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Some time ago, I wanted to grow tomatoes by using the seeds from the tomato which I was eating at the moment. I did some research on the internet, but then discovered you could not grow tomatoes from F1 hybrid fruits. When searching information about the meaning of F1 hybrids I got a headache, considering I have no background in genetics. There was also no information at all on the package of the tomatoes, so I just tried.

Now the question: Tomato plants did grow, does that mean they were not F1 hybrid tomatoes from the shop? Or might I have been lucky, and do some F1 hybrid seeds germinate? Or is it they don't produce flowers? Or no fruits? (at some websites I find information about germination, others talk about no fruits...)

Can someone give me a simple answer and some easy explained background information?

4 Answers 4

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The seed will grow, but you don't know what sort of traits you'll get. F1 means that it came from distinct parents selected for certain traits. On the other hand, if you use open-pollinated seed, that comes from a plant that had parents of the same variety, so you can expect it to share the same genetic traits that both parents had. Among the traits that you might get in the plants that you grow are failure to flower or produce usable fruits -- but you might also get a plant that sets delicious fruit. It's kind of a gamble.

Steve Solomon, in his book "Gardening When it Counts", talks about growing plants from seed saved from F1 hybrids. You will likely get a lot of off-types, but if you grow a large batch you can select the plants that are true to type and eventually (i.e. over several generations) have a stable open-pollinated variety that matches the original F1.

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  • And will seeds coming from the same fruit have more or less the same outcome? Or is it possible to try and select from one fruit?
    – Sironsse
    May 26, 2013 at 20:17
  • @Silke - you can absolutely expect there to be some variation among the seeds. This is also the case with things like apples. Plant the seeds from a single apple tree and you'll likely get a whole variety of apple trees. Cool stuff, huh?
    – itsmatt
    May 27, 2013 at 17:29
  • I had a lovely tasty variety of black krim that I saved seeds from year to year, growing along with other tomatoes. By year four, the black krimness was subsumed by the traits of the other tomatoes I had grown during those years. IOW if you don't grow one type exclusively, the traits will wander by cross-pollination from year to year. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Some of the 'not really krims' I got were quite tasty and productive plants. Feb 9, 2016 at 15:18
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An F1 tomato hybrid occurs when you have two tomato plants of different varieties and then one is pollinated by the other variety's pollen. The seeds of the resulting cross-pollinated tomato will grow plants that are F1 hybrids. The children of F1 hybrids are F2. The children of F2 are F3, and so forth.

There is only one domestic tomato species (Solanum lycopersicum, AKA Lycopersicon lycopersicum, AKA Lycopersicon esculentum), but there are thousands of varieties within this species. As long as the parents are both pure domestic tomatoes, then the seeds should be fertile. It's like with dogs. As long as both parents are domestic dogs, the puppies should be fertile, even if their parents are of different breeds. They're all dogs.

However, there are several species of wild tomatoes that can cross with domestic tomatoes. This complicates things. It's possible that some wild tomato species would cross with domestic ones and have sterile offspring. However, I don't know that this is the case with any of the wild species, but it is possible. I'm guessing many, if not most, will still be fertile. I'm pretty sure at least Solanum cheesmaniae and Solanum pimpinellifolium could have fertile offspring with domestic tomatoes; probably Solanum galapagense, too.

There are a number of tomato varieties that are part domestic tomato and part wild tomato. For instance, Indigo Rose (a PVP protected variety) has some Solanum cheesmaniae in its history. I don't suppose it would be easy to determine which tomatoes are purely domestic anymore. But, odds are in your favor that it'll probably be fertile.

So, to answer your question, F1 tomatoes are usually fertile (but possibly on rare occasions, a sterile one might exist, although I've never heard of one, so far). However, hybrids don't usually breed true. That means that successive generations are not necessarily exactly like the previous one, because they have variable genetics (like mongrel dogs do). For instance, purebred dogs breed the same kind of dog. Mongrel dogs breed all kinds of mongrel dogs and few of them (comparatively speaking) look the same.

(I personally like the idea of mongrel tomatoes, as long as I know what the parents are and none of them are patented or protected varieties, and I like the possible combinations they might produce.)

It's worth noting that an F1 hybrid where both parents are pure domestic tomatoes is likely to be exactly the same every time that same kind of F1 hybrid is bred. I mean, if I cross a German Pink with a Black Plum, I'll get the same kind of tomato you would get if you crossed a German Pink with a Black Plum tomato the same way. Which parent is the mother and which is the father does seem to matter. Crossing a German Pink with a Black Plum is not the same as crossing a Black Plum with a German Pink tomato. mtDNA, cpDNA, and similar kinds of DNA generally only come from the mother plant (not from the father plant), I believe.

Hopefully this clarifies.

If you want to grow mongrel tomatoes, I recommend hybridizing them yourself so you know what's in their genetics. Planting seeds of commercialized hybrids is a bigger risk because they may not care about what the F2s will be like, and they rarely say what the parents were.

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Absolutely you can grow tomatoes from a hybrid. I've done it for years. And if that seed was collected from a F-1 plant, your F-2 plant the next year will have no noticeable morphed change at all. BUT if that hybrid variety is classified as "Highly Unstable,"which many are. And you collect again. Then its hard to tell what tomato you will get from a F-3 plant. Some Hybrid varieties are "stable,"and may not morph back toward its parents for 10 years. If it retains its characteristics for 50 years-- then its a Heirloom.
EXAMPLE. Sun-sugar is one of the best yellow cherry hybrids you will ever grow. Might be the best cherry tomato, period. But the F-1 seeds are expensive. I'll by a F-1 plant from a greenhouse every 4th or 5th year. Collect enough seeds for multiple years. If I collect seeds once again from my F-2 plant. The tomatoes on that F-3 plant the next year, will morph into a horrible tasting red cherry tomato. Foot Note-- Non of this applies to most hybrid peppers. Most hybrid peppers are sterile.

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About 4 years ago I bought some tomatoes from Sainsburys,a variety called "Caniles"They were a kind of plum tomato medium to large in size.I really liked the flavour so I researched the "net" to see if they were an F1 hybrid,which they were.I have RHS qualifications,and understandthe relevance of saving and using seeds from F1 hybrid plants.Now 4 years down the line after saving the seeds and growing them I have now three distinct varieties,which are now coming true from the "saved" seeds.There is a globular shaped one,a cylindrical shaped one,and a globular shaped one with a slight pointed end.The last one is very smilar,if not the same as the original "Caniles" All are very flavoursome and heavy croppers.The cylindrical one is quite short jointed and a heavy cropper indeed.This little passage is mainly for the person asking the question can you use saved seeds from F1 hybrid plants. An emphatic "yes" and saving money as well

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    That's about the truth of it. You can grow the seeds, but the type of tomato will change over time. You never know who is pollinating it. I grew a really tasty version of Black Krim from its seeds for 4 years. The next year what came up was a yummy Black Krim/Mortgage Buster hybrid. Aug 13, 2020 at 15:48

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