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Will my heirloom tomatoes get cross-pollinated if I plant them close together in my garden?

I bought some seeds online, and I grow nice, unique beauties I really enjoy. Will the seeds I get from my fruit still maintain the genetic integrity of the seeds I originally bought online? Or if they are cross-pollinated, will I see the result immediately growing in the first generation? --- will the flowers that got cross-pollinated produce an F1 generation immediately? Will these seeds usable?

Public Comments

  1. ok lots of questions here... if you are growing more than one variety--yes they will cross pollinate--fruits will be just like the plant that they came from but if you save the seeds you will have plants that produce hybrids when they fruit. so if you want to maintain the integrity of the line you should only plant one variety at a time, or you could pollinate the plants yourself to be safe.
  2. If you want these heirloom plants to stay pure and not cross pollinate, first you will need to at least hand pollinate to ensure complete and pure pollination, second you will need to cage or screen these plants to protect from bees which are great pollen spreaders. This should ensure that your plants stay pure and the seeds will be genetically pure to produce same heirloom tomato seed for the next generation of plants. The cross pollination that could occur from another tomato plant other than the ones you are growing can result as a f1 generation but only after the seed are planted and produce another plant. The new plant will thus be F1.
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