A while back I read the "The Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollen, in which I learned that apples mutate rapidly, the result of this being that when you plant a seed from an apple, the chances of that tree producing apple like the one which generated the seed are very small. Someone recently told me that this is also true of tomatoes. Is this correct?
Dude everything can mutate. But i'm pretty sure it doesn't happen in tomatoes as much as in apples. And i'm also pretty sure that it isn't mutation that effect apples. I think it has something to do with pollination that effects what types of apples you'll have. Because when you eat and apple most of the time it's a hybrid and made by taking one type of apple tree and crossing it with another compatible species. So when you plant the apple seeds there's a good chance that you'll just get one of the species from the cross and ultimatly undersirable. However there are rare occasions that you will get a very desirable apple tree by planting seeds from the fruit you buy in stores. That is how Granny Smith was created, grown from some seeds in a garbage can or something in Australia.
I have a related question, I grew tomatoes from seed in my garden this year, and one of the vines was outstanding in hardiness, numbers and size of fruit, and flavor. I rooted some of the prunings from this tomatoe plant, and have it in a bay window. I plan to grow a garden full of cuttings from this cutting(which is getting quite large) next summer. My question is, if I continue to do this, will the tomatoes always bear the same fruit? To rephrase, will the tomatoes grow the same way and taste the same 10 years from now?
In theory, yes - you are propagating from the exact same genetic stock (though there will be some variation due to soil / nutrients / weather). However, I don't think I've heard of tomatoes being propagated this way over a long period of time before.
I have not heard of it either, most people around here buy tomatoes from the nursery, but I often have bought plants that did not perform well. This was one reason that I grew mine from seeds last season. It was doing so well in the window, I thought about cutting some branches to put out early this spring, one thought led to another and made me wonder how many years the same tomato plant can go.
The hybrid tomatoes sold in the supermarkets will not come true from seeds. But heirloom varieties like Brandywines and Cherokees are known to breed true, like species plants. Tomatoes will root readily from softwood cuttings. Propagatioin by cuttings is not done that frequently amongst tomato enthusiasts fror a number of reasons. In temperate countries, there is far more work and hassle involved in babying rooted young tomato plants through the winter months then starting with fresh seeds in the spring. In addition, any diseases carried by the parent plant from which the cuttings are obtained will be passed along in the rooted plants. This can be a potential problem for newly seeded plants as diseases may spread. Some growers are concerned about the reduced "vigour" of tomatoes grown from cuttings.
Can you explain reduced vigor? Disease potential makes alot of sense. Your answer to the original question makes alot of sense, hybrid's offspring often show large variations.
