Saving Seed From Unhealthy Plants?

[so lucky]

On another thread, SeedO posed the question of whether we could save seed from tomatoes that succumbed to blight. Does anyone have experience with this? Would this make the resulting plant more susceptible to blight? Would they even be viable?
We always read and hear that you should choose the biggest and best fruit to save seeds from, but what if small and poor is all you have to choose from, and it is a very rare plant?

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

SeedO could always try experimenting to see if blight will affect that next generation too.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Purely my opinion, but if a plant survives the blight and produces reasonably well it should be more resistant than one that dies or doesn't produce very well. If it doesn't produce reasonably well, I'd look for a different source of seeds. I would not go back to the original source.

 

[seedcorn]

in open pollinated seed, select from healthiest, best fruit you can. what you see is what you get.

 

[digitS']

It seems to me that the genetics might be the same on smaller fruit off the plant with the more desirable fruit but I sometimes get things mixed up.

I'd hoped it would be the case because the fruit I was more confident of moving an adequate amount of pollen on that Kimberley plant, was the puniest when I finally took it off the plant. Hardly matters what I thought. I can't find anything that looks like a seed on that end of the paper . . . so bummed!

Thankfully, John de Rocque didn't have this problem when he invented Kimberley . . .

There are probably ways to kill blight spores but it would take some research to have some good idea. I'm thinking of boiling my saved seed. I mean, what could go wrong?

Steve

 

[so lucky]

It seems to me that the genetics might be the same on smaller fruit off the plant with the more desirable fruit but I sometimes get things mixed up.

I'd hoped it would be the case because the fruit I was more confident of moving an adequate amount of pollen on that Kimberley plant, was the puniest when I finally took it off the plant. Hardly matters what I thought. I can't find anything that looks like a seed on that end of the paper . . . so bummed!

Thankfully, John de Rocque didn't have this problem when he invented Kimberley . . .

There are probably ways to kill blight spores but it would take some research to have some good idea. I'm thinking of boiling my saved seed. I mean, what could go wrong?

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

When you are talking the same plant, can't think why it would make a difference as the final size on that plant is not genetic but environment. If you are talking 2 plants one healthy, one not so much, it could be either/both environment or genetics. So I would suggest, take off from the best, healthiest plant. Again, in open pollinated, you get what you see.

 

[journey11]

Out of interest, I read a few different university ag extension articles on late blight. All were in agreement that the spores survive only on living tissue--not on dead plant debris, not in the soil, not on seeds (other than seed potatoes, a whole other problem). It also survives and overwinters on weeds and can be distributed up to 100km by wind, in case you are wondering just how it might have gotten to your garden. So in the case of late blight, your tomato seeds will be safe to use. If you are saving seed from a plant affected by something else, you'll want to identify the disease and research it separately, since I can't say if this is the case for all tomato diseases. I ferment my seeds in water for a couple of days to remove the gel-like seed coating. I had heard that was supposed to help prevent problems also by leaving the seeds very clean.

Ridgerunner made an excellent point also, regarding possible resistance. It is really important to choose your seed from your best plants if possible, but if it comes down to whether or not you'll be able to carry on that variety for future years, I would take what I could get either way!

 

[PhilaGardener]

To add to @journey11 's great response, at the present time, only one of the two mating types of the blight fungus are thought to be present in the US. (See this informative handout from UVM). It is a different story in Europe where both mating types are present and can form spores that can survive in the soil. This is why living tissue is necessary for the blight to survive our winters - it can't go dormant. Infected potato tubers can make it through the winter (fingerlings resprout in my garden) and can be trigger ongoing outbreaks if not eliminated. That is one reason that the recent outbreaks in the Eastern US haven't run their course (but might be a good side to this long, cold winter.)

Given the way we are moving things around the globe, it is only a matter of time before the second mating type arrives and makes it really difficult to grow tomatoes and potatoes here. Folks are working on breeding resistance into our favorite varieties but it is not easy!