Expectations

[efisakov]

wow, wow, wow...
well done

[Ricky Shaw]

Cinco de Mayo one pounder. That's crazy!

[AKmark]

Here are a few pics of our Brandywine X Bloody butcher cross that we named the Mat-Su Express. They are very tasty, and the yield is awesome, they have been well received at the farmers markets too. I planted about 125 plants for my F5 selection from two tagged plants (A) and (B) which were segregated in the F3. Plant B is now called Mat-Su Express Super B, they yield better than most varieties I have grown, they also carry the great taste as plant A's off spring.
My PL Blk Krim X pl Early Girl F2 has proven to be great, of course I got a lot of variation from pink fruit, large red beefsteaks, and cute round tomatoes. The taste is fantastic, I already have f3's going.

I also back crossed BW X BB F2 to a BB X Dester F1, they also yield lots of great tasting fruit.

I also have really enjoyed Green Giant x Juane Flammee, a cross that Sherry AK did for me, she is good at tinkering with tiny flowers.(She does most of the crosses for me) They are basically a bright orange large JF, but maybe even a better taste, segregation will be interesting.

My prize is a tomato I named AK Sunrise and AK Sunset, the first is pink the other red. They are a mystery cross of BW Sudduth's from a few years back. I planted seed from a supposed BWS and sure enough I got a variation of types. I thought the red PL was best and saved seed, then eventually pulled a pink tomato from it and segregated the two tomatoes. Now at F5 they have the same shape, 4-7 OZ and are superior taste-wise, second to none, I have some F6's going now.
I am sending out a bunch of Mat-Su seed this fall as well as my Sunrise and Sunset for others to try.
Anyway here's some pics of Mat-Su, a truss, plants, and picked fruit and also a Sunrise in my hand, and the smooth shaped red Sunset on the truss and in my hand

[bower]

Mark, they look wonderful.
You were right about the earliness segregation, btw, I'm seeing quite a bit in F3's and F4's as well, so it goes on and on.

I have a first fruit on your F1 which I started late - pea sized fruit at 67 days from seed is very good.

[ddsack]

Oh my! Mark, your pictures are killing me! Congratulations on developing some great new combinations. The Green Giant X Jaune Flammee also sounds intriguing, I hope it pans out. Keep on!

[Ricky Shaw]

They look the perfect size too, I'd love to have some of that Mat-Su.

[Barb_FL]

They look wonderful. I would love to see how it produces in hot/humid East Coast of Central Florida.

Because of your long season, were you able accelerate getting to F5 in 2 seasons?

[AKmark]

Barb, yes, I can do two generations of about any variety per year. This is the third year for the BW X BB, I grew one plant in 2014, and regrew the F1 every year since too.
ddsack, I think it should be fun to segregate, I am going to try to get an orange PL yummy tomato, but the best tasting orange is my ultimate goal regardless of the leaf type. Sherry has some F2's going, I just planted some too
Ricky/ Mr Tidy, and Barb, I will send you some goodies in October for next year

[PureHarvest]

Mark, I would certainly be willing to trial all or any types you'd be gracious enuff to send.

[BigVanVader]

Originally Posted by Ricky Shaw

They look the perfect size too, I'd love to have some of that Mat-Su.

I second that.

[AKmark]

Thanks, it is very important to get feed back before I send seed to vendors in the future, I am very conscious about claims, and do seek perfection of those.

I would also like to state that everything I know about making a tomato cross is because of my tomato friend Sherry AK. She has been doing this for many years and has many crosses that are excellent that most do not even know about yet. At any rate, we have several stable crosses, and many unstable ones that we are working on that are excellent.

We do these because we live in one of the most challenging tomato climates on earth, we want better production of very tasty tomatoes. That's not asking too much. LOL

Anyway, it's about time to trial some in other places, so we are for sure we are not coddling something because we have a connection to it.
Thanks for the kind responses
Mark

[akgardengirl]

Hi Mark,
I got to taste one of your Mat-Su Express tomatoes yesterday. Besides looking good, the taste was superb. It came from a friend who bought a plant from you. The plant looks like it is going to produce a lot of tomatoes too. I am watching their greenhouse and get to try out the ripe ones.
Sue

[BigVanVader]

Mark I'm not sure how DTM works for Alaska but I was curious what Mat-su would be?

[AKmark]

I am sure it has to be earlier because of our length of day, however, out of all varieties I grew for the last two years Mat-Su has been the first ripe. I also am aware that others may be a teeny bit earlier, but usually their taste is lacking, or the texture is mushy, etc. I will say this, I got one pound ripe beefsteaks from 8 F4 plants from 102-108 days from seed. They were only 5-6 days behind the smaller fruit of the F1.
I am curious to see how they do down south in tomatodiseaseville, and how they produce in warmer temperatures too. I will save a lot of seed from the F5's, and will get a good selection. I will also gather seed of the Sunrise F6's, not early, not a huge producer, but folks will see why I am yapping over that one. Just imagine a Sudduth's that is concentrated, REALLY!
This year Sherry re-did the cross with Sudduth's.

Sue, that's good to hear, come out and see the Tomato Fort sometime.
Mark

[efisakov]

Mark, great job! So happy to see you going in production+taste direction. Excellent choice.
Thank you for doing that.
Soon we would not need to grow our own tomatoes, they will be shipped year around from Alaska, hehe...
...and they will taste great too.
On a serious note, great job.
Will be honored to try them next year.