The Perfect Tomato!

[bower]

That's an excellent project, Fred... I look forward to hearing more about the new crosses.
I'm working on a line of semi-determinate plants, myself, to try to optimize growth habit and production for low tunnels. They do need a cage, but since we need cover of some kind anyway I'm hoping I can design that as part of the tunnel structure.
I have noticed that many of the smaller determinates I've tried have been extremely prone to foliage disease - my impression is that it goes with the territory, because the plants have put so much of their energy into fruit there just isn't a balanced amount of plant to sustain healthy leaf and stem. The disease pressure here can be extreme in cold and wet conditions - one reason for aiming for semi-determinate habit, as it's hard to do mold patrol maintenance on plants that are 7 ft tall, while the tiny plants have foliage so close to the fruit, it's near impossible to prevent fruit loss from contact with the rotting leaves.
The other thing I noticed about determinates I've tried, is how many of them are not tasty and just not worth growing or breeding with because who wants the fruit. So it's great to see your delicious cherries heading in the bush direction.

Originally Posted by Fred Hempel

One of my original breeding goals was to breed bushy tomatoes for small farmers who didn't want to stake.

Maglia Rosa was the first bushy cherry tomato we bred, and we grew alot of it as we started farming. Seeds of Change released it.

But, as we grew, Maglia Rosa in a large field of tomatoes (I was doing 4-6 acres) was a magnet for disease and insect pests, and I switched to breeding vines.

Later, Seeds of Change seemed to always be out of Maglia Rosa, and I kept hearing from alot of small diversified growers wondering how they could get seed, because it was their go-to variety. They didn't need to stake, and they weren't finding it to be a disease magnet, in the context of their diversified fields.

So we are re-releasing Maglia Rosa this fall. And, I am also working with a very distinguished farmer to breed a suite of new cherry tomatoes with the Maglia Rosa bushy habit.

This farmer loves MR, and doesn't want to stake, and is growing out huge populations of Maglia Rosa X Artisan cherry tomato crosses this year so we can select many new "bushy" varieties.

Interestingly, the farmer assumes that there will be increased risk for pests and pathogens, but he figures if he has to plow under Maglia Rosa after only half the production of vining cherries, he is still better off, because of the very high cost of staking.

[roper2008]

Now it looks like maglia rosa is on my grow list for a container plant.

[BigVanVader]

Fred did the bushy cultivars ever develop? Are any of your new cherry tomato lines like MR?

[Fred Hempel]

I have 3 or 4 bushy cherry tomatoes at F4 this summer. May rush them to F5 in the fall/winter and have them available next year for collaborating members.

Have to see how they do this summer and fall, though.