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Old March 11, 2011   #1
O.P. Mater
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Default saved seeds & L. lycopersicon

Just read in Southern Exposure Seed Exchange catalog a notice for seed savers: "Isolate varieties of L. lycopersicon by a minimum of 35' for home use". This includes Matt's Wild Cherry, which I have grown for the past 3 years. I have also been saving seeds for the past 3 years.

MWC has been volunteering all over the garden. I have seeds started for it again this year, but think I probably need to throw them out and destroy all the volunteer plants?

I had a Jersey Devil that was different last year in that it didn't seem to be as affected by blight. I am growing it out and am wondering if it could be due to a cross with the MWC? All of the tomato plants were within 35 feet of these plants. I may have crossed up all the varieties that I saved from last year.....I don't know.

Any thoughts? Should I try to distance the new varieties that I am trying this year from the old ones? Thanks! Sandy
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Old March 11, 2011   #2
kath
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I grew Matt's Wild Cherry for probably 10 years at our other house from the volunteer plants and they always were true to type and definitely within 35' of other tomato plants, FWIW. Then I traded and got more seeds to grow it again last year and they were crossed.
Hopefully someone can let you know what the increased chance of cross pollination is with these, but they certainly won't cross with every tomato in your garden.
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Old March 11, 2011   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by O.P. Mater View Post
Just read in Southern Exposure Seed Exchange catalog a notice for seed savers: "Isolate varieties of L. lycopersicon by a minimum of 35' for home use". This includes Matt's Wild Cherry, which I have grown for the past 3 years. I have also been saving seeds for the past 3 years.

MWC has been volunteering all over the garden. I have seeds started for it again this year, but think I probably need to throw them out and destroy all the volunteer plants?

I had a Jersey Devil that was different last year in that it didn't seem to be as affected by blight. I am growing it out and am wondering if it could be due to a cross with the MWC? All of the tomato plants were within 35 feet of these plants. I may have crossed up all the varieties that I saved from last year.....I don't know.

Any thoughts? Should I try to distance the new varieties that I am trying this year from the old ones? Thanks! Sandy
THe suggested isolation distances for Solanum lycoperscon, our regular garden tomaato as well as isolation distances for Solanum pimpinellifolium, the currant tomato, that are given at SESE are a carryover from when Dr. Jeff McCormack owned that site and are more for commercial growers.

If you go to Johnny's Selected seeds and read about Matt's Wild cherry you'll see that they helpfully said that it's a cerasiforme type and that means that it's a half domesticated cherry tomato and that the stigma does not protrude above the anthers so it's no more likely to X pollinate than other varieties you grow.

More recent info has shown that about half of the wild types don't have exerted stigma's and half do.

wild types that aren't cersiformes are more likely to attract insects for pollination to occur and then spread that pollen to others varieties.

So with respect to your MWC pollinating anything else in the garden it's just as possible that any other tomato variety could X pollinate Matt's.

Maybe it was just one of those years that Blight wasn't that bad re Jersey Devil, but it really does depend on what kind of blight you're referring to whether a foliage disease or a soilborne one.
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Old March 11, 2011   #4
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Kath, I was so glad to read your response. I have been trying to save seeds for everything that we plant in the garden and have added a few different tomatoes each year....saving seeds as I go. I thought I had really messed up big time. I didn't save seeds for the MWC, but will go ahead and plant the ones I have started for this year and will save a few seeds from them this year. Thanks so much!
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Old March 11, 2011   #5
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Glad it put your mind at ease. With what Carolyn posted we know that there's no greater likelihood of crossing problems than with any of the others you grew. Good luck with your garden this year!
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Old March 11, 2011   #6
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Carolyn, Thanks for your reply. I am learning so much from your posts and appreciate your input. So glad to know that Matt's Wild Cherry doesn't have to be banished from the tomato patch and that it is no more of a threat to the other tomatoes that they are to it. I am glad that my assumptions were wrong and that I haven't made a huge mistake.

The blight affected some plants more than others....the other Jersey Devil plants were just stems with dried leaves....only one lived and produced tomatoes. I am sorry I don't know what kind of blight it was. We sprayed a copper fungicide many times but it just didn't seem to help a lot. I hope we don't have to deal with it again.

Thanks! Sandy
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