieties of tomato, close to 50 varieties of melon,squash,cumbers and pumpkin. Next year will I end up with sterile seed? Mutants? Hybrids?

wow, thats a good question. i am interested to hear the answer. hope someone knows

You can use row covers to protect from cross pollination....Some varietys need to be separated by miles if not cover.

One of the most important things to consider is how to keep your seed pure, that is, how to keep one variety from hybridizing with another variety. For this you will need to know the isolation distance requirements for different crops. Isolation distance is the distance that has to be maintained between varieties to keep the seed pure.

Certain species cross-pollinate easier than others. For instance, tomatoes for example have flowers with both male and female reproductive structures. Also, due to the way their flowers form, they have a relatively low cross-pollination rate of 5 or 10% compared to other vegetable plants.

The most common practices are isolating the plants with large distances or using physical barriers over the flowers of the plant such as caging the entire plant or using light fabric bags over the blossoms. Depending on how much seed you wish to save and how much effort you are willing to take, you may only need to bagg a few blossoms on each variety that you're looking to save.

Very good point John!

I'm with John on this one. If you only need to save seeds from a few fruits, it's not that hard to bag a few of the flowers to prevent crossing. But, more than a few is a pain!

I didn't notice you saying anything about peppers. Are you planning to have them and different varieties of them too? If so, the pepper's flowers or plants will definately have to be isolated. I have read that peppers are so easily crossed that they have been known to cross with peppers that were as much as two miles away! Again, what a pain!!

Good luck,
Robert

I'm reminded of a great read on the topic pertaining to tomatoes at the Southern Exposure seed Exchange site.

SESE Article

That was a very interesting article. Thanks for sharing that John. I have two different tomato varieties I was wanting to plant, but wasn't sure what I would do to assure that I could save seed, I have a small garden plot on the other side of my property ( and the large one is on the opposite side)and if I understand the article correctly, that means that planted in the two different areas, my seed should remain pure or as the article said 99%.

I would definitely agree with that comfrey. What varieties are you planting?

I always plant Brandywine and I got some purple plum tomato seed in a trade that I want to try out. I usually only grow one variety of each item I grow in my garden so that I can save seed, of course I only grow non hybrid.

Good for you. Can't go wrong with Brandywine or most other open-pollinated varieties for that matter.