Kristy,

"Q1. Does it matter which variety is the male parent plant, and which is the female?"

Not a lot, if any. It might be a good idea to do the cross both ways, just to be on the "safe side" in case one is a better "mother".

"Q2. If I cross and F1 with an F1, I get an F2?
(From what I have read, this is where the differences in the plants start to show up.)"

When you cross an F1 with an F1, you are basically putting a piece of F2 pollen (you don't have any idea what its "virtual" plant would look like) onto an F2 egg cell (you also don't see what its F2 virtual plant would look like). So yes, there will be just as much variability, or possibly even more variability, when you cross an F1 with a different F1. I do that quite a bit in my zinnia breeding. As they say, "expect the unexpected".

"If I keep breeding different plants together, from each generation (eg. 2 F3's, then 2 F4's etc) will I achieve uniformity? Or do I need to breed the plants with themselves? Eg pollinate a plant showing all characteristics that I want with itself, and continue this with subsequent generations?"

Probably the simplest technique is to select only your "best" plants and save seeds from them, and repeat that for several generations. If you have two very good plants that are slightly different, you could cross them without introducing too much variability. Plant breeding is both a science and an art. Or just a hobby. Incidentally, a lot of our heirloom tomato varieties were once F1 hybrids and they were "de-hybridized" by persistent re-selection.

I think you would enjoy the book, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties by Carol Deppe.

MM