Joseph's Tomato Experiments

[loulac]

I do like your pictures. The model on the left reminds me of old times, when I was a kid that kind of lamps could be seen under spider webs on shelves in old barns. The last one I saw was in the house of a gold digger in a ghost town in California. Did my suggestion of a small British kerosene heater give you that idea ? American inventiveness and ability to find solutions will always impress me.

[joseph]

Originally Posted by loulac

Did my suggestion of a small British kerosene heater give you that idea ?

Yup. I found some kerosene heaters that are similar, but they would have put out way too much heat for such a tiny greenhouse.

[Keen101]

I was reading about sweet potato shivering in the fridge and the article also mentioned tomatoes and bananas and how they rot faster at cooler temperatures because they are tropical plants. I'm curious to know if any of the frost tolerant lines also have longer ability to store fruit at cooler temperatures than your average tomato? It should be easy to comparisons, just plop two tomatoes in a fridge side by side or in a cold storage room.

[joseph]

As far as I'm concerned, tomatoes taste horrid after being refrigerated, so even for the sake of science, you won't find me putting a tomato fruit in the refrigerator. However, I have eaten tomatoes about 90 days after harvest that were just sitting on the kitchen counter the whole time. They were better tasting than anything available that time of year from the grocery store.

Long-keeping tomatoes is not currently on my list of plant breeding goals.

[Keen101]

Originally Posted by joseph

As far as I'm concerned, tomatoes taste horrid after being refrigerated, so even for the sake of science, you won't find me putting a tomato fruit in the refrigerator. However, I have eaten tomatoes about 90 days after harvest that were just sitting on the kitchen counter the whole time. They were better tasting than anything available that time of year from the grocery store.

Long-keeping tomatoes is not currently on my list of plant breeding goals.

I was just asking out of curiosity. Thought perhaps by selecting cold tolerant plants that some of those genes might also be active in the fruit.

If that happened to be the case i'm sure it wouldn't be a bad thing. Perhaps it could improve the ability to harvest tomatoes after the killing frost in fall/winter. Perhaps the fruits would not collapse like in most tomatoes.

[joseph]

I have a few lines that grow dense foliage. The top inch or two of foliage dies in the first fall frost, but it protects the fruits from being frozen.

[joseph]

Yesterday I started using pollen from S. habrochaites, LA 1777, to (try to) pollinate domestic tomatoes. I'm emasculating the domestic tomatoes, then extracting the pollen from the wild tomato with a vibrator. The pollen falls onto a spoon. Then I wipe the stigma of the domestic plant through the pollen. The wild plant is producing ample pollen. The domestic plants that have been pollinated so far are a couple of NoIDs from my landrace, Brad, and Black Prince.

[joseph]

Four days ago I planted my second batch of tomatoes to share at the farmer's market. They are sprouting strongly today.

They consist of 3 sets of plants to be sold as six packs of mixed varieties:

--- Earliest Red Tomatoes ---
Fern-leaved: A determinate slicer. My earliest slicer.
Brad: A potato leaved indeterminate saladette. Typically my earliest tomato.
Jagodka: A very early saladette. My most productive tomato.
DXX-M: An early determinate from a cross between Jagodka and DX52-12.
Matina: An early determinate saladette.
Early Slicers: From my landrace.

--- Yellow/Orange Tomatoes ---
HX-9: A determinate with early extra large bicolor red/yellow fruits.
Sun4: An indeterminate orange slicer.
Large Yellow: Big determinate with large yellow fruits.
WildX Orange: An indeterminate orange cherry tomato. 2nd best tasting of 2015.
HX7B: An indeterminate medium sized yellow tomato.
Yellow Pear: Indeterminate. Very productive.

--- Mixed Sampler ---
HX-13: Highly productive smallish red slicer.
Wild X5: The tastiest tomato in my garden last year. Saladette.
Landrace: Could be anything from around 200 varieties...
HX-3: Large yellow/red bi-color determinate.
Brad: Typically my earliest tomato. Red saladette. indeterminate. The only duplicated variety between the 3 sets.
Sun2: An orange cherry tomato

I tasted every fruit last summer before saving seeds from it, so even though I don't much care for the taste of tomatoes, at least I have screened to get rid of the cardboard trait, and eliminated the more objectionable tasting tomatoes.

I'm getting better and not destroying tomato flowers while attempting cross pollination. A pair of magnifying glasses and a sharp tipped knife help me to not be so ham-fisted.

Here's what the earlier batch of seedlings looks like:

[Salsacharley]

Today I transplanted my seedlings into 4" pots, and among them are HX-9 and DXX-M. I am planning on planting outside the 3rd week this month. I look forward to seeing how your varieties do here in Albuquerque. (Thanks for the seeds).

[joseph]

Hopefully this fruit contains seeds that are an interspecies hybrid between a domestic tomato, and LA1777, S. habrochaites. The pollen donor is on the left edge of the photo. The mother is currently a NoID from my landrace.



The next batch of tomato plants for market have germinated... A couple days ago, I replanted a few more of the ones with iffy germination.

[Andrey_BY]

Joseph, I like your experiments and a way of living too.

Jagodka (aka Yagodka) is a really good early tomato. Russian CV bred by Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) in St.Peterburg where they have quite similar climate as yours or mine as well.

If you would like to trial more Russian early varieties (incl. more from St.Peterburg) I would be glad to send you seeds of my favorite varieties.

[joseph]

Andrey: Zdrastvuite. Thanks for the seeds that you already sent!!! I conducted a cold/frost tolerance trial a few years ago, and some of the seed packets were labeled "From Andrey". Nevskiy Red was one that I liked. Jagodka however was the clear winner in my trials. It produced lots or fruit early. And every fruit on the plant ripened before fall frosts. Is Matina a Russian variety? It did well for me.

My weather is similar to Kazakhstan. So many of the "Russian" varieties that I have tried haven't done well. My nights are chillingly cold, and the days blazingly hot. The frost free season is about 100 days, but a 70 DTM tomato is too long season.

[Andrey_BY]

Privet, Joseph
Yes, Nevskiy tomato was from me and you won't be surprised if I say it is from St.Petersburg, Russia Nevskiy used to be a standart variety for an early tomato for so long in USSR... The right name is Nevskiy (after a local river Neva), not Nevskiy Red.

So it is certainly a special trend for tomato varieties from North-East of Russia (St.Petersburg, Pskov, Velikiy Novgorod) to be the best for you
And Matina is from Germany

Kazakhstan is actually full of different growing conditions and 4 to 5 different climate Zones. Cold nights, hot days is more about a Central part of Kazakhstan around its modern capital Astana and the most part of Mongolia plus Western Siberia

So you definately need 45-60DTM varieties.
No problem, I've got many of such early and ultraearly tomatoes besides those I've sent to FusionPower for your collective cold tolerant trial.
Will be glad to share with you along with early melons and watermelons. Just PM me your address.

[joseph]

Andrey: Thanks for offering. Unfortunately, the political situation here seems dire, so consenting to knowingly importing seeds from overseas is beyond my risk taking comfort zone.

[loulac]

As a professional grower you can't afford taking risks, but Andrey By is a friendly guy who would be happy to wish your sister in law a happy birthday with a small gift added to his card...