Unexpected potato leaf ratio?

[WhippoorwillG]

Last year I collected some seed from an insect crossed regular leaf tomato that showed up in Captain Lucky plants last year. If memory serves, it was a productive red slicer of medium size amd good flavor.

Because I don't know the parents for sure, I only started a limited number and transplanted 15 seedlings to give me an idea of the potential. The odd thing is that I ended up with 11 potato leaf and only 4 regular leaf.

Other than small sample size and pure chance, is there another plausible explanation for this?

I have two other PL × RL f2 populations from purpose made crosses and they both came in at around 5:1 regular leaf to potato leaf....close enough to expected ratios given the sample sizes of 50 each.

[EBHarvey]

If the tomato(s) you saved seeds from were at least partially pollinated by the PL plants around them then your expected PL ratio in the subsequent generation could be as high as 50%. (RL/PL x PL/PL)

25% PL would only be expected if the plant selfed. (RL/PL x RL/PL)

[carolyn137]

At least one parent is known:

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Captain_Lucky

And Lucky Cross is a PL gold/red bicolor.

Even Millard didn't know the other parent in this accidental X pollination.

Carolyn

[Lee]

I like EBHarvey's hypothesis of why you could be seeing higher ratios of PL.

Let us know what you end up with this season as you grow them out!

Lee

[travis]

Did you grow Early Girl or 4th of July hybrid tomatoes in the same garden as the Capt. Lucky? Or did a nearby neighbor grow those hybrids in his or her garden?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by travis

Did you grow Early Girl or 4th of July hybrid tomatoes in the same garden as the Capt. Lucky? Or did a nearby neighbor grow those hybrids in his or her garden?

Good question, and I know what you are after as regards Early Girl, but right now I don't know the connection between Early Girl and 4th of July. Perhaps Burpee used Early Girl in having Petoseed develop 4th of July?

I'll say no more, you can answer but I do have the history of how Early Girl was developed somewhere and I'm sure you do as well.

Carolyn, who will only say Vive le ( or is it la) French.

[WhippoorwillG]

Thank you all for the responses.

I had considered it being a Brandywine cross or maybe Grandma Mary's Polish, or even Glacier, but I didnt take great notes on location that year(2013).

Oh well, maybe the other parent can be deduced when they are grown out.

The only 4th of July was in a container in the greenhouse....and possibly dead by the time Captain Lucky set fruit. No Early Girl.

Thanks again.

[travis]

I'm assuming you got the unexpected PL segregation rate from seeds you saved only from the RL plant that came from saved Capt. Lucky fruit.

That would rule out incomplete self-pollination and partial accidental cross pollination as the explanation since the unexpected RL/PL ratio occurred only in the F2 batch planting from the seeds saved from a single RL F1.

Both Early Girl and 4th of July (as well as some other early season Peto and Ball Seed hybrid cultivars) have one PL parent. If it were an RL F1 hybrid with one PL parent that contributed the accidental cross pollination creating the initial RL F1 from your Capt. Lucky, then the F2 batch might show a greater than 25% PL to 75% RL ratio.

[WhippoorwillG]

Originally Posted by travis

I'm assuming you got the unexpected PL segregation rate from seeds you saved only from the RL plant that came from saved Capt. Lucky fruit.

That would rule out incomplete self-pollination and partial accidental cross pollination as the explanation since the unexpected RL/PL ratio occurred only in the F2 batch planting from the seeds saved from a single RL F1.

Both Early Girl and 4th of July (as well as some other early season Peto and Ball Seed hybrid cultivars) have one PL parent. If it were an RL F1 hybrid with one PL parent that contributed the accidental cross pollination creating the initial RL F1 from your Capt. Lucky, then the F2 batch might show a greater than 25% PL to 75% RL ratio.

That is correct. I'm interested to see what comes of these....

[WhippoorwillG]

Update.... The f2's were not nearly as varied as I had expected from a Captain Lucky cross. Overall a decent set of tomatoes that averaged out smaller than Captain Lucky, but none of the excitement or visual pop that Captain Lucky provides.

In fact, the most common expressions were ringers size and color wise from Cherokee Purple to Black Krim. While close inspection revealed a possible mottling of the flesh, there were no clear expressions of bi or tri-color flesh. Either it is controlled by multiple genes or the black genes involved are masking the trait in the fruit??? None of the red or pink fruited plants had any noticeable color variation in the flesh, so multiple genes looks like the more likely...

Any experiences with Captain Lucky or some of the color genes that were a surprise?

There is still a chance the this was never Captain Lucky at all, and instead the regular leaf red slicer that came up and produced so many potato leaf f2s could be a stray seed from another PL plant??