Soft Fruit from Cross

[mcsee]

Hi All, back in 2019 I used the pollen from Sweet Ozark Orange on a red fruited tomato from Romania. At the time I collected the fruit with the crossed seed, I noticed the fruit was soft when ripe. Then, the resulting fruit at F1 was also soft when ripe, so I have to ask whether this will be an ongoing issue in each filial generation. I did end up with a nice orange fruit, but not sure whether to persevere after F2 if I get soft fruit again.


Any ideas?

[FredB]

Brandywine has soft fruit, and that may be one of the reasons why many people prefer it. However, soft-fruited varieties can't be shipped, so they're suitable only for home use or local markets.

[nctomatoman]

hi mcsee - just want to clarify. Was either of the two parents having what you call "soft" fruit when ripe?

If you used pollen from the orange on a flower on the Romanian red, the seeds in the tomato that formed were the F1 seeds. That, when grown, should give a tomato that shows the various dominant traits of each parent. Saving seeds from the hybrid fruit would give a range of outcomes, so as many should be grown as possible - and fruit "softness" would vary, I suspect.