colokid You may already know that Cherokee purple is not really purple. It is dark but not purple. If you weren't happy with the plants grown from the seeds you saved I would not waste your time and space on iffy seeds. Tomato seeds are really cheap for what you get.

Thou shalt never save seed from one fruit. Better several fruits from one plant, better still from several fruits of two plants, well, you get the picture. LOL That way you dilute out any possible X pollinated seeds if you didn't bag blossoms.

But to answer yourt question directly.

A variable number of seeds in one fruit can be crossed.

The tomato ovary has many ovules, seeds to be, and as the pollen tube goes down the style to the ovary with self pollination usually all the ovules are fertilized with self pollen which become the seeds and the ovary expands and grows to become the tomato fruit with the seeds inside.

But if not all ovules are fertilized and x pollination occurs then any ovules not fertilized by self pollen can be x pollinated.

And of course that number of X pollinated seeds can be variable.

YOu said you saved seeds from Cherokee Purple a few years back but then those seeds gave you plants with fruits that weren't purple. Cherokee Purple isn't purple, it's a very dark dusky pink with darker overtones. Craig LeHoullier named it Cherokee Purple and the word purple was used back in the late 1800's to indicate a pink tomato.

The only two varieties I know of that really do have a purple tint are Purple Calabash and Noire des Cosebeauf and the novelty variety Purple Smudge and its mutant Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge.

Does that help?

Carolyn

Thanks Carolyn. That is is what I thought.
*** Cherokee Purple isn't purple, it's a very dark dusky pink with darker overtones. Craig LeHoullier named it Cherokee Purple and the word purple was used back in the late 1800's to indicate a pink tomato. ***

Then why does every picture I look at show a definate darker top on them? None of mine show any thing but red/pink (whatever) all the way to the top. No overtones at all. Yes, the original green house one that I saved seed from, had it.
Anyway, I have new seed this year, but this has been bugging me for two years now. Mine just don't look like the pictures.

Every CP I've grown has "green shoulders", meaning that the top never looks ripe. However, if I let them sit out long enough, it will try to redden, giving a much darker color (red+green).

As seen here

The two big tomatoes up front are CP.

Here is a link that might be useful: Google Image search

That is what I mean archerb. Mine did not look any thing like that.
I Decided that no way did I have a cross.
I will throw the seed out.

Okay, a few issues here ... some may be off topic, and for that I'm sorry.

1) Carolyn has answered your question correctly regarding whether a single flower can be pollinated by more than one pollen source. That is yes, the flower may have self-pollinated as well as some ovules not self-pollinated may have stray pollen dropped in by bees from another tomato plant.

2) If the stray pollen deposited on a Cherokee Purple stigma came from Big Beef, or any other RED tomato, the plants grown from those X-pollinated F1 (first generation) seed will be RED. That is, the fruit will appear red from stem to stern with no "black" overtones, undertones, and the green (chlorophyll retention) in the flesh or gel will NOT appear in the first generation fruit. And the skin itself will be YELLOW if held up to the light rather than clear such as is Cherokee Purple skin.

3) If you grow out F2 seeds saved from the red fruit of the F1 Cherokee Purple x RED tomato, you will get some pink and some red fruit at I think a 1 pink to 3 red ratio. A proportion of the "pink" F2 tomatoes will appear "purple" and a proportion of the "red" F2 tomatoes will appear "black" because the chlorophyll retention genetically programmed by the Cherokee Purple also will begin being expressed in the F2 generation in an anticipated ratio.

4) If you actually are lucky enough to have saved seeds from a Cherokee Purple x Big Beef cross, and you can recognize the plants/fruit that are expressing confirmation of that cross, you should NOT THROW OUT THE SEEDS, but save the seeds and grow out as many of those siblings as you can. BECAUSE, Big Beef has contributed VALUABLE DISEASE RESISTANCE to those seeds and that resistance will be retained by some of the plants in subsequent generations. Check it out!

So if you don't want the seeds, please contact me at tomatohead48@hotmail.com and let me distribute those seeds to persons who may be able to grow out a large enough population to capture the disease resistance in a tomato that also has the potential for great flavor. But only if you have the inclination to do so.

Bill

Bill, I don't think there is a chance in the world that these are a cross. The few plants all look the same. Maybe the cherokee purple just ripen up different for me. Most likely I never had one in the first place. Original came from green house plant. Right now I have Sophie's choice seed, at least had one seed) that was wrong to check out. Last year I bought a bonnie plant said "beefsteak" nice plant, all 2 1/2 foot 100 percent determinate. I want to grow these seeds. I will plant one or two of the whatever this year but I only have room on 2 plots of 16 each. I Try to grow 2 of each. No way can I do a long time study, Don't have the time.I mean me..80 years old and my ICD battery runs out about harvest time. I have lots of seed of it so if you are actually interested let me know and I will get you some.
KennyP