Questions about multiflora tomatoes

[BigVanVader]

I'm wondering if anyone knows where I can find a list of every known multiflora variety of tomato? I was also curious if there are any studies available for reading that have compared their production to non multiflora varieties?

I assume the multiflora varieties produced more but since the plants are smaller I wonder exactly how much more productive. Thanks!

[ChrisK]

Don't know about the ultimate production, but commonly all flowers do not set fruit.

For a good start see:

http://tatianastomatobase.com/w/inde...rch=multiflora

[Worth1]

Riesentraube is a multiflora and the plant isnt small by any stretch of the imagination.
I would assume yellow riesentraube is a multiflora also.

Worth

[FarmerShawn]

Originally Posted by ChrisK

Don't know about the ultimate production, but commonly all flowers do not set fruit.

For a good start see:

http://tatianastomatobase.com/w/inde...rch=multiflora

I took a look on Tatania's site, as suggested, and Mirabelle caught my eye, as well as Wagner's Mirabelle. These multiflora tomatoes look alike, and the Tomatobase seems to suggest that they are the same, under slightly different names, but one is listed as determinate, and the other is listed as indeterminate. Does anybody have more information on this? They do look like really good yellow cherries, but I almost always have better luck with indeterminate plants, it seems, with a couple of exceptions.

[RJGlew]

I found both Sweet Aperitif & Black Opal from GG are multiflora from the 3rd set of flowers on. I grew one of each last summer and was shocked by the volume of flowers, but unfortunately our ultra short season did not allow me to see what they could amount to.

[kurt]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

I'm wondering if anyone knows where I can find a list of every known multiflora variety of tomato? I was also curious if there are any studies available for reading that have compared their production to non multiflora varieties?

I assume the multiflora varieties produced more but since the plants are smaller I wonder exactly how much more productive. Thanks!

I got some free seeds and it grew like crazy.It needed a lot of room,had I swear a few thousand small fair cherrys,leaders galore.If you go "multiflora"be prepared for daily maintenance,prepared trellis,elevated growing surface and shave your head now cause you will be pulling your hair out.NEVER AGAIN!

[BigVanVader]

I'm looking at multiflora for their ability to produce more tomatoes in a small area since my growing space is limited. I already grow up twine and keep my plants pruned, I enjoy pruning.

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Riesentraube is a multiflora and the plant isnt small by any stretch of the imagination.
I would assume yellow riesentraube is a multiflora also.

Worth

I was just reading about the Riesentraube and YR being
multiflora. While reading I found a comment about Porter Improved might be a multiflora too. The Porter plant I picked clean before the first hard freeze this year had over 180 tomatoes on it. The plant had already been picked many times before. It produced well over 200 fruits and still had blossoms all over it.

As Worth wrote above about Riesentraube - Porter plants are really large.

When looking up Multiflora, I got, "Any of several plant varieties or hybrids characterized by many single, relatively small flowers, as certain kinds of petunias or roses." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/multiflora So I tried the word Multiflorous suggested here by spellcheck. Meaning, "(Bot.) Having many flowers". http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/Multiflorous
Flowers are not what is needed.

The Dwarf Tomatoes section here most likely will produce the answer. I've never looked there yet.

[ChrisK]

Multiflora is not a description of total numbers of flowers. Multiflora tomato plants have a particular mutant allele that gives rise to a highly branched compound inflorescence. See D inset below.



from: Lippman et. al. 2008 The Making of a Compound Inflorescence in Tomato and Related Nightshades

[BigVanVader]

Yes I have tried my best to researched it but haven't been able to find a comprehensive list of multiflora cultivar's or any info regarding production compared to other cherry tomatoes. If nobody has done a side by side then I will do one this year and compare numbers.

[ChrisK]

A multiflora tomato is as I described. It does not just mean "has lots of flowers". There are no multiflora dwarfs in the TV dwarf project to my knowledge. I am working on one but it is not stable.

Anyway, for the OP, did you make a list of everything at Tania's? Maybe she could run a query for you and add it to one of her pre-made lists? Yes, I doubt there will be any studies of yield (which actually has various meanings) between multiflora and regular.

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

When looking up Multiflora, I got, "Any of several plant varieties or hybrids characterized by many single, relatively small flowers, as certain kinds of petunias or roses." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/multiflora So I tried the word Multiflorous suggested here by spellcheck. Meaning, "(Bot.) Having many flowers". http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/Multiflorous
Flowers are not what is needed.

The Dwarf Tomatoes section here most likely will produce the answer. I've never looked there yet.

[maf]

What I have observed by receiving unstable seeds that were segregating for multiflora (Haley's Purple Comet from Brad Gates and a blueish one from Tom Wagner) is that the multiflora types do indeed significantly outproduce their non-multiflora siblings, but the taste seems much watered down. Not surprising considering the fruit to foliage ratio.

Overall I am not a fan of this phenotype.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by maf

What I have observed by receiving unstable seeds that were segregating for multiflora (Haley's Purple Comet from Brad Gates and a blueish one from Tom Wagner) is that the multiflora types do indeed significantly outproduce their non-multiflora siblings, but the taste seems much watered down. Not surprising considering the fruit to foliage ratio.

Overall I am not a fan of this phenotype.

I have a weather widget on my computer screen at work that shows the weather in London and a few other places.

Almost every day there seems to be fog and rain.

Would this have an effect on the flavor of the tomatoes?

I have to ask because the Riesentraube I grow year after year have a big bold tomato flavor.

Nothing watered down about them.

Have you grown Riesentraube?
If not you should give it a try.

Worth

[maf]

Originally Posted by Worth1

I have a weather widget on my computer screen at work that shows the weather in London and a few other places.

Almost every day there seems to be fog and rain.

Would this have an effect on the flavor of the tomatoes?

I have to ask because the Riesentraube I grow year after year have a big bold tomato flavor.

Nothing watered down about them.

Have you grown Riesentraube?
If not you should give it a try.

Worth

Yes, the weather is a serious factor in UK tomato growing and many UK gardeners grow tomatoes in glasshouses exclusively because that obviously gives more heat, and protection from late blight that can be a problem during inevitable wet periods every summer.

Almost every day of fog and rain is a slight exaggeration though, and a generalisation akin to equating everyone in Texas with the Ewing family.

I haven't grown Riesentraube, but I am sure it is as good as you describe. I see on Tat's tomatobase that she rates it highly and that her seed source was Martin Longseth who is also a person I would take notice of a recommendation from. The only "pure" bred multiflora I have grown is Blondkopfchen, which I did not much care for.

I used the examples above because I could compare multiflora and non-multiflora tomatoes from the same line and it was obvious that in these cases the flavor was a little watered down. In the Haley's Purple Comet example, the multiflora produced at least four times as many tomatoes as the non-multiflora grown alongside in the same greenhouse. A plant can only pump out so much sugar and caretenoid flavor compounds and if the yield is very high the taste is bound to suffer.

My other quibbles with multiflora tomatoes are that so many flowers are produced that some inevitably fail and drop into the cluster causing mold when they rot, and sometimes it can be difficult to harvest the ripe tomatoes because you are blocked off by the unripe ones.

As ever, your mileage may vary...

[kayrobbins]

I grow Riesentraube, Coyote and Everglade. I find Riesentraube very manageable and I love the flavor. Coyote over grew a 5 ft tall cage and made its way past the cool deck into the pool but next time I will find a better location because I love the flavor. Everglade is my tomato wild child. You go out and pick all the red tomatoes in the morning and by afternoon there are more. Once you have it will self sow but is so slow to germinate when you want to plant it. I like the flavor but if you don't pick them early they will burst in your hand when picking giving you even more volunteers.