Can Flowers Indicate a Successful Cross?

[KarenO]

A breeder to be admired for sure but not every cross involves a PL parent, in fact I would say the majority don't.
for my part, using the RL Heart as the mother, rather than the obvious and standard wisdom of using the PL parent worked out really, really well for me. Rookie mistake? some would and have said so but there's more than one way to do everything and aside from genetics science, there is a great deal of guesswork, circumstance, chance and luck involved as well.
bumblebees have made many of the greatest tomato crosses ever grown.
Making the cross itself is the easy part. Selecting and then stabilizing the final OP tomato worth growing takes years of careful work and record keeping.
KarenO

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by KarenO

A breeder to be admired for sure but (not every cross involves a PL parent, in fact I would say the majority don't.)
for my part, using the RL Heart as the mother, rather than the obvious and standard wisdom of using the PL parent worked out really, really well for me. Rookie mistake? some would and have said so but there's more than one way to do everything and aside from genetics science, there is a great deal of guesswork, circumstance, chance and luck involved as well.
bumblebees have made many of the greatest tomato crosses ever grown.
KarenO

I agree with you completely on all the variables that exist in doing crosses, which is why I said I SUGGESTED that there was another way that has worked out for others.

As to your comment that not every cross involves a PL, you would say the majority don't.

In knowing quite a few professional and not so much even amateur breeders then begs the question of WHO the majority is. Which I cannot even begin to answer considering the fact that that means going WAY back in tomato history to deliberate breeding as well as great accidental crosses that took place and we can blame the pollinators for that as well as seed mutations and somatic mutations.

Carolyn

[KarenO]

Just strictly by numbers and due to the dominance of the trait there are more RL tomatoes in the world than PL. this is the basis of my suggestion that the majority of intentional crosses don't necessarily involve a PL parent.

KarenO

[bower]

Using a PL mother is a great trick for beginners, because it allows you to see right away whether your cross took if you have any uncertainty about it.
And there are other reasons for choosing a mother, for sure equally valid. One that Fred H pointed out awhile back is the receptivity or ease of working with a certain mother - not all tomatoes are equally easy to cross to. I have definitely noticed that as well. So Nan, your decision to use the larger fruit as mother because micro blossoms were so small and hard to work with, is certainly valid.
Choice of mother is most important, perhaps, where the traits of interest are strongly affected by maternal DNA, due to the influence of mitochondrial and chloroplast DNA on specific traits such as earliness and cold tolerance. It is easier to recover those traits in F2 etc by choosing the right mother.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Karen & Phila, I planted 11 F1's to ensure I got one that crossed. I'd love to thin them down.

They're producing surprisingly well. (I'm vibrating the blossoms.) There will be at least two of us making selections, so double the F2 seed.

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Go Nan go!
(Suggestion - to check earlier whether a future cross took, you could always grow a plant of the mama next to the hopeful F1to be able to compare.)

Ginger, I like that idea!

Carolyn, I wholeheartedly agree! Originally, I had a recessive leaf female parent- the rugose Hardin's Mini was to be the momma. About 40 failed crosses later, I used the RL heart as the female in desperation (it was late August).

Nan

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Nan_PA_6b

Karen & Phila, I planted 11 F1's to ensure I got one that crossed. I'd love to thin them down.

They're producing surprisingly well. (I'm vibrating the blossoms.) There will be at least two of us making selections, so double the F2 seed.


Ginger, I like that idea!

Carolyn, I wholeheartedly agree! Originally, I had a recessive leaf female parent- the rugose Hardin's Mini was to be the momma. About 40 failed crosses later, I used the RL heart as the female in desperation (it was late August).

Nan

Thank you Nan for agreeing with me.

Carolyn, just noting that rugose describes the pleated nature of the leaf form surface and has nothing to do with PL or RL.