Black Cherry Multiflora?

[lakelady]

Wow, that looks pretty cool EB! I love the pics of all the multifloras, they look so pretty with all those flowers. I think I'll have to hunt some down for next season

[EBHarvey]

Well, early indications are that the gene causing the *abnormal* trusses did in fact make it through to the next generation. I now have about 30 plants starting to flower and fruit and a quick count has 6 or 7 of them displaying fruit trusses with multiple bifurcations. They are still very small, and none of the trusses are mature or have terminated thus far, so I still don't know the extent of the quasi-multiflora trait of if it will show any variance in degree. For now I'm just happy that I didn't waste some 30 row-feet on normal black cherries, although if need-be I'll pull them in a month and replace them with the 30 or so Sungold X Black Pear F2's I've got to find a home for. Otherwise, I'm gonna make a few gallons of blck cherry ketchup, which is awesome.

I'll keep y'all updated and hopefully the bifurcations continue, I can nail down the gene, and save a few thousand seeds to send to anyone that wants them.

-EB

[linzelu100]

Really interesting observations- looks like a very tempting black cherry tomato.

Lindsey

[kath]

That's exciting news, EB! Looks like you might have something amazing.

kath

[tlintx]

Hopefully the flavor comes through too. Thank you for pursuing this!

[Salsacharley]

This is really something! And there couldn't be a tastier variety than Black Cherry for this to happen to.

I have a UC Davis write up on tomato anatomy, and there's a part under Flower Anatomy that calls those multifloral trusses "dichotymously branched cyme".

I'm certainly up for growing some of those puppies - whatever they are called.

Thanks much,

Charley

[tnkrer]

I was looking at my black cherry today and noticed this bifurcation of truss. Being totally new to gardening, I assumed that this is common occurrence, and lo and behold, this thread pops up. I did take picture of the truss to ask here if that was normal .. so here it is



Its not a great picture, I will try to take a better one. I think there is another bifurcated truss on that plant too.
(Bought the plant at a local nursery, so no idea where they got their seeds from)

One question though .. Isn't BC a hybrid .. so can grow-out maintain the taste and other properties?

[EBHarvey]

Originally Posted by tnkrer

One question though .. Isn't BC a hybrid .. so can grow-out maintain the taste and other properties?

BC isn't a hybrid in the sense that we use the term - i.e., a first generation offspring of two different parents. It is a hybrid in the traditional sense in that it was bred from 2 (or more) other varieties, but it has been stabilized and is now considered an open-pollinated (OP) tomato. Because it is stable genetically, saved seeds should grow "true to type" and display the same characteristics of the parent plant.

There is, of course, always a chance the pollen from another variety gets into the mix via wind or insects which create unintentional hybrid offspring. Also, random mutations or expressions of dormant genes can cause a seemingly stable variety to produce offspring with all sorts of different traits.

[carolyn137]

I know one person in particular who I'm sure would be very interested in a receiving seeds for a multiflora Black Cherry and that's Linda Sapp, a long time friend of mine whose husband, now deceased, bred Black Cherry and yes it's a genetically stabilized OP.

Carolyn

[EBHarvey]

Absolutely carolyn, linda would be the first recipient of and stabilized multiflora BC seeds, I assure you.

[tnkrer]

So .. no matter what the source, at this point all BC is genetically stabilized OP? Since I bought the plant at a garden center, I don't have any information about the seed and if it is stabilized OP, I can save the seeds. (And then, should I save the seeds from the bifurcated truss? hoping that it will continue that behavior? And is it really multi flora or is it just split of the branches that EB mentioned in first post?

A better picture of the truss .. (Though I killed couple of flowers trying to take a better picture of the truss .. This one is at about 5 ft so it was somewhat hard to take that pic.)




I also have a similar truss on the neighboring yellow pear tomato plant. (which I thought was on BC)

[indigosand]

Wow, I wish I could get my chocolate cherry plant to perform that trick! Incidentally, is chocolate cherry and black cherry the same plant?

[tnkrer]

Found a second double truss on the yellow pear. May be its common in yellow pear?

[dice]

Originally Posted by EBHarvey

I find it hard to believe that anyone saving seeds for commercial sale wouldn't have noticed that the F1 plant wasn't growing true to type.

I do not find that hard to believe at all. Some of the commercial
packets I have had include supposed indeterminates that were
actually determinate and vice versa, pink instead of red, red
instead of pink, size of fruit nowhere near what it was supposed
to be, four varieties and none of them as described on the packet,
and so on.

If you ever picked berries or beans or cukes or whatever as a child,
think back. Would you have noticed an abnormal strawberry or
blueberry or bean plant, or thought to segregate the fruit that
was growing on it from the other fruit in the row when you were
15 years old? I know I would not have.

Such things have to be caught by farm supervisors or owners
before harvest, and some of them are just not that motivated.
(They may not feel that they have time for that level of quality
control. But that does not stop them from selling the seeds,
nonetheless.)

[kath]

Originally Posted by indigosand

Wow, I wish I could get my chocolate cherry plant to perform that trick! Incidentally, is chocolate cherry and black cherry the same plant?

Nope, they're two different varieties:

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Black_Cherry

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...ocolate_Cherry

kath