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Old October 14, 2009   #2
goodwin
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Espanola, New Mexico
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My personal observation, which is probably in the minority, is that there is only a slight boost in vigor because there is too little genetic variation in the standard varieties of tomato. One estimate I've seen put the genome at about 80% of the native stock, which would indicate a high degree of line breeding. Crosses to more widely separated strains and other species show much greater
F1 vigor I believe. Traditionally, seed was saved from the best of a number of plants, which rewarded adaptation to a particular environment. Crosses can be part of that process, but you have to grow them out in order to select for desirable traits.
So I would say continue to save seed, but selectively.
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