Hilbert's Grand tomato Hotel - 2016

[bower]

Another case where six plants was enough for the recessives to turn up. One PL plant, and one pink-black. These were all quality early small fruit, although one early flowering pink had an edge in the taste department and was also extremely productive with very large clusters. Next generation will tell whether this is a genetic or environmental effect. I am also curious, now that I know the gf allele was present in the F2 selection, whether it may be the gf allele again, which gave this plant a bit of extra flavor and edged out the PL sibling to be grown forward. The black is delightful in its own way, and ok I admit I adore black tomatoes. Black Kitten Paws is fine by me.

The big cluster size made these plants productive for the space in spite of a tendency to be long and leggy in the crowded greenhouse environment. Set of fruit in these clusters was counted and estimated to run about 80%. Unfortunately, dropping blossoms, whether set or not, also bring the curse of high maintenance by dropping mold onto the mess of fruiting stems or the leaves below them. Someone suggested this might not be an issue outdoors because the wind would blow them away and that is worth investigating. In fact the tendency to be large rambling plants is another reason to see how they perform outside since the cool weather will curtail that.