You shouldn't have to worry too much about cross pollination of your Cherokee Purple. It happens rarely (about 5% of the time).

It's not a great idea to save Sun Sugar because you might be disappointed and get a red cherry with a boring or bad taste, but if you are curious, you can always try, just don't bank on getting the real thing.

I had a volunteer Sungold come up last year and the F2 was actually gold and the taste was very close to the F1. This year, an F3 came up, still gold, and the taste is good, although I don't have an F1 Sungold to compare it to.

Linda

Tomatoes are pretty much self pollinating, but with a hybrid, there are still recessive genes that might affect the next generation. You don't know until you try. I've grown lots of tomatoes from saved seeds, and most have turned out as expected.

My guess is that your tomatoes could easily have fertilised each other and that the seeds might be crosses.

Tomato crossing is unpredictable. Some factors appear to increase the chances; varieties with a protruding stigma are more susceptible, as are fruits formed from flowers with imperfect structure (such as fused blossoms). The number of pollinators present, and the availability of other food sources, can also influence crossing.

In my personal experience, growing different tomatoes 20-30' apart, I have tomatoes that I have saved from for several generations that still breed true. However, I have received seed in trade that was very heavily crossed... and I had one variety grown from my own saved seed (Federle) that proved to be so susceptible to crossing (at about 50%) that I stopped growing it. In my experience, crossing has been most common in larger-fruited varieties.

If you intend to save seed from Cherokee Purple, avoid doing so from imperfect blossoms. Fused blossoms form the largest tomatoes, and it is tempting to save seed from the largest; but those fruits are the most likely to be crossed. The smaller tomatoes from the same plant, with little to no blossom end deformity, would be your best bet. Even then, some crosses would be possible... but probably not from the tomatoes 50' away.

Saving seed from hybrid varieties is, as others have mentioned, inherently unpredictable. There will be great variation plant-to-plant, and most of the results will likely be inferior. If you have the space & are prepared to accept failure, it can be a fun experiment... but if you are counting on good results, saving seed from hybrids is not recommended.

I plant at least 4 heirloom varieties every year, and I rotate my tomato areas every year...so some years they're closer to each other than others..but my entire garden is only 50 feet , so they never get that much isolation...I've never had a problem getting true seed...with that said...I always keep some seed back from prior years, just in case. Hybrid seed...you get what you get...could be anything...Sun Sugar can and will give you everything in it's lineage...that's the nature of hybrids.