Roma type and beefsteak type on same plant.
 

Two years ago I sucessfully crossed Opalka with Berkeley tie dye. Last year I grew out its progeny about 10 plants and all were striped. The bottom half of the plant produced a distinct Roma shaped and the top half produced Big blocky Beefsteak type tomatoes. This was consistent on all plants. This year I planted seeds from each type and they are sprouting now.

Cool. It's not uncommon for the shape/size of fruit produced to change a but as the plant grows, but that sounds like quite a difference! Post lots of pics of your grow-outs this year.

I will be posting pics. I also will note all plants fully grew out with 2 distinct shapes and sizes.

Hi Stan Marzano,

Last year I grew several F1 crosses involving hearts, and had a mixed bag of shapes on the plants - nothing as tidy as one shape on top and one on the bottom though. (Sounds pretty neat!:))

I don't know enough about fruit shape and how it segregates... whether to expect single shapes in the F2, and whether they can be expected to be stable in subsequent generations. :?!?: It'll be fun to find out, anyway. :D Would love to see pix of your F2 fruits! Please share, and welcome to T'ville. 8-)

Sorry for any delay in responding, I'm being moderated right now for some reason... Anyway, I'll be posting this pics I took last year F1.

[IMG]http://i1367.photobucket.com/albums/r789/subtlehustle76/IMG_3290_zpsxumr5ttl.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1367.photobucket.com/albums/r789/subtlehustle76/IMG_3291_zpsuveafzub.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1367.photobucket.com/albums/r789/subtlehustle76/IMG_3279_zpsjxoeaoaf.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1367.photobucket.com/albums/r789/subtlehustle76/IMG_3296_zpsi8mpnjm4.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1367.photobucket.com/albums/r789/subtlehustle76/IMG_3310_zps6l50yprs.jpg[/IMG]

Note that the other plants were planted in the ground and bore much more fruit than the potted one, That's was where there was a big difference in roma types at the bottom and beefsteak types at the top. It was my parents' garden however and I do not have pictures of it. I did not have the room to experiment in my own garden, just room for one potted plant.

Very cool, Stan! 8-)
Can't wait to see what you get this year.. how many F2 will you be growing?

6 of each.
[IMG]http://i1367.photobucket.com/albums/r789/subtlehustle76/IMG_3684_zpsblazplsz.jpg[/IMG]

I sent pics to my local agriculture extension (Penn State) and they replied with this:
Hi,

I talked to a few folks and contacted our tomato breeder. He looked at the pictures and provided me with the following:

"Most likely the noted gardener has crossed two hybrid varieties and the progeny are heterozygous for many major genes and modifiers affecting fruit shape and size. Now depending on the physiological stage of the fruiting branch, weather conditions at the time of fruit pollination and fruit set (e.g. pollination intensity), etc. you may have variation in gene expression leading to development of different fruit shape/size. You normally do not see such phenomenon in pure lines or hybrid varieties developed from crosses between inbred lines (though once in a while you may also see a few fruit that are atypical in size or shape; I have seen that as well quite a few times). However, the frequency of abnormal (unexpected) fruit shape/size increases with the level of heterozygosity in tomato plants. AND not all heterozygous plants show the same level of variation. Note that you normally see more variation in fruit size/shape in heirloom OP varieties than commercial hybrid cultivars/inbred lines. I do not expect the variation this gardener sees is heritable. I expect that if from the same plant he collects seed separately from Roma type and round tomatoes, he will see the same pattern of fruit shape/size in the next generation (i.e., when comparing the two groups). In other words, I do not expect that the progeny of Roma type fruit to be Roma type only and the progeny of round fruit to be round. The progeny would be more or less the same."

This is very interesting. Thank you for sharing it.

Take care,

Elsa


However I did not cross 2 hybrids, I crossed 1 hybrid (BTD) and one heirloom (opalka) Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Super cool. I'll be watching this thread.