Quote:
Originally Posted by KarenO
I think if you wish to save seed from diseased plants for your own use that is fine. I would hope, however that anyone who shares seeds through this or any other forum shares seed only from healthy fruits.
For myself I would never save seed from a diseased plant for two reasons,
1. there are some diseases that are seed borne and unless one is absolutely certain of the diagnosis of the disease in question it is inadvisable to save seed from a diseased plant.
2. I do not want to grow plants or propagate plants that are known to be susceptible to a disease in my garden and I certainly would not want to share seeds of disease susceptible plants nor receive them unknowingly.
I believe it is best practice to only save seed from healthy fruit obtained from the healthiest and most superior plants in the garden. There is nothing to be gained by saving seed from diseased or inferior plants when there is an infinite supply of healthy seed out there.
bottom line: keep them for yourself if you wish but please do not distribute them to other gardeners.
KarenO
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I agree with most of what Karen has posted.
Blight is a general word that many use, but is not specific as to known diseases.
All bacterial pathogens and viruses looked at to date have been found in the endosperm of the seed as opposed to most fungal foliage pathogens and soil borne diseases that can be found attached to the outer seed coat.
Processing seeds from plants with fungal foliage diseases and systemic diseases such as Fusarium, Verticillium, etc. using certain methods is very important in terms of lessening that pathogen burden on the seed coat, and we know from the work of Dr.Helene Dillard what that's all about.
Worth just brought to the top the original thread I put up about my writing about how to save tomato seeds. And please read what I said there, as in, I'm not going to welcome questions at this time/
As I wrote there, how to save seeds starts with how many plants are put out for a specific variety, one or several in terms of preserving genetic diversity for a variety. And plants are already out for this season except for the few who do a Fall planting
So there's a right way to do it and then there's the way that most home gardeners do it.
Carolyn