This is in the category of "nobody can eat just one". Nobody ever breeds just one tomato. You make 1000 crosses and grow them out and get overwhelmed with all the plants and all the segregation and you find a few good ones among all the scree. Then you brag about how good your tomatoes taste.

Agree with fusion. It ain't nearly as easy or as quick as it sounds. :-)

Check over on the Hybridizing forum here at GW. You'll likely find many tomato discussions there plus some "how-to" tips as well.

Dave

I have to concur with Fusion and Dave. If you start breeding or crossing tomatoes you will soon end up with dozens of crosses and hundreds of grow out lines, if you have the room for them, and then you just keep looking for what you are interested in. I don't have a lot of room, my garden is about 28 feet by 60 feet, and I typically grow 125 to 150 plants. By late in the summer it looks like a jungle in there.

People ask me what I do with all my tomatoes. Do I can them? Etc?

I tell them that no, I generally eat what I can, give away all the tomatoes that family and friends want to come pick, and that I then just watch the rest fall on the ground and rot. That is because I love the flavor of tomatoes, but I can only eat so much, even with making salsas and tomato sauces.

MOST of my tomatoes - generally at least 85 to 95 percent of what I grow - are tomatoes that I am breeding out. THAT is what interests me the most, and all I really need from them is to be able to observe them, taste them and then save seeds from them. So most of my tomatoes just rot away. But I do see some very interesting tomatoes and I have been working on a lot of different tomatoes that I like.

Oh, I had no idea that there was so much work! And as for Fcivsh my garden is nowhere near that size (mine's 20 plants) and I couldn't stand seeing them rot! I haven't gotten any ripe as of yet this year but I plan on eating what we can and giving the rest away! (I myself haven't bred any...yet!)