Anna Maria's Heart X Hardin's Miniature

[Nan_PA_6b]

From Eugen's garden in Romania. That tape is in cm.

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These fruit are from a miniature plant:

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[bower]

Cute fruit!

[Nan_PA_6b]

The ripe tomatoes are trickling in here, and taste tests with my mother are underway. Hardin's Mini is also ripening fruit, so we can do direct comparisons.

I found the best tasting tomato in the whole world. #56. It tastes a lot like Hardin's Mini, same strong taste, plus sweetness. Problem: it's a small-fruited variety. It's growing in a 1 gallon pot, small-leaved, bigger than a micro. The fruit is small and heart-shaped. I will be keeping F3 seeds, and hopefully developing it into a micro.

However, that doesn't meet my primary goal of a large-fruited that tastes like Hardin's Mini. There are still 9 of the original F2's to taste here (almost all with large-ish fruit), plus about 38 of the second set of F2's, plus Eugen's taste tests.

I'm getting about half of them heart-shaped and half oval. Since hearts and ovals both have the elongation gene (el), it's not surprising that everything is oval or heart. The ones I thought were round have turned out to be just variations in heart or oval shapes.


I'm having a lot of trouble determining what rugose leaves are. The Hardin's Minis, with double dose of dwarf genes, ought to be rugose, no? They aren't crinkly and never have been. A few of the F2's are short, thick-stemmed, darker green, and leathery-leaved, but nobody is crinkly. Is that dark leathery leaf a dwarf leaf?

Nan

[Koala Doug]

Originally Posted by Nan_PA_6b

I found the best tasting tomato in the whole world. #56. It tastes a lot like Hardin's Mini, same strong taste, plus sweetness. Problem: it's a small-fruited variety. It's growing in a 1 gallon pot, small-leaved, bigger than a micro. The fruit is small and heart-shaped. I will be keeping F3 seeds, and hopefully developing it into a micro.

To me, that sounds very interesting... I hope you'll be able to carry this side project to fruition (pun intended!).

Originally Posted by Nan_PA_6b

I'm having a lot of trouble determining what rugose leaves are. The Hardin's Minis, with double dose of dwarf genes, ought to be rugose, no? They aren't crinkly and never have been. A few of the F2's are short, thick-stemmed, darker green, and leathery-leaved, but nobody is crinkly. Is that dark leathery leaf a dwarf leaf?

I've always been fascinated by Hardin's Miniature. And part of the reason is the lack of rugose leaves (the other is the fact that the fruit isn't round). Without laying eyes on the leaves in question, it would be impossible to tell. And some rugose leaves are less puckered than others. So it could be a bit challenging to accurately decipher.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Hardin's Mini isn't rugose? No wonder I have no rugose plants! I was going crazy staring at leaves! Doug, thank you; you've taken a load off my mind!


As for the fantastic tasting #56, I will surely make something of it whenever I can!


Nan

[bower]

Nan, sometimes the side trips and unintended outcomes are the best. Hope you find that big one for your Mom though.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Thanks, Bower! There are a few good prospects ripening among the first set of plants, plus we'll see what the second wave of plants provides.

Doug, I was thinking the same as you: the dark leathery ones could be dwarfs, except I have one very tall one. It's tall, dark, leathery, stocky & indeterminate; maybe it's a dwarf that gets large because it's indet?

I just planted 24 F3 bagged-blossom seeds of the great-tasting small-fruited #56. These should produce ripe fruit at the end of October if they're like their parent. I can grow them outside for most of it. Maybe 24 is overkill for F3? I also need to have room for the F3s of a good-tasting large-fruited one.

Nan

[Nan_PA_6b]

Now that I've stopped trying to find rugose leaves, since neither parent plant has them, I'm able to see some plants that are clearly dwarfs. Dark leaves, short, stocky little trees.

Every plant is being kept to one stem, or that's the plan. I'm sure I'm getting less tomatoes, but each plant takes up much less space, remains neat, easy to examine. If you're looking to grow a lot of plants, either to try a lot of new varieties or doing a growout, one stem is the way to go. You can plant them a foot apart!

Nan

[Nan_PA_6b]

I just harvested the first ripe from the second set of F2's: 41 DAYS FROM PLANT OUT! Planted out 35 days after being seeded, so that's 76 days from seed to ripe fruit. Admittedly, being grown this late, they had warm conditions from the get-go. But still...

Nan

[Nan_PA_6b]

I've just eaten a tomato as sweet, or sweeter than, Sungold. Rae-79! Not a large plant or a large fruit, but the taste is surprising.


Nan

[hl2601]

Wow! Between Rae-79 and 56 it sounds like you are really getting somewhere! That's terrific. I love the micros-great to see your progress!

[Nan_PA_6b]

Update on this project. Grew out F2's this summer, and found 4 worth pursuing.

RAE-56: has the great taste, similar to Hardin's Mini (the taste-target). Fruit is small, red, elongated with a point. Plant & fruit are still small, but it is the most promising, given the goals.

These others don't further the original goals, but were good finds and I'll try developing them too:

RAE-58: Too pretty to pass up. Dwarf plant with large shapely pink hearts. Taste needs work. SO attractive; who can resist?

RAE-79: Pure candy. Very sweet and very good. Doesn't taste like Hardin's Mini at all, but who could pass up this taste? Even my mother, who claims to not like hers too sweet, agreed this was good. Not pure sugar, though, but a really good taste. Large plant with small elongated fruit.

RAE-85: Large sturdy plant, large pink hearts with centers that look like beefsteaks. A really nice looking plant with big fruit. It just deserves a chance.

Over the winter, RAE-56-4 (an F3 of RAE-56) yielded the same good "almost Hardin's Mini" taste, same smallish plant, pointed red fruit a little bigger than Hardin's Mini. About identical with its F2, really. Its F4's will be grown out this summer, along with the F3's of the other three.

I had big plans to grow out the F3's of all 4 of these this past winter, but the fungus gnats & whiteflies had other plans. I learned a lot about pest management. <sigh>


Nan

[Nan_PA_6b]

Update on the Summer 2019 season. Grew 37 plants total. Exactly ONE plant had fabulous taste: RAE-79-8. The rest had unacceptable taste.

I'm not going to pursue the 56's, 58's, and 85's any more. I do have seeds if I change my mind in the future.

RAE-79-8 is a medium to large sized plant, with pink elongated pointed fruit, about 2 1/2" x 1". Awesome, awesome taste; sweet and complex. The goal of this project has changed. Now I'm just trying to stabilize this great taste, regardless of any other qualities. I planted the F4 seeds last week and have 16 seedlings that will be grown out in my basement under lights this winter.

Might name this one Rae's Candy.

[bower]

Nan, that's a rough go with one good taster out of so many plants. Sometimes it is just weather conditions or soil conditions that don't make for a tasty tomato year. Good idea to keep seeds anyway for future reference if desired.

I have back burnered quite a few lines after not getting what I was looking for in a season. When space opens up, I'll likely revisit some and just grow more for that generation to try and find the unique quality that was lost.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Thanks for the sympathy. Since I do have one goody, I'll pursue it first. I'm really grateful for that one plant.