Largest clusters of fruit?

[bigbubbacain]

Which varieties do any of you recall having the most fruit on a cluster? I've been enamored lately with this photo from www.rareforms.com showing a ginormous cluster of red cherries. I don't want to post it here due to copyright issues, but I don't think it's Riesenstraube because they don't have a nipple end.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by bigbubbacain

Which varieties do any of you recall having the most fruit on a cluster? I've been enamored lately with this photo from www.rareforms.com showing a ginormous cluster of red cherries. I don't want to post it here due to copyright issues, but I don't think it's Riesenstraube because they don't have a nipple end.

Riesentraube is a multi flora type that has a main stem that has up to a couple of hundred blossoms but usually less than half of those set fruit.

But there are other multiflora varieties that are available and two of them are Ildi and Rose Quartz Multiflora.

There are also two others that were developed by Alan Kapuler and have been listed in the SSE Yearbooks but I can't remember the names right now.

Something like Red Millefleur is trying to get out of my brain right now and there's a yellow one as well.

And I'm sure that some others here can cite some other multi flora ones than those just mentioned mentioned.

Some of the currant varieties as well as some of the cherry hybrids can have lots of fruits on one stem, but they're all of the flat truss type and the multi floras have many more and aren't flat truss types.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Millefleur

Ok, I had to check my memory and yes there is a millifleur, seeds available as noted on that page and I know there's a red as well but didn't check that out at Tania's site.

And Clara and others in Europe have been talking about a variety called Thousand something or other and I'm sure someone will mention that one as well.

[Fusion_power]

The multiflora trait is a recent (within the last 40 years) find from crosses made with wild tomatoes. The largest clusters I've seen were on Ildi.

You can find a few photos online. Here is one I took of an Ildi blossom truss.

[maf]

Blondkopfchen is another one. The flower trusses keep branching and rebranching and can no longer support their own weight long before the tomatoes are ripe. Not my favourite tomato but they are still edible now in January, the trusses having been hung up in a cool room since October.
Blondkopfchen1.jpg Blondkopfchen2.jpg

[FILMNET]

Sweet Carneros Pink, last years plant

[matereater]

I've had a Saras Galapagos that had a cluster of over 60. I wish I'd taken a photo.

[carolyn137]

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...%27s_Breakfast

And here's another multi flora. I was reading about this one yesterday and under another another name it dates back to 1908, or it could have been 1901, I'd have to check that, so it seems as though the multiflora trait has been known for a very long time.

But it was renamed to Britians Breakfast more recently.

[piegirl]

Blondekophchen was a monster for me last season, even after cutting off large (5 foot) branches, they just regrew and reset. Fortunately not many set early in the season. The plant needs a super support system - probably 6 foot wide, 6 foot high and spilled out into the pathway. Probably 100-150 flowers per stem. I even picked them for bouquets. Fair tasting. Interesting and fun, may grow again but not this year. piegirl

[SunnyK]

I saved a grape type tomato from a salad I was served in a Bertucci's restaraunt 2 years ago. I grew out a few of the seeds and this is what I got from one of the plants....



I saved seed from this plant and grew them again last season. All four plants grown showed some promise but not like the ones in the picture(the flower clusters were the same but the germination just wasn't there). Granted it was an abnormally hot Summer for us so I will try again this year and see what happens.

[Fusion_power]

Do a little digging and you can find way more than you want to know about this topic. Use the search term "Compound Inflorescence Tomato" to find several relevant documents.

http://www.extension.org/article/32483

The best I recall, most tomatoes have gene variants that result in clusters of 1 to 10 flowers with most in the middle of that range. Some varieties have the ladder variant where the flower branches form a ladder pattern typical of several cherry tomatoes. And from one of the wild species a gene was brought in that causes the multiflora inflorescence with up to several hundred flowers on a single rachis. I'll see if I can dig out the documents that show which wild species the trait came from.

Here is an excerpt of one of the articles I found.

The s-classic allele was first described 100 years ago as a highly branched variety called "Wonder of Italy", and garden varieties resembling s remain popular for their aesthetic value and prolific fruit production. Six thousand domesticated varieties were screened for inflorescence variation and 23 lines exhibited highly compound inflorescences. Among the 23 lines, at least 15 represented distinct genetic backgrounds based on differences in fruit size, shape, color, and quantitative variation in branch number.
(A) Phenotypic variation from three distinct varieties is shown. Core Collection line 2064 (CC2064) was extremely compound as a result of more than 200 branching events, whereas CC944 and CC3381 branched less often, and CC3381 also developed leaves within the inflorescence.

I'll have to dig a little further to find the reference about the wild species that gave the highest number of flowers.

DarJones