My cross was a success!!

[Rajun Gardener]

Last year I made my first crosses using what I had growing in the greenhouse. I grew out most of the F-1 seed during the winter and I'm just getting around to starting some of them.

One cross was Campari X Brad's Black Heart, today I checked the plant and was surprised to see the shape. This is an F-1 and I didn't expect it to change shape as much as it did. The first pic is the first cluster and then the second.

[ginger2778]

How awesome!

[bower]

Those look sweet Rajun!!

[KarenO]

Exciting times what is your goal for your cross.
KarenO

[hl2601]

How fun to see the bi products of crosses!

[SueCT]

Congratulations!

[Rajun Gardener]

Thanks Everyone!

KarenO, my first goal was to make successful crosses. Next would be to get a heart shaped black cherry/saladette tomato. I don't know enough about crossing to know what I should do but I'll be bugging everyone for info.

It should be a good learning experience to see how the F-2's grow and all the possibilities.

[Nan_PA_6b]

Congrats, Rajun! I know what a joy it is to finally see the fruit and know your cross took! Grow out a bundle of F2's and find the black hearts.

Nan

[Gerardo]

Excited for you rajun, have fun with the search.

[ChiliPeppa]

How fun! Congrats.

[MissS]

Congrats on your success! It sounds like a lot of fun. I hope that you find those little black cherries.

[Rajun Gardener]

Some of the crosses are starting to blush and I should be able to start some seeds for a fall crop.

Does it matter which fruit I select for F-2 seeds? Some tomatoes have more of a point than others and I want to grow hearts.

[Nan_PA_6b]

No, those tomatoes ought to be all the same genetically. But there could be a tiny bit of difference, so select if you like. I'd save more seeds than you think you need, though, because the F2 generation is the one you need the most seeds of, and if something goes wrong, you can always go back to the F2's.

Nan

[Rajun Gardener]

Thanks Nan, that's what I thought but wanted to be sure and I'll save plenty of seeds for future growouts too.

[Rajun Gardener]

Alright, time for some dumb questions. I'm sure it won't be the last and hopefully someone else will learn from this too.


I picked these tomatoes because they split from being watered. They've been blushing for about a week and I didn't want to chance them rotting. All three had green shoulders but the bottom looked ripe. Since these are the first to ripen I wanted to see the inside so I cut 2 open and was confused as to whether these are ripe or not from the color.

Would you call these ripe? They were a little soft, not really firm but not very soft either.





Here's the big round one that I still have sitting to see if it all turns red.







I scraped the flesh off the skin to see the color. I'd call this yellow, what about you? This pic is with a flash.

This is without the flash.