Saving seed from early tomatoes

[Labradors2]

Somebody wrote that all the fruit from one plant will be genetically identical.

Therefore, does it make any difference if we save the seed from the very first tomatoes in an effort to promote earliness?

If the first ones don't taste that good, does it matter to the resulting seeds?

Linda

[Moguntia]

As long as it is a self polinated fruit there shouldn't be a genetic difference between the first and the last fruit of one plant. So you can't promote earliness by choosing the first fruit.

But if you have got more than one plant of the same variety and are always choosing fruit from the first plant each year, year after year after year, you might have an efect after years...

At least that's how I understood genetics

[Father'sDaughter]

I've heard/read that seeds saved from the earlier fruit means that there is less of a chance of a bee-made cross. The theory being that the earlier fruit set before the pollinators became really active. This is my only reason for saving seeds from the earlier fruit.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

I've heard/read that seeds saved from the earlier fruit means that there is less of a chance of a bee-made cross. The theory being that the earlier fruit set before the pollinators became really active. This is my only reason for saving seeds from the earlier fruit.

And where I live pollinators are most active early in the season so I save seeds from fruits that form later in the summer.

Saving seeds from early fruits is not part of adaptation and won't give rise to earlier fruit set.

Carolyn

[joseph]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Saving seeds from early fruits is not part of adaptation and won't give rise to earlier fruit set.

True for a highly inbred variety that self-pollinates.

However it is trivial to select for adaptation and earlier fruit set among a population of tomatoes that is being promiscuously cross-pollinated. Even at very low cross pollination rates it doesn't take very many years to remarkably alter the days to maturity of a patch of tomatoes.

Also, if the plant is a segregating hybrid there may be lots of opportunities to select for earlier maturity among the offspring.

I save fruits from the earliest tomatoes year after year. At a 5% cross pollination rate that gives me about 60 new hybrids and segregating crosses per year. My population as a whole has moved very dramatically in the direction of earlier fruiting.