An open pollinated, self pollinated, variety is a genetic bottle neck. What you are doing is saving a facsimile clone of the parent plant in seed form. The reason to save from multiple plants is not to preserve genetic diversity [a la wildlife management] but to dilute genetic diversity in case there was either cross pollination or genetic mutation in one fruit, or if that one plant was an accidental F1.
You may see hybrid vigor in F1 plants, but that does not ensure flavor, size color and shape will be better than either parent. I grew out a bunch of F1 and F2 this year and for the most part they tasted worse than the parents, got all of the same diseases, and showed quite a bit of variability in vigor. I had some tremendously productive plants that tasted terrible.
These crosses were from very different parents, so if you crossed two similar varieties [say pink/red beefsteaks] you might have better luck/consistency.
|