Does the world need another pink beefsteak?
 

Last year I saved seeds from my pineapple tomato. I saved from 2 tomatoes. I planted 2 plants from the pineapple tomato and I ended up with pink beefsteak tomatoes on both plants. They do not look like any other tomato I planted. These seeds were saved after hurricane Ike. The only plants left in my garden were Pineapple and Italian Tomato tree. I had 2 plants of Italian Tomato Tree that were potato leaved and one that was regular leaved. They are supposed to be PL but sometime throw off RL plants from what I was told. The Italian tomato tree is a red beefsteak. My Pineapple was of course RL and bicolor. The plants in my garden are RL and very vigerous and appear to fight the heat and diseases like the parents did. Shoot they withstood a level 1 hurricane last year.

The question does the world really need another pink beefsteak? Admittedly it is one of my favorites in the garden. It is meaty and flavor is balanced. Husband stated "It would be good on a hamburger." Also there are many posiblilities at the F2 level. Cross of a bicolor with a red. What color combinations would be expected? I sure was not expecting a pink beefsteak. What does everyone think? Should I try further growouts? And sorry to those I sent seeds to that were wanting pineapple seeds. :shock:
Kat

IMO there can never be enough beefsteak toms, my favs, love'em.

Go for the growouts; if you don't you will always wonder? (<:) What the Italian Tree tomato like in terms of taste, fruit size and production?

You only grew two plants that happened to be the cross
that produced the pink beefsteak, others that you sent
seeds to may have gotten actual Pineapple plants. You
probably have some of those in the saved seeds that you
did not plant, too. (Bee-made crosses do not usually result
in all seeds from a fruit being the cross.)

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kygreg- the Italian Tomato Tree was a basic red tomato, it had decent flavor and good production. I got the seeds from Tomatofest. It was late season as was the Pineapple. The size of the plant was typical indeterminate in height (big). It and Pineapple were both large plants. I did not measure height because I had to take out the stakes in my flordia weave when the hurricane hit because I did not want projectiles going through the neighborhood. I actually think I sent you seeds. The Italian Tomato Tree fruit was smaller than the Pineapple. What I am getting is somewhere in the middle. It is a nice beefsteak size perfect for Sandwiches.
PS I got my Atkinson seeds from you and they were a hit at Settfest

Dice-I am hoping that is the case. I gave out several plants that I also grew but have not gotten feedback since i am not at work at this time. I am going to grow several more from those saved seeds next year to compare.

Am I right in saying this is a Pineapple X Italian Tomato Tree? I saved seeds from the pineapple tomato making it the mother? I grew out this year at the F1 and next year tomatoes growing from those seeds save from selected tomatoes will be F2? Just trying to make sure I am correct in my thinking.
This plant has resisted BER that has plagued me due to having sandy soil. The plant is very disease resistant.
Kat

Pineapple x unknown? (You are just guessing about the Italian
Tree Tomato, right?)

Yes, Pineapple is the mother, this year was the F1, and saved
seeds from this year will be F2.

Sounds like it is worth growing out and selecting the best for
more reasons than just good flavor.

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Well I only had those varities left when the tomato was formed. Everything in my garden had died due to some kind of disease. I had 5 plants left, 3 Italian tomato Trees and 2 Pineapple tomatoes. They were next to each other. Actually they were all sprawled out with vines all mixed together because I had to remove the stakes. I just left them where hurricane Ike had placed them. Unless a bee came from far away and pollinated I think they are most likely related. Who knows though anything can happen
Kat

Ah. I was just scratching my head over where the pink came
from. Maybe Pineapple had it in its genes from the beginning.

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Yea I was wondering the same thing about the pink color. Not a clue. Maybe Italian Tomato Tree has pink somewhere as well. I kept looking and comparing it to reds and other pink tomatoes to make sure. I even thought maybe I had mixed up the seed but I have not harvested anything like the tomatoes I have gotten from the plants. The flavor is different and the shape is different. It is all pink and does not have green shoulders like some I am growing. I guess if it was pollinated from the potato leaved Italian tomato tree the leaves will show if enough are grown out next year.
Kat

[quote]I guess if it was pollinated from the potato leaved Italian tomato tree the leaves will show if enough are grown out next year.[/quote]

True, some of the F2s should be PL in that case.

"Cross of a bicolor with a red. What color combinations would be expected? I sure was not expecting a pink beefsteak. What does everyone think?"

First of all, have you peeled off some skin, scraped all the meat off the skin, then held the skin up to the light and checked the epidermis color? The reason I ask is that there is a faint hint of yellow in some of the pictures, and if the epidermis has a yellow tint to it, the tomato is not technically "pink." Of course my color perception can be off when looking at a picture on a computer screen, so check a piece of skin after scraping off all the flesh.

Next, if you indeed have a pink F1 from a cross of a red Italian Tree tomato x a red bicolor Pineapple tomato, then likely one of the two parents is itself an F1 tomato. I would suspect the Italian Tree tomato as the culprit since you said one of them is regular leaf and the others are potato leaf.

When you get a cross of an open pollinated variety with an F1 parent, you can get some variations in the new F1 because you've got a cross of heterozygotous genes with homozygotous genes. See Vince Chemist's thread about Cherokee Purple x Sungold for examples of this phenomenon.

Hmmm, sounds like the beginning of a family heirloom...

cross of red and bicolor tomato
 

When you cross a red tomato with a bicolor tomato with clear skin, you get a red tomato in the F1. It does not develop full red color because of some influence of the bicolor gene in the heterozygous condition. It is red in the F1 and not pink because yellow skin color came from the red parent, is heterozygous in the F1, and yellow skin color is dominant to clear. If you grow the F2 from the F1 of a bicolor clear skin cross x a red tomato, you will get in the F2 bicolor with clear skin, bicolor with yellow skin (gives a darker somewhat muddy look to the ripe tomato), red tomatoes, and pink tomatoes. Further generations from the F2 will still segregate until you get all the genes fixed in homozygous condition.

The reason there are so many of the large, fasciated types of heirloom tomatoes and new variants continue to appear so often has to do with the structure of the anther cone in fasciated types. The anther cone in the fasciated types often is is not a complete cone surrounding the pistil but has open areas and the stigma of the flower is often visible and sometimes extends above the anther cone. Bumble bees collect pollen from tomato flowers and can easily cross pollen from other varieties onto the stigma of flowers of the fasciated types. No wonder there is so much variation in seed grown from fasciated types, particularly when someone is growing a bunch of varieties close together. Non fasciated types mostly have a complete anther cone surrounding the pistil and and the stigma in most of these varieties is recessed below the anther cone and not accessible to pollen carried by bumble bees from other flowers. I hope this is useful in this discussion. Thats why the non fasciated types come true from seed a lot better than the fasciated types.
Randy

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I am hoping to get a new flush of the tomatoes soon. The plants still are fairly healthy and that is saying something with all the heat we have had. The seeds I was trying to save from all my other plants and this one as well have all met an untimely demise so I am crossing fingers that more will come. Will do a skin check and all that when they do appear.
Kat