The most unusual game of tomato

[Fusion_power]

I've had a few unusual and unexpected results this year. One of them is F1 Tastiheart X LA0417 that has produced the most intense red tomato I've seen. This indicates very high lycopene content, easily double the levels present in most tomatoes today including the high lycopene varieties I've grown. No idea yet if this can be stabilized, but if it can, it should be an interesting development. I have a few thousand seed saved so there is plenty to grow out in search of a large potato leaf heart shaped intensely red tomato. Add in the disease resistance potential from LA0417 and there is a lot to look forward to in this cross.


I grew out F4 seed of Swamp Sweet Orange which is now producing a pale orange small pear shaped tomato with exceptionally good flavor. My only complaint is that I would like it to be a tad sweeter. I've got in mind to grow a couple of plants in a pot so I can cross Swamp Sweet Orange X Hibor which should bring together the genetics for high flavor plus high sugar. Only negative complaint is that Swamp sweet Orange is extremely skimpy on seed. I got about 20 seed from 40 or so fruit.


I'm continuing to grow out Blueberry Sugar which is a high anthocyanin line with potato leaves and reasonably good tomato flavor. I also grew a few other high antho lines such as Indigo Cherry Drops for comparison. Blueberry Sugar is significantly better than the rest. It is still not quite up to expectations. I've got to figure out whether to continue growing out to stabilize or make another cross to hopefully improve flavor a tad more.



In the unwelcome surprise category, I grew Green Zebra Cherry with a single plant set out that turned out to be red zebra cherry. Oh well, bees got to make a living too. Guess they worked overtime last year.


I'm nearly finished saving seed for the year with 10 varieties left to collect.



Anyone else have tales of tomato arcana to share?

[imp]

No tales to share, but your first two mentioned sound very interesting! Good luck with the grow outs, be neat to see what you get next year.

[bower]

Ah, the infamous "tomato". Such a tempting and teasing crop, with so many factors to consider.


One fine surprise I had this year, was to get 3/5 determinates and 2/5 pink-black from what I thought was an indeterminate brown F4 on its way to stability... Likely a bee cross with a pink-black sibling and more determinate genetics present than I suspected. There was, however, more variation in other traits than I expected or would have liked. Subtle but important differences in shape, texture, earliness... no one plant excelling in every category. I am tempted to mine that pack of seeds for all the determinates I can get, also to grow out all the winners in a massive outdoor foliage trial...


My biggest disappointment was from last year's lucky find - the Whiskeyjacks did not ripen properly in the extremely hot summer temperatures, flavor suffered, and I suspect this inability to perform in the heat is a fatal flaw. I made a side cross to my preferred determinate Skipper (taste size and shape but not earliness) which I thought had not taken, but last week it started to grow so I am waiting patiently for those seeds, and only hope it produces something close to Whiskeyjack size/earliness without that ? defective enzyme or whatever explained that flaw...


Happiest outcome was my Rodney F4 which proved to be pretty consistent for outstanding taste and growth habit without any loss of fruit size either... I wouldn't mind a bit larger and did make a side cross to a larger Compass F2 sibling line. I'm thinking since they are siblings, I should consider the cross to be at the earlier of the two parents' generation re: stability. But I admit the prospect of selecting for taste, growth habit and determinacy again as well as size is a bit daunting. I'm really glad to see Rodney moving towards a stable state (you have to finish something, right?).

Yellow project at F2 was all over the map. I was pleased with the size overall (no cherries). Five different flavors, only one had the fruitiness I desired, and it was not the determinate one. So I'm sticking with the taste and hoping to find a determinate next gen... I grew out two plants of the "wobbler" F4 from last year to see if the long pointy pear shape was stable - it was - and saved seed from the one that tasted right, although it is not my preferred shape the long fruit are handy for pizza decorations even when a bit lopsided. And so the freezer is filled with oddities....

[zipcode]

Under what name/company are your breeding efforts released? You keep hyping this and that but not sure how can one get any of this stuff to try.

[Fusion_power]

zipcode, I sell tomato plants via my business at http://www.selectedplants.com/


The only commercially available varieties that I have released and that are available for trade here on T'ville are Tastiheart, Big Beef X Eva Purple Ball commonly known as BBXEPB, and Hibor. I do not make crosses and then "release" unstable genetics 2 or 3 years later. After enough growouts to prove they are stable, I send seed out to a few people.


Working with wild species such as LA0417 takes more time than usual. I've got several breeding lines going with this background genetics. LA0417 churns out very good disease resistance to foliage diseases. In the cross with Tastiheart, I got an intense red color. I know in advance that stabilizing this into a viable tomato line will take several generations and may require a cross to another large fruited tomato before it is worth releasing.


If you read some of the other threads here, I am also working on cold tolerant genetics. This is a work in progress that is taking a lot longer than I hoped.


Several varieties of tomato that I released are being grown in Romania today. My son lives near Bucharest with his wife. He has a few friends who also garden.

[jtjmartin]

Wow! What a list of tomato plants you sell.

Thanks for the link.

Jeff

[bower]

Yup, the beauty and taste we all love are one genetic thing, and the foliage health and earliness traits are a whole other ball game.


It's a long and winding road, and very worthwhile I may add. Thank goodness for the cool surprises along the way in beauty and tasteville, but the long haul is for the plant that has it all, and that means side crosses, years of selection, I understand completely!!!
And when you get into the wild relatives breeding, there's a whole other layer which I could never do personally with my tomato growing resources... insufficient. I can only poach on other people's work with the wild things.

[Keen101]

I see you have not visited the other forum lately. We've had several interesting discussions and developments on the wild breeding project (of which you originally helped inspire with Joseph and frost tolerant Habrochiates lines from TGRC).

I'm still growing LA1996 in and of itself as i found it to be a fantastic standalone variety for me last year. Has light blue skin from S. Chilense (and perhaps other genes), but large decent fruit.

i in fact had some volunteer tomatoes this year that self seeded from last year. They are flowering and fruiting now. Im interested to see what i get. It will be a surprise.

One of the cheesmaniae or pimpinellifolium that self seeded in the spot where the pimpinellifolium / peruvianum was growing last year looks like it May have a purple or green stripe on it! I wonder if it got bee crossed with peruvianum or habrochiates! Neither have stripes!


Sorry for the poor early photo. more to come I'm sure.

[rxkeith]

only project if you can call it that is the red field cherry cross that came out of craig lehoulliers garden a number of years ago. i planted seeds i saved in 2004, and got a few plants to grow. a potted plant is giving me deep pink cherry tomatoes. the first two to ripen went in my mouth. i couldn't help it. initial flavor was sweet followed by an acid bite near the finish. very good. seeds from the next two to ripen are in a jar fermenting.
i am not sure if the current plant is an f2 or f3, its been 14 yrs since i grew it out. i only had it labeled with the name and year. i will have to grow it again next year for sure based on this years taste test.



keith

[Nan_PA_6b]

I found an awesome sugar-candy tomato among my F2's of Anna Maria's Heart x Hardin's Miniature. I ate a Sungold right after and it was a different taste but comparable sweetness. I'll be growing that one on to F3 and so on.

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

I've had a few unusual and unexpected results this year. One of them is F1 Tastiheart X LA0417 that has produced the most intense red tomato I've seen. This indicates very high lycopene content, easily double the levels present in most tomatoes today including the high lycopene varieties I've grown. No idea yet if this can be stabilized, but if it can, it should be an interesting development. I have a few thousand seed saved so there is plenty to grow out in search of a large potato leaf heart shaped intensely red tomato. Add in the disease resistance potential from LA0417 and there is a lot to look forward to in this cross.


I grew out F4 seed of Swamp Sweet Orange which is now producing a pale orange small pear shaped tomato with exceptionally good flavor. My only complaint is that I would like it to be a tad sweeter. I've got in mind to grow a couple of plants in a pot so I can cross Swamp Sweet Orange X Hibor which should bring together the genetics for high flavor plus high sugar. Only negative complaint is that Swamp sweet Orange is extremely skimpy on seed. I got about 20 seed from 40 or so fruit.


I'm continuing to grow out Blueberry Sugar which is a high anthocyanin line with potato leaves and reasonably good tomato flavor. I also grew a few other high antho lines such as Indigo Cherry Drops for comparison. Blueberry Sugar is significantly better than the rest. It is still not quite up to expectations. I've got to figure out whether to continue growing out to stabilize or make another cross to hopefully improve flavor a tad more.



In the unwelcome surprise category, I grew Green Zebra Cherry with a single plant set out that turned out to be red zebra cherry. Oh well, bees got to make a living too. Guess they worked overtime last year.


I'm nearly finished saving seed for the year with 10 varieties left to collect.



Anyone else have tales of tomato arcana to share?

I'm not sure this is what you want Fusion. I am at a beginners level. I am way behind on this. But I have wondered about crosses for years. I've seen some tomatoes that do really well here, and some that needed some extra care.

If I were point to a certain tomato to grow anywhere - it would be Japanese Pink Cherry. That incudes all 50 states and the world. I have pampered and neglected this tomato variety to extremes. I've exposed it to RKN and FW3 soil, and it kept on growing and producing.

Porter is one that my wife and I first fell in love with. Just a simple tomato with 1920s heritage. It is finical like a cat. It does not like too much water

Then there is Litchi. Tomato plants - even with all the thorns /prickles- they didn't have a chance against pests here, but something drives me to keep on trying.

If I got off-topic - I apologize.