Tomato Cross Pollination Question?

[Jaytom]

Hi All,

I'm a newbie to this forum (which I think is a AMAZING Forum!!) and was wondering if anyone has had success in cross pollinating a British variety tomato with a European tomato variety, for example a Spanish variety. the reason I ask is my folks live in Murcia Spain which are known for the mass tomato growing and every time I go over the toms my dad grows are amazingly sweet, fleshy and gigantic . I have tried growing the variety back in the not so sunny UK (namely soggy Merthyr Tydfil South Wales lol) but no success which I think could be down to the climate??. My plan this year when I visit is to try and collect some pollen before I leave and try pollinating by hand :confused but would the pollen last in an air tight tube for the journey back home. sorry for the lengthy question just hoping someone can give advice so I'm not wasting my time trying this.

[veggiechicken]

Hi Jaytom and Croeso from Sunshiny South Wales (please don't tell the others there are days when the sun doesn't shine - so far they believe me)
I think you'd be wasting your time trying to cross pollinate by bringing back flowers/pollen.
Do you have a greenhouse? Toms like lots of warmth to ripen fully and the bigger the tomato the longer it takes to ripen. Maybe ask your dad to grow some small to medium size toms from a named variety that isn't F1. Then you could buy the same seeds or save some from his toms.

[Guest]

At what point are the seeds/plant failing? Unfortunately the same variety at yours and in Spain will always give a different result and yes the big factor is weather, but there is also the soil conditions.

I know Italian seeds are a brilliant example of this (thanks to Sarico who hasn't been on here for ages ) but often you will have a tomato with a variety name but it is then followed by the region as one is suited to being grown in loam, one in sand and so on.

Breeding and landraces are fascinating and worth trying at some point in your gardening life. However you are looking around 10 years to stabilise a variety. Unfortunately I think you will end up disappointed with what you are trying to achieve.

If you still want a bash at breeding then a couple of sites worth looking at are Daughter of the Soil: Search results for breed tomatoes and https://mostlytomatomania.blogspot.c...label/Breeding .

Oh and welcome to the vine

[Jaytom]

Thank you for the advice, I have a small greenhouse but they didn't do well in there either. I will just enjoy eating them when I'm visiting thank you for your advice though.

[veggiechicken]

If you can find out the variety, one of us may have grown it here and might have some advice. There are a lot of tomato enthusiasts!

[Jaytom]

will do, trouble is my dad has never been the gardening type I laughed when he told me he was going to "have a go" at growing some tomatoes that was six years ago he only grows tomatoes and don't pay them any special attention and every time I visit I cant work out how they do so well. chances of him knowing what variety they are would probably be slim, but when I'm over there in a few months ill do a little investigating and put some photos up on here. thanks everyone for your great advice