I need help understanding hybrids & non hybrids

[Smoke]

Its always confused me a bit,in the quickest sumup I always heard non hybrids can be regrown & hybrids can't.Well I heard hybrids can but it will 95% most likely turn out awful.So how are hybrids bred?If your getting a seed packet marked hybrid didn't that come from from a hybrid plant?How is it that those grow fine,but if you save seeds from that grow...they turn out awful?Makes no sense to me.

On non hybrids,if I had lets say a san marzano & a beefsteak growing right by eachother.Would they breed?50/50 chance?Or if I intentionally exchanged their pollen with eachother would it seed a new breed of tomato?Just made a example.not trying to do it lol

I always hear of open pollinated,but not closed pollinated.Whats the differance?Is open pollinated & heirloom the same thing?

[GunnarSK]

Originally Posted by Smoke

Its always confused me a bit,in the quickest sumup I always heard non hybrids can be regrown & hybrids can't.Well I heard hybrids can but it will 95% most likely turn out awful.So how are hybrids bred?If your getting a seed packet marked hybrid didn't that come from from a hybrid plant?How is it that those grow fine,but if you save seeds from that grow...they turn out awful?Makes no sense to me.

On non hybrids,if I had lets say a san marzano & a beefsteak growing right by eachother.Would they breed?50/50 chance?Or if I intentionally exchanged their pollen with eachother would it seed a new breed of tomato?Just made a example.not trying to do it lol

I always hear of open pollinated,but not closed pollinated.Whats the differance?Is open pollinated & heirloom the same thing?

Heirloom is a variety which has been grown and ideally passed along for a long time, typically within a family. Carolyn can explain more, and her book details some of it. You can also read Travis' (Bill's) posts or ask him. OP is a variety which is homozygous for all genes and therefore typically (but not always) breeds true. An heirloom is always OP but not vice-versa. A hybrid is a cross of two (typically OP) varieties, if the cross is intentional, as with all commercial seed, the company producing seed is responsible for purety. Therefore the flower may be shut (hence non-OP) after pollination to avoid interference from insects.

[Doug9345]

For a good explanation of tomato genes and breeding look at this. http://kdcomm.net/~tomato/gene/genes.html it even has pictures. l also wanted to add that the out come of saving seed from a hybrid won't necessarily be awful, just likely to be different from the parents. How different will depend on the varieties that went into producing the hybrid, how many you grow and the luck of the draw.

[tlintx]

See here for an explanation of terms:

http://www.sampleseeds.com/?page_id=4991

Tomatoes generally self-pollinate, unless assisted.

Open Pollinated = save seeds, you get the same plant, unless cross-pollination occurs

Hybrid = save seeds, get a different plant. Hybrid tomatoes aren't sterile, they just probably won't breed true. It depends on the parents, too. If you have very different parents, you get lots of variation, if you have similar parents, you probably won't.

Heirloom = really old open pollinated or hybrid, how old is up for debate