Is Anyone Interested in Looking for a Large-Fruited Multiflora?

[dfollett]

As a by-Product of the dwarf/micro multiflora hunt I have embarked on, there is an opportunity I wish I could follow up on that I lack the room and time for. I would like to find out how large a fruit can be produced on a multiflora plant. I have never seen any that weren't cherry.

I have lots of F2 seed from crosses that may have the potential of producing a larger multiflora. One is a cross between a micro multiflora and a Brandywine Cowlick's X Margaret Curtain F1 and the other a cross between the same multiflora and a Pink Pioneer X Margaret Curtain F1. The micro multiflora is the the Red Robin X Rose Quartz multiflora ChrisK made and is discussed in his "Micro-tomato crosses" thread.

As I am searching for dwarf and micro multiflora plants, I am throwing away literally hundreds of full-size plants at the seedling stage - as soon as I can see they aren't dwarf. Approximately seventy-five percent of these F2s will be full-size plants. Of that 75%, twenty-five percent should be multiflora. That means nearly one in five of those F2 plants will be full-size indeterminate multiflora plants.

Multiflora is determined by a recessive gene. Once found, it should be fixed in future generations. It will be very easy to find and fix multiflora in these F2s.

From what I understand about crosses between large and small fruited plants, the small fruit is dominant initially. In later generations, they still lean more heavily toward the smaller sizes, but some percentage will have larger fruit. The F1s from these crosses were red saladette sized (1-2 oz.) and delicious. I don’t have any idea what influence the multiflora gene has on fruit size. That is what we would be setting out to learn.

I wish I had the space and bandwidth to grow out a bunch of these F2s and the subsequent F3s and F4s to see if large fruit can be grown on a multiflora plant. With Brandywine Cowlick's, Pink Pioneer and Margaret Curtain in their pedigree, great flavor should also be easy to come by. Unfortunately, I don't have the space or bandwidth.

Even though I can't do it, I would like to see it done. I would be happy to send seed to a few people who have the space and desire to pursue this objective.

The only thing I would ask would be that you report results - good or bad - and send seed back to me from anything worthwhile that you find. If you find something worth following up on, you are free to continue to grow it out and do whatever with. If you do end up with something worth releasing from any of these, acknowledgments are always in order – and don’t forget that the multiflora portion of these ultimately goes back to ChrisK’s original cross.

I have quite a lot of F2 seed available. If you would commit to follow up on this line of pursuit, PM me and I will send you some seed.

Yes, I am planning to grow the little ones in pots and the big ones in the garden.

[dfollett]

Originally Posted by LDiane

Yes, I am planning to grow the little ones in pots and the big ones in the garden.

The only seeds you will receive from the dwarf multiflora offer will be dwarf and micros. Here I am referring to the full-size indeterminates that I have eliminated from the dwarf and micro multiflora search. From these crosses with the larger sizes, I am only sending out F3 seeds that have been fixed for dwarf. With this offer, I will send the F2s so someone can select FOR those full-size plants I have been throwing away.

Oh, OK. Two packets of seeds, then, please.

[PdxMatos]

Originally Posted by LDiane

Oh, OK. Two packets of seeds, then, please.

Did this work? Were you able to grow any?

I don't think so. I've looked through all the seed packets I got from Dan, and none of them mention Brandywine Cowlick's, Margaret Curtain F1 or Pink Pioneer.

So I don't think I got seeds of the potential big fruited multi.

[Solanum315]

I am curious how this would grow out. I would imagine a multiflora would have a number of problems producing full sized fruit. Namely, the truss supporting that much weight, the plant supporting that much weight, having enough space on the truss for multiple full sized fruit to form and the plant being able to dedicate the resources to grow that much fruit. I have a Serbian variety called Calf’s Heart that is very hard to support because the vines and trusses break themselves off from all the weight of the fruit.

That said, I’d love to see it and grow it if it ever comes to pass.

I have a beefsteak that is almost a multiflora. It's an F2 hybrid. This year, it has had about 65 flowers on one truss (with one exceptionally large flower), and got about eight or nine fruit on that truss, all large. One I suspect could have been a giant tomato had it been pollinated properly (the curved blossom scar was probably about eight inches long, if you put it out flat; it curved around like a donut; it was large as is, though, but not giant). I saved F3 seeds from that fruit, on Tuesday. I didn't count flowers on its other trusses.

I had a Frosty F. House cross with a similar number of flowers, too, but with a larger number of many-flowered trusses. Its fruits were salad-sized.

If you're interested in these, let me know through a PM. I could give you Frosty F. House cross seeds that are likely to give you what I got. Or, I could give you seeds I saved from them this year. I have two plants in the garden and they both have this trait.

I have plenty of F2 seeds from the same source as that beefsteak, but only one of several plants I grew this year had the trait. The F3 seeds would be more likely to produce so many flowers. The F1, though prolific, did not have the trait.

The beefsteak is (Brandy Boy F11 x unknown RL variety) F2. The fruits are pink and tasty with great meaty texture. The plant is potato leaf (the F1 was regular leaf).