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Wixom MI.

I plan on cross pollinating alot of tomatoes this year ? So if i take the 8.41 MacCoy and cross it with the 6.51 Meisner (delicious strain) then would the offspring be concidered an F-1 ??? And if you keep self pollinating it over and over is that concidered F-2 F-3 F-4 etc.....it seems to me since no one pollinates their tomatoes that all the tomatoes out their must be F-10 to F-20 by now ?

3/10/2015 11:12:26 AM

France

I made a cross this year .it tomato 4 lbs
7.33 Burpee Hunt (triple fusion flower) x 5.07 Big zac (four flower fusion).
I'll see what this will give , its F1

3/10/2015 2:53:33 PM

Bethlehem CT

Wixom you are correct, the offspring grown off your cross are considered f1 hybrids. If seed is saved from the fruit your f1 seeds produce and you plant them they would be considered f2. At some point you would no longer need to label them as an f3, f4 etc. they could then be considered an open pollinated variety as long as all the traits have been stabilized.
I believe most of the top tomato lines are descendants of either the open pollinated 'Delicious' variety or the hybrid 'Big Zac'. Is this correct?

3/10/2015 5:23:18 PM

Allentown, PA

Stabilization is the key. Many tomato lines that had started out as crosses have been stabilized over the course of sometimes a decade in order to ensure that the desired traits are prominent and exhibited season after season.

3/11/2015 3:20:14 PM