Interested in Growing a Multiflora Dwarf?

[dfollett]

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

Dan, I'm excited for these. The plants continue to grow nicely under the lights. I'm thinking I'll grow these on my deck, with the high sun angle in late spring and early summer, I don't know if they'll get enough direct sunlight up by the patio door indoors. I have some 12" outdoor circular planters (tapered) so I they are about 0.50 cubic feet. I'm thinking I'll do 3 in one planter and 2 in another. 5 would be way too tight I think--both from a soil point of view and an airflow point of view.

Do you care if these are bagged or not? If you do I may rig up something to 'bag' the entire pot.

As far as plant supports I think I'll just do this on fly with garden support sticks and twine. (Especially since I think the amount of support needed will be directly related to the weight of fruit set, which seems to be a rather big unknown yet with these.)

Grow them any way you want. I only know how they do the way I've grown them. Actually, I don't know how they grow at all. I haven't grown this generation. The more we try different methods, the more we learn.....

[heirloomtomaguy]

A couple flats of your babies

[jmsieglaff]

Placed them into their pots today. Too early to be left out permanently yet so they will shuffle between the kitchen by the patio door and the deck for a couple weeks. First plant opened a flower today, looks to be a nice sized infloremsense as well. A couple yellow leaves but I'm not worried about that, just we're getting impatient, very nice root structures.

[Barb_FL]

Plant looks huge - it's not; growing in 2 gallon root pouch.

I'm so glad I had fruit set this spring (started so late for Florida). Will be prepared for fall season.

[korney19]

Originally Posted by dfollett

I am looking for folks who are interested in helping grow out some multiflora dwarfs. I have several crosses - F2 &F3 - that should be fixed for both the multiflora and Dwarf traits - some micros are also possible. Most will be cherry or saladette size, but some have the potential to be larger - they have Brandywine Cowlick’s and Margaret Curtain in their pedigree. How large a fruit can you get in a multiflora? Maybe we'll learn. They also all have the potential for different colors, including stripes.

I am looking for 1) taste ; 2) color ; 3) size and, 4) obviously, production. I also have several micros if you want to grow something in a small pot or on a shelf. I even have a purple, potato-leaf, saladette-size micro multiflora (under 18") that tasted great in the F2.

If you are interested in growing out some multiflora dwarfs (or micros), PM me your address, let me know how many you want to try and I'll send you some seed. All I would ask that you report results and send me seed of anything that stands out.

Dan

What kind of Days to Maturity on yours? It's getting late for starting seeds but I grow 4 or 5 multifloras, only 1 MF dwarf. If you have some MF's you think are really good I'd be interested...

[charline]

the plants from your seeds are doing very well and some of them are doing flowerbuds. I will post pictures when they are blooming.
I have more micros than dwarfs
From 13x F3 6 I have two plants, a micro and a dwarf , but none of them are PL...

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by charline

the plants from your seeds are doing very well and some of them are doing flowerbuds. I will post pictures when they are blooming.
I have more micros than dwarfs
From 13x F3 6 I have two plants, a micro and a dwarf , but none of them are PL...

How can you tell the difference between a micro and a dwarf?
Maybe mine aren't big enough to tell the diff yet.

[heirloomtomaguy]

Alright Dan here are 74 of your babies all potted up. The 38 in the foreground are already begining to flower. Alot of PL's turned out RL and vice versa. All will still be grown out because why not.

[amideutch]

Dan, Mine are still indoors due to the weather but will be planted out next week.

Ami

[disneynut1977]

I am also hoping to get mine in the ground next weekend, weather permitting. I do have a plants w/flower clusters.

[Allisa]

Hi! I'm also trying to grow some, but I wasn't lucky enough this season. Some didn't sprout and others grow so slow. I changed a soil and fertilizer hoping for the better results. So far, I'm enjoying all of your pics and looking forward for mine ))) Still trying to figure out what is micro and what dwarf in my pots.

[jmsieglaff]

Seeing some differences in my 5 plants of 11xF3. The earlier setting plants have trusses with notably fewer flowers than some of the later setting plants, see the differences below.

[dfollett]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

How can you tell the difference between a micro and a dwarf?
Maybe mine aren't big enough to tell the diff yet.

I'm not convinced there is a clear difference. I think there they come in a continuum from a typical dwarf size to those that stay tiny and folks have arbitrarily defined micros as those that stay 18" or smaller.

When I said they should come micro, I based it on the assumption that there were recessive genes that kept them small. If that were the case, once they came small, the smallness should be fixed and all offspring should stay small. I don't know that to be the case. That is something we'll learn with this experiment.

That's part of what makes this fun.

[mashermike]

Here are a couple of quick shots of a couple of 11X-F3's.

The regular leaf was the earliest to bloom. It's hard to see but I counted 80+ buds/blooms/tomatoes. We'll see how many turn to fruit soon.

The potato leaf has very different growth characteristics. Both plants are the same age.

[dfollett]

Originally Posted by mashermike

Here are a couple of quick shots of a couple of 11X-F3's.

The regular leaf was the earliest to bloom. It's hard to see but I counted 80+ buds/blooms/tomatoes. We'll see how many turn to fruit soon.

The potato leaf has very different growth characteristics. Both plants are the same age.

Thanks for the update.

I have seen some very weird growth characteristics with some of these - especially with the potato leaf ones. I expect there will be lots that just don't pan out to anything worthwhile. It will be interesting to see what it becomes. I have had some that stayed small/weird like that then sent up an umbrella-like canopy of blossoms - see photo below.

I typically plant LOTS of seed and start culling as soon as I see something that I don't like. But then, I have only grown out F2s for 6 of over 50 different crosses I've made with the micro multifloras. I am growing out F1s from 50+ crosses with the micro-multifloras this summer. There is more than enough to keep lots of people busy.

Keep us posted.