Luke Welsh wrote:Hi Joseph!
My question feels pretty basic. I think I understand the philosophy but not the application. I bought varieties of tomatoes and cherry tomatoes from my local community garden organization. I understand that I'll use the seeds from their tomatoes as next year's tomato generation. But can I just take the tomatoes that the squirrels pull down and leave them on the ground for next spring? Do I need to collect the seeds in the summer and put them out the following spring, or start them inside even earlier?
Will the various breeds of tomatoes interbreed naturally by cross-pollination? Will I end up with a mix between a cherry tomato and a heirloom tomato that could be delicious or mediocre?
A lot of great questions here....
One of the basic principles of landrace gardening, is that you get what you select for....
In this case, if the next generation of tomatoes is grown primarily from squirrel picked fruits, then you will be (inadvertently) selecting for tomatoes that are preferentially picked by squirrels. That could be a wonderful thing, if the squirrels are acting as a dispersal mechanism to move tomatoes through the ecosystem. It could be a bad thing if it encourages the squirrels to pick every tomato fruit and carry it off. In general, small birds and mammals prefer to eat fruits that are proportionally sized with their bodies. Smaller fruits being favored by smaller animals. Allowing squirrels to disperse the fruits might result in the fruits becoming smaller, so that they are more easily carried off.
I have a flea beetle species in my garden which favors eating tomatoes. Therefore, I almost never see a volunteer tomato. This year, I direct seeded 20,000 tomato seeds, hoping to find a few that can survive the flea beetles. I would love to be able to grow tomatoes by planting seeds directly into my field, about two weeks before the last frost. Again, we get what we select for. People have been selecting for tomatoes that have to be transplanted, for so long, that it seems like it's the only way to do things. A Santa Fe chile grower told me that peppers should always be direct seeded because transplanted peppers "son imbeciles", they are imbeciles, they forget how to grow. This year, I also direct seeded 10,000 pepper seeds, and 10,000 eggplant seeds. I really want to be able to direct seed these crops instead of transplanting. I whole-heartedly believe that you get what you select for. I want to stop selecting for tomatoes that have to be transplanted.
In general, if you cross two varieties, the offspring tend towards traits that are mid-way between the traits of the parents. So if you start with adequate tomatoes, you get adequate offspring.
The cross-pollination rate of domestic tomatoes averages about 3%, which is mostly found in the beefsteak and cherry tomato types. If you pay attention to the natural crosses, you can run a landrace development project with small crossing rates like that. However, even if domestic tomatoes cross, there is so little genetic diversity between them that it doesn't matter. That was my frustration with tomato breeding. If you cross a tomato with another tomato that is essentially a clone, you don't get the genetic diversity necessary for robust local adaptation. That is why my focus with tomatoes shifted to introducing promiscuity, and genetics from wild ancestors.
The thing that surprised me most about the interspecies tomatoes, is the flavors. People describe the flavors as tropical, fruity, sea urchin, xxx, melon, guava, plum, tropical, citrus. Amazing flavors that are nowhere to be found among the domestic tomatoes. Sure, we also introduced flavors described as bitter, sour, yuck, bleck, bland, watery. Year by year, we are selecting in favor of awesome, and against dreadful.
6
