One of the folks on the PDX Backyard Farmers group asked a question that I paraphrase here:
“The tomatillos that I grew last year produced a bunch of seedlings this year. I don’t remember if they were hybrid or heirloom varieties. What am I going to get from these plants?”
I’m no tomatillo expert, but I’ll share my experiences with them and then warble on about the general business of hybrid seeds.
Firstly, all the literature on the subject says that you need at least two tomatillo plants (they’re self-incompatible, i.e., you need one plant to pollinate another, unlike the tomato, for instance)… there are those who dispute that based on their own experience, but I have no reason to doubt it. It’s entirely possible that those other folks just didn’t know that there was a sufficiently similar ground cherry within bee range of their one tomatillo plant.
Also you can buy “hybrids” or “heirloom” varieties, and I have to assume that the same caveats would apply as in any other case like that. Heirlooms that pollinate with themselves or one of their own kind will reproduce the same characteristics; hybrids that are pollinated in any way may produce who-knows-what or nothing– having reverted to characteristics of one of the parents.
So, the short answer then would be, if you don’t know what the parent’s variety was, or if it was a hybrid, you can’t predict how the kids will turn out.
That said, I’ve grown several generations of volunteer seedlings (not this year because our freezer’s still full of them), and I would be hard-pressed to distinguish between generations. This includes “hybrids” and OP varieties.
The idea is that a self-pollinated hybrid will unpredictably revert to characteristics one of the parents, but there are those out there who claim that these “hybrids” are only barely so. That is, the parents are nearly identical except for some esoteric difference like leaf shape, maximum height, level of resistance to a certain disease, etc.
Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but the seed companies obviously prefer to sell hybrid seeds. Consider that Sun Gold tomato seeds cost $3.85 for 20 (about 1/16 g) seeds from Territorial. An 1/8 g. pack of Brandywines is about $2.95. The hybrid seeds are quite a bit more than twice as expensive per seed.
Obviously, additional work goes into producing hybrids, but that’s a pretty huge difference in price. I should note that Sun Golds are quite tasty, and I usually plant them myself. Still, not only do the seeds cost more than twice as much, you can’t save them from the resulting fruit. That means you have to come back, year after year, to buy more.
(Incidentally, I’m still growing plants from seeds that I bought four years ago with very little change in germination rates. Just keep them in a box in a relatively cool, dry place, and most will last for quite some time.)
Still, I’ve noticed that, often, saving seeds from a hybrid– particularly one like the tomatillo– results in a VERY similar descendant. My guess is that that’s due to the previously mentioned likelihood that the parents were awfully close in the first place. The hybridization was done to enhance “vigor” or “disease resistance” (but, to a large degree, to be able to call the seeds “F1 hybrids” and “create value.” Since we all know that you can’t save seeds from a hybrid, most people don’t, and they buy a new pack every year.
But, if the hybrid’s parents were essentially identical, reverting to one of the parents isn’t going to mean much difference for the average home gardener. So, sure, the offspring aren’t *exactly* the parent, but they’re indistinguishably close. In my experiences with growing out volunteer crossed tomatoes, I’ve gotten perfectly nice, albeit unidentifiable variety-wise, tomatoes. They just weren’t special enough to save. Made good tomato sauce, tho.
I’m not saying that hybrids are bad or that I don’t grow them. Philosophically, I prefer open-pollinated varieties, but there are a few varieties of hybrid seeds that I like, and that I’ll pay the extra couple of bucks for. I’m just observing that, in a case like hybrid tomatillos, growing out the F2 generation and beyond isn’t likely to get you something inedible or even significantly different than the parent– unless you’re a real tomatillo connoisseur, which I am not.
So, the longer answer is… if you’ve got them growing already, and you’re not emotionally attached to the result being exactly what you expected (a problem in itself), why not grow a couple off in a corner and see what they make? You might be pleasantly surprised and discover a new variety that makes you rich!!! OK, not that, but they might be good anyway, and you didn’t pay a cent for them. What’s more, if you like them, they’re very easy to save seed from. You can pretty much scoop out the seeds onto a paper plate, dry them, and save them for next year.
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