Question to people who use bags, to keep crosses OUT of the garden

[littlegarden]

hi everyone we are going to be planting some Tomatoes along with everything else and to keep crossing out of the Garden i know to Tape closed my Melons, cucumbers, squash and others and then Bag the tomatoes my question is since i want to grow a few kinds, i read that Most of the time the flower is perfect and pollinates its self and the chance of crossing is Rare, however i still will bag with the Mesh like bags, but my Question is...is the Bag to keep Bees OFF the flower to lower the chance......is their anyway the pollen could drift to another plant and cross? also side note... do peppers and tomatoes really cross? i have heard

hot peeper x sweet pepper = cross
hot pepper x tomato = cross
sweet pepper x tomato = cross


true???

[SOseeds]

Tomatoes will tend to pollinate their own flowers, while peppers have long opening flowers and easily cross with other varieties of peppers. Tomatoes and peppers dont cross.

[Gardenmermaid]

Tomatos and peppers don't cross with each other. I tried bagging my tomatos this year and had a strange problem. I put fine mesh type bags over flower clusters on a dozen plants. Two of the plants did fine with this and have little tiny tomatos now growing in the bags. With the other ten plants that I bagged flowers on, ALL the flowers that were in the bags turned brown and fell off, while the flowers that were not bagged on the same plants ALL produced fruit. On the first two plants to have all the flowers in the bag die off I thought maybe it was just because they were the first flowers on the plant, so I bagged some more flowers on those two plants and the same thing happened. This is only my second year gardening, and my first year trying the bagging technique as outlined in the book Seed to Seed. The book said nothing about this happening when you bag the flowers. I do not know what to do. Has anyone else had this problem?

[RozieDozie]

Originally Posted by Gardenmermaid

Tomatos and peppers don't cross with each other. I tried bagging my tomatos this year and had a strange problem. I put fine mesh type bags over flower clusters on a dozen plants. Two of the plants did fine with this and have little tiny tomatos now growing in the bags. With the other ten plants that I bagged flowers on, ALL the flowers that were in the bags turned brown and fell off, while the flowers that were not bagged on the same plants ALL produced fruit. On the first two plants to have all the flowers in the bag die off I thought maybe it was just because they were the first flowers on the plant, so I bagged some more flowers on those two plants and the same thing happened. This is only my second year gardening, and my first year trying the bagging technique as outlined in the book Seed to Seed. The book said nothing about this happening when you bag the flowers. I do not know what to do. Has anyone else had this problem?

It helps pollinate if you give the plant a good shake now and then after you bag the blossoms.

[Gardenmermaid]

Ok, thanks Rozie, I will try that

[Silverbeard]

gardenmaid, were these plants outside?? If so the wind should have been enough...

I would think if you had 10 varieties and it sounds like multiple bags per variety ALL fail to set fruit there is something else going on.

How tightly did you tie on the bags? Im wondering if you injured the plants a bit. Another way with tomatoes and self pollinating crops to ensure self pollination is to understand when the flowers will pollinate and use watered down white glue. It is after the flowers formed, but before they open and potentially get crossed with something else. Its cheap and easy and effective.

[MrsCookie]

Excuse the newb question, but why do you not want them to cross so badly? Just so you can be sure of the seeds you are saving?
I am new to saving seeds and never really gave them any thought until I went to a presentation put on by our local Slow Food group.
Any recs of books/blogs/or other threads that I should read?

[RozieDozie]

Originally Posted by MrsCookie

Excuse the newb question, but why do you not want them to cross so badly? Just so you can be sure of the seeds you are saving?
I am new to saving seeds and never really gave them any thought until I went to a presentation put on by our local Slow Food group.
Any recs of books/blogs/or other threads that I should read?

Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth is my 'save your seed' bible. It covers just about everything.....

YouTube also has some good visuals for the "how to".

[littlegarden]

Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth is a AMAZING BOOK! i had it...it got lost when i moved to the farm house ):

The seeds am using are indeed very rare and its important to me to know i have pure seed stock i will definitively getting a new book soon once i can! thanks all.

[chilzany]

I had same problem as Gardenmermaid this year with my bagging efforts. I put knee-highs over clusters before flowers opened, didnt tie the bottoms. gave things a shake periodically. out of about 8 clusters bagged, I got whopping 2 tomatoes started, most of the clusters dried and fell off. will have to try the watered-down glue next year. thanks for the new idea, silverbeard.