Setting up a science experiment

[aninocentangel]

My daughter (7) really wanted to grow Berkley Tie-dye this year, but I couldn't find seed, so she's decided to try and make her own tie-dyed tomato. I don't have a problem with a little hybridization experiment for the summer, so I agreed. She looked at the tomatoes that I'm growing at the moment and has selected Hillbilly (rl) and either Japanese Black Trifele (pl) or Cherokee Purple (rl, not Spudakee).
We've been looking at some of the links on how to emasculate flowers, and some of the genetic links (mainly I translate them into little girl-ese for her) and have been enjoying it quite a bit. I'd like to have her use JBT as the mother, because it's potato leaf so it will be easier to see if the cross took during the grow out, but she less inclined because she wants a big slicer and thinks a JBT cross will make small tomatoes. She also feels that she'll get her tie-dyed tomato within the f1, whereas I think she'll get a plain red rl tomato and will have to go to an f2 or beyond to maybe find what she hopes for. We're planning a small, quick grow out in little pots this summer to have a look see at what we get. My teenager is referring to it as tomato torture lol.

Which tomato would you suggest as the mother, the CP or JBT? If she chooses the CP, is there another way to tell, before fruiting, that the cross took?
And, what do you think the F1 will look like?
Is there any other advice you have for us?
Thanks

[Frog]

Hello, I am also working on a cross using JBT, with my seven year old daughter. It's amazing how well she's got her little head round genetics and the concepts of dominant and recessive traits.

I think you are certainly not going to see the desired outcome in the F1, a red red/orange fruit is the most likely outcome.

Like my daughter's cross JBT x Orange Banana you are going to see an awful lot of segregation for colour in the F2, but I think that will be fun for a kid to work with.

Unless there are obvious differences in foliage between the mother and your F1, it may not be obvious the cross has taken until you see fruit.

I look forward to watching the progress of your daughter's project. Keep us posted.

[Moonglow]

Ditto!

So tempting to experiment with the blooms I have on JBT and the other varieties I'm growing right now, but must resist. LOL.

[aninocentangel]

Update:
The JBT has started blooming, we're waiting on the Hillbilly to oblige. We did pull up their pet onion plants today, they were delicious on garlic bread and in the spaghetti sauce. YUM! They've each adopted a corn plant for now in place of their onions. I hope the corn plants accept the daily petting as well as the onions did.

[habitat_gardener]

"I hope the corn plants accept the daily petting as well as the onions did."

Did the petted onions do better than any nonpetted ones? And are they also singing or reading to their pet plants?

[aninocentangel]

Interestingly enough, no.
I think it's the plants, though. I bought two bags of yellow onion sets from a big box store and planted them last year. A hatching of Eastern Lubbers took out a bunch of them, as did the squirrels, the ones that survived didn't bulb up at all. So, I left them in the garden and they kept growing slowly all winter. In the spring some of them shot right up and we've been eating them as fresh onions. One of them went to seed, and I've left that one until the seed sets. Of the five left, one of them actually set a bulb this year. It's drying on the table in my office as we speak.
My 6 year old son's plant was doing the best in number of leaves, he gently petted it every morning and every afternoon, he sang it a lullaby a few times, and told it that it was the prettiest onion in the world. It grew well for him, but I think that it would have done much better if this spring I hadn't told him to go to the onion bed and pick out his onion. He came back with three very tattered plants he'd pulled up, saying he couldn't decide. Mommy error there. Then he said that he'd picked all the "root worms" off of the onions. The what? The worms that were eating the roots! Oh...yup, he'd pulled all the roots off. Gardening with kids is always an adventure, right? We ate the two my boys (the other one is 14) played pirate with and replanted the one I thought would survive best. It looked pretty sorry for itself for a few weeks, but I do think his ministrations helped it recover.
My very busy 7 year old daughter blew her onion kisses and waved at it every day with a pat or a kiss on the weekend when we were in the garden, but again it didn't form a bulb. However, it was the tallest onion we had, almost a foot taller than the others. I told her it was stretching up to catch her kisses.
This was their first year with pet plants that would be sacraficed, they'd had pansies, herbs and things like tomatoes and peppers in years past. Surprisingly, neither of them had any problems pulling the onions. I started edging around the subject with Liam, he ran over to it and was ready to pull it immediately. He did stop long enough to tell it thank you for being such a good onion plant and goodbye. Then rip it went and he brought it to me at full tilt, dirt flying, asking if we could eat it for supper lol. Practical boy, that one.
Corn is a favorite here, but we're also starting beets soon. I've discovered that the kids are very willing to eat things that they "don't like" if they grow them, and then amazingly they discover that they DO like them. Go figure.

[Frog]

I saved seeds from a set that went to seed, I found it to be a bit of a mistake, the resulting plants all bolted, I suppose it is best to save seed from a plant that is later to seed, otherwise you are selecting for the genetic tendancy to bolt.

I love gardening with my daughter, the mistakes are all part of the charm, though sometimes highly frustrating; such as the time my daughter decided to hoe the lettuce bed, she hoed it alright, lettuces and all.

[aninocentangel]

Originally Posted by Frog

I saved seeds from a set that went to seed, I found it to be a bit of a mistake, the resulting plants all bolted, I suppose it is best to save seed from a plant that is later to seed, otherwise you are selecting for the genetic tendancy to bolt.

I agree, and if they had grown seed last year I wouldn't have saved seed, but I figured if it took two years to do anything bolting probably won't be an issue. Hopefully. When I bought them I made sure to buy the packages that said they were for bulbs instead of the ones for green onions which is why I think these are probably long day onions, big box like stores Wal-Mart don't, in my opinion, pay too much attention to getting the right plants for the area. I do plan on getting some potato onions as I hear that they grow well in this area and store better than short day onions.

I love gardening with my daughter, the mistakes are all part of the charm, though sometimes highly frustrating; such as the time my daughter decided to hoe the lettuce bed, she hoed it alright, lettuces and all.

Hehehehe Oops! Hopefully you were able to reseed quickly.
That reminds me of the time my now 14yo was 3, he came running up clutching a wad of crushed tomato seedlings and soil, telling me he weeded my plants for me. I learned my lesson and we regularly go out and play guess which plant this one is.

[WVTomatoMan]

Sorry to be late posting. Enjay, I would suggest JBT as mother for the reasons you state, being able to tell that the cross took because of leaf form right from the get go. The thing that I have had problems with is collecting the pollen. I've had situations where the mother is starting to bud and the father didn't have any buds, and this was with multiple father plants. So, I guess the advice is be ready to adjust the cross for any pollen producers you have on hand.

Oh and if you happen to have a cherry tomato plant on hand you might want to practice emasculating flowers on it. The reason I bring this up is because the first time I tried I pulled everything. And I noticed it took a few attempts to get the feel. I don't mind giving up blossoms on a cherry tomato plant because there will always be plenty more.

Another thing is I like using my magnifier glasses when doing crosses. I already had them so it was a no brainer for me.

Good luck.

Randy

[aninocentangel]

Hey Randy.
Yano, the Hillbilly plants haven't flowered yet, now that you mention it. I'm starting to think I'll have to carry them through the heat (if they survive) and see if we can get a flower closer towards fall for the cross that she wants to try. If they fail before then, I did manage to get my hands on some Berkley Tie-Dye seed (the plant she is hoping to emulate) so we'll have a go with that next spring. Unfortunately the only cherry seeds I had belonged to my eldest, whose grades did not merit his own garden this year, and I wasn't able to find Sungold on a timely basis, so no cherries for us this year.
On the other hand, the JBT is blooming and setting quite well, cheekily poking it's pistils out at the Romas and Weeping Charley for wayward pollen. Guess I'd better get some bags ready for the next set of trusses to develop, I'd like to save seeds from a plant that blooms and sets in the heat we've been having.
Enjay