Ferline is a hybrid variety. Saved seeds won't produce fruit 100% true to the parent. The first generation will produce similar fruit, subsequent generations from saved seeds will produce more variations of the varieties used in the hybridising as the gene pool starts to unravel. To produce fruit 100% true to the parent plant you need to save seeds from pure (heirloom) varieties.
There probably won't be a discernible difference in taste in the first generation. As to the variations, it depends how many varieties were involved in the original hybridising and what they were. Similar varieties, hybridised, won't throw huge differences when de-hybridised. There can be anything from two to half a dozen varieties used when hybridising. Obviously, the more the varieties, the larger the gene pool that will eventually unravel.
I know a few growers - with too much time on their hands - who love to try to dehybridise hybrids to try to determine the original parents. They spend years at it.
Thanks again Italophile - you are very knowledgeable! Unfortunately I don't have that much time on my hands but am a keen amateur with a thirst for understanding. I think I will give them a try (a little mystery never hurt anyone) but buy some hybrid seeds too. Incidentally can you recommend any other varieties which do not require a greenhouse (this is on my very long wish list). Thanks so much.
Why not try some pure (heirloom) varieties? The good ones taste better than most hybrids because the first thing to suffer in the hybridising process is flavour. Understandable because you're mixing two - and often more - different gene pools.
All tom varieties will grow both outdoors and in greenhouses. Greenhouses only come into play for climate reasons. Toms need as much warmth - and sunlight - as they can get and greenhouses are sometimes the only way to achieve and maintain the necessary warmth.
How long is your growing season? By which I mean, what are your best summer temps and how long do they last?
I'm based in Kent (The Garden of England) UK so weather is very temperamental, however just harvested a trug full of green tomatos which I plan to turn into chutney. Ferline was recommended by a friend as being quite resistant against blight. She was right - may of my neighbours (even Monty) have suffered this year - but I rather smugly have not (even without a greenhouse). We have had maybe a dozen red ones but mostly they grew but didn't ripen.
Greenhouses offer no protection against fungal diseases. In fact, even with ventilation the relatively closed environment can be an incubator. There are also fungal diseases specific to greenhouses, rarely if ever seen outdoors. There's really no avoiding fungal problems. The spores are airborne, they're everywhere in the air, and all you can do is try to minimise their impact by either preventive spraying or judicious housekeeping.
Blight-resistant varieties are a bit of a misnomer. They've become popular marketing devices. Unless you're hit with the destructive Late Blight, most of the everyday fungal problems don't destroy tomato plants. Providing you take some care - removing affected foliage as soon as infection appears, etc - a plant will usually live a normal productive life.
As you know Italophile, half of my outdoor Marmande plants showed clear signs of what appeared to be Late Blight in mid July - by removing every affected leaflet as soon as the infection showed (inspecting 3 times per day), and moving the affected plants to another part of the garden away from all other tomato plants, the affected plants continued to grow and fruit and the infection did not spread.
We are ripening our toms indoors, but despite the dreaded blight, we still had a reasonable crop. The affected plants have now been bagged and will be taken to the local authority recycling depot - I'm not putting them on my compost heaps.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I recognised later blight in some of my GH toms from your description, Dovefromabove, in a previous thread, took the affected leaves off as was advised and the crop was just as good as previous years. Without going out side to count there were about 6-7 plants in a bed so couldn't be moved, in fact the other 6 plants due to space couldn't be moved either I had fruit ripening from about mid July possibly sooner, Christmas grape was the first along with a striped zebra variety.
I've found each year seems to throw up different challenges, last year it was BER, red, yellow pear and the cherry varieties I grew seemed the only one's affected and these were grown in pots. It was put down to irregular watering and that some varieties are susceptible to BER. Grew red pear again this year and they were fine but I changed my watering habit and put gravel in the tops of pots to prevent evaporation.
A must this year is to change the soil in the GH bed.
Posts
Can I save seed from Ferline? Not sure if it is a hybrid/non-hybrid variety - does it matter? Please explain!
Ferline is a hybrid variety. Saved seeds won't produce fruit 100% true to the parent. The first generation will produce similar fruit, subsequent generations from saved seeds will produce more variations of the varieties used in the hybridising as the gene pool starts to unravel. To produce fruit 100% true to the parent plant you need to save seeds from pure (heirloom) varieties.
Thanks Italophile. What sort of varations can I expect? Distorted shape/colour etc. - I can live with that if they still taste good!
There probably won't be a discernible difference in taste in the first generation. As to the variations, it depends how many varieties were involved in the original hybridising and what they were. Similar varieties, hybridised, won't throw huge differences when de-hybridised. There can be anything from two to half a dozen varieties used when hybridising. Obviously, the more the varieties, the larger the gene pool that will eventually unravel.
I know a few growers - with too much time on their hands - who love to try to dehybridise hybrids to try to determine the original parents. They spend years at it.
Thanks again Italophile - you are very knowledgeable! Unfortunately I don't have that much time on my hands but am a keen amateur with a thirst for understanding. I think I will give them a try (a little mystery never hurt anyone) but buy some hybrid seeds too. Incidentally can you recommend any other varieties which do not require a greenhouse (this is on my very long wish list). Thanks so much.
Why not try some pure (heirloom) varieties? The good ones taste better than most hybrids because the first thing to suffer in the hybridising process is flavour. Understandable because you're mixing two - and often more - different gene pools.
All tom varieties will grow both outdoors and in greenhouses. Greenhouses only come into play for climate reasons. Toms need as much warmth - and sunlight - as they can get and greenhouses are sometimes the only way to achieve and maintain the necessary warmth.
How long is your growing season? By which I mean, what are your best summer temps and how long do they last?
I'm based in Kent (The Garden of England) UK so weather is very temperamental, however just harvested a trug full of green tomatos which I plan to turn into chutney. Ferline was recommended by a friend as being quite resistant against blight. She was right - may of my neighbours (even Monty) have suffered this year - but I rather smugly have not (even without a greenhouse). We have had maybe a dozen red ones but mostly they grew but didn't ripen.
Greenhouses offer no protection against fungal diseases. In fact, even with ventilation the relatively closed environment can be an incubator. There are also fungal diseases specific to greenhouses, rarely if ever seen outdoors. There's really no avoiding fungal problems. The spores are airborne, they're everywhere in the air, and all you can do is try to minimise their impact by either preventive spraying or judicious housekeeping.
Blight-resistant varieties are a bit of a misnomer. They've become popular marketing devices. Unless you're hit with the destructive Late Blight, most of the everyday fungal problems don't destroy tomato plants. Providing you take some care - removing affected foliage as soon as infection appears, etc - a plant will usually live a normal productive life.
As you know Italophile, half of my outdoor Marmande plants showed clear signs of what appeared to be Late Blight in mid July - by removing every affected leaflet as soon as the infection showed (inspecting 3 times per day), and moving the affected plants to another part of the garden away from all other tomato plants, the affected plants continued to grow and fruit and the infection did not spread.
We are ripening our toms indoors, but despite the dreaded blight, we still had a reasonable crop. The affected plants have now been bagged and will be taken to the local authority recycling depot - I'm not putting them on my compost heaps.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I recognised later blight in some of my GH toms from your description, Dovefromabove, in a previous thread, took the affected leaves off as was advised and the crop was just as good as previous years. Without going out side to count there were about 6-7 plants in a bed so couldn't be moved, in fact the other 6 plants due to space couldn't be moved either
I had fruit ripening from about mid July possibly sooner, Christmas grape was the first along with a striped zebra variety.
I've found each year seems to throw up different challenges, last year it was BER, red, yellow pear and the cherry varieties I grew seemed the only one's affected and these were grown in pots. It was put down to irregular watering and that some varieties are susceptible to BER. Grew red pear again this year and they were fine but I changed my watering habit and put gravel in the tops of pots to prevent evaporation.
A must this year is to change the soil in the GH bed.