saving seeds from a plant that had blight

[wally mcgee]

Its been one of the rainiest Junes in 141 years hear in Iowa and I've been fighting blight by pruning and spraying with a baking soda mixture. I've been successful at keeping it at bay thus far.

My question is : Can , or, should a I save seeds from these plants. They all are bearing great looking large tomatoes. My Brandy Wine, German Pink, and Cherokee Purple are all from last years seeds I saved. I've heard not to save seeds from tomatoes with blight, but didn't know if that meant the plant or the tomato itself.

Will bleaching the seeds stop the spread to next years crop?

Advise appreciated ,

Rob

[RayR]

I guess when you say "blight"" you are referring to the common plagues, Early Blight and Septoria? These are not seed borne pathogens, so saving seeds is not an issue and trying to disinfect the seeds in hopes of stopping the spread is a waste of time.

[Tomato Beth]

I just read a page on the USDA site on late blight, and it says that saving seed from tomatoes that suffered blight is fine. You want to get rid of the tomato itself (if not edible), however.

[wally mcgee]

Originally Posted by Beth Carlock

I just read a page on the USDA site on late blight, and it says that saving seed from tomatoes that suffered blight is fine. You want to get rid of the tomato itself (if not edible), however.

Thank you for responding. I just wasn't sure after hearing about not saving seeds from tomaoes from blight infected plants. I feel a little better about it now. Last fall was my first run at saving seeds. So far so good

[KarenO]

I think if you wish to save seed from diseased plants for your own use that is fine. I would hope, however that anyone who shares seeds through this or any other forum shares seed only from healthy fruits.
For myself I would never save seed from a diseased plant for two reasons,
1. there are some diseases that are seed borne and unless one is absolutely certain of the diagnosis of the disease in question it is inadvisable to save seed from a diseased plant.
2. I do not want to grow plants or propagate plants that are known to be susceptible to a disease in my garden and I certainly would not want to share seeds of disease susceptible plants nor receive them unknowingly.

I believe it is best practice to only save seed from healthy fruit obtained from the healthiest and most superior plants in the garden. There is nothing to be gained by saving seed from diseased or inferior plants when there is an infinite supply of healthy seed out there.

bottom line: keep them for yourself if you wish but please do not distribute them to other gardeners.
KarenO

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by KarenO

I think if you wish to save seed from diseased plants for your own use that is fine. I would hope, however that anyone who shares seeds through this or any other forum shares seed only from healthy fruits.
For myself I would never save seed from a diseased plant for two reasons,
1. there are some diseases that are seed borne and unless one is absolutely certain of the diagnosis of the disease in question it is inadvisable to save seed from a diseased plant.
2. I do not want to grow plants or propagate plants that are known to be susceptible to a disease in my garden and I certainly would not want to share seeds of disease susceptible plants nor receive them unknowingly.

I believe it is best practice to only save seed from healthy fruit obtained from the healthiest and most superior plants in the garden. There is nothing to be gained by saving seed from diseased or inferior plants when there is an infinite supply of healthy seed out there.

bottom line: keep them for yourself if you wish but please do not distribute them to other gardeners.
KarenO

I agree with most of what Karen has posted.

Blight is a general word that many use, but is not specific as to known diseases.

All bacterial pathogens and viruses looked at to date have been found in the endosperm of the seed as opposed to most fungal foliage pathogens and soil borne diseases that can be found attached to the outer seed coat.

Processing seeds from plants with fungal foliage diseases and systemic diseases such as Fusarium, Verticillium, etc. using certain methods is very important in terms of lessening that pathogen burden on the seed coat, and we know from the work of Dr.Helene Dillard what that's all about.

Worth just brought to the top the original thread I put up about my writing about how to save tomato seeds. And please read what I said there, as in, I'm not going to welcome questions at this time/

As I wrote there, how to save seeds starts with how many plants are put out for a specific variety, one or several in terms of preserving genetic diversity for a variety. And plants are already out for this season except for the few who do a Fall planting

So there's a right way to do it and then there's the way that most home gardeners do it.

Carolyn