tomatoes from saved seed - possible?

[Deleted User]

Has anyone ever managed to grow tomatoes from seed they've saved from tomatoes they've bought?

The reason I ask is ... had some cherry tomatoes at my Mum's yesterday and they were the most GORGEOUS flavour I've ever tasted. They were a variety called Tomalini (grown in Kent) that she'd bought from M&S. I've tried in vain to find the seeds on sale of them so I wondered if it would be possible to grow them from seeds of the couple of tomatoes that are left?

Anyone know ?

Mrs_Arcanum

Yes. My mum got some seeds given to her for some unusual tomatoes & they worked fine.

Not so sure about the quality of the modern highly bred ones though.

saver_1_2

Hi.If you have a compost bin just fill a raised veg box with compost and your sure to get some toms. We never buy tom plants and last year we had vine toms. cherry toms and ordinary big ones. The seeds just lay dormant in the compost bins all winter then when you spread the compost out in spring by early summer you get the tom plants comming up.
Give it a go as i said we get them for nothing every year

Lotus-eater

I can't find any info about the variety you are talking about on the net, but you can expect them to be some sort of F1 seeds.

Which means, yes they will grow and grow fine, but the flavour/size/vigour you get out of them may be variable. Well worth a go, then keep saving the best seed every year. I think after about 4 or 5 generations, you get a viable seed variety, which should stay the same after that.

Sambucus_Nigra

Alot of the tomatoes that are sold like that don't really exist, they give them those names just to have a name so that we can't find out what type they are......and save from them.

So, try it and if they come out the same - keep saving from the tastiest specimens each year and as LE said, you should get a stable variety in a few years. Do grow other types though just in case they don't come true....

cootambear

like all gardening = give it a go - if it doesnt work, who cares?

Sally_A

Yup, I've saved seed over the past years for:- Gardeners Delight, Beams Yellow Pear. Purple Ukraine, Moneymaker, Roma, Other Plum Toms...

..also for allegedly F1's such as Hawaiian Currant, but they have come though good and not cross pollinated.

beaney50

Saved seed from lovely plum toms from local greengrocers by squeezing them on to kitchen roll & letting them dry.
You don`t need to get them off the kitchen roll .
Just cut off a section of the paper & plant them
Last year I had 100% germination & the toms were fantastic,

mrbadexample

ceridwen kindly posted a link on how to save seeds in a previous thread of mine:

http://gardening.about.com/od/totallytomatoes/ss/TomatoSeeds.htm

So yes, it should work. I had good success last year with a variety I pinched from France.

[Deleted User]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to give it a go !

[Deleted User]

beaney50 wrote: »

Saved seed from lovely plum toms from local greengrocers by squeezing them on to kitchen roll & letting them dry.
You don`t need to get them off the kitchen roll .
Just cut off a section of the paper & plant them
Last year I had 100% germination & the toms were fantastic,

Sounds very straightforward.

I'm assuming that you didn't save the seeds and plant them the following year? Did you buy the tomatoes early in the year - i.e. early enough to plant them in the UK and still get a crop?