So I've been following both the hybrid and heirloom tomato threads to see what other varieties I might like to try after hearing other reports. After some light research, I have some questions that perhaps someone can help answer, or give their thoughts.
So my first question actually started with, "how does one keep their heirloom or open pollinated tomatoes from being cross pollinated by another variety tomato?" if they are going to save the seeds. What methods should one use.
Then in reading the hybrid thread, I got interested in how tomatoes are pollinated to sell an F1 hybrid. So I watched a couple videos at YouTube, and decided it was no wonder hybrid seeds are so high dollar in all that effort that must be put into hand pollinating. Somehow in my mind, I thought that the breeder guys must have some sort of automatic shaker system or something. But based on the YouTube videos I watched, assurance of proper pollination for a resultant F1 could not be had automatically. ?? (It appeared that the tomato, if left to its own, is much too easily self pollinated.)
So all this led to the real major question. Okay, so if F1 hybrids have been bred for disease resistance, and hand pollination seems fairly difficult (well, that's not the right word, but it sure appears time consuming), and if tomatoes are one crop that are fairly easy to stabilize a strain, then why is that not done more often? (Or do you suppose that is what we are really getting half the time when we order an F1 variety like Sungold or whichever?) Just how are commercial F1 hybrid tomato seeds produced?
