Growing out my first ever cross......years later!
 

I have made numerous crosses in the last several years but the very first one i ever made has been overlooked until this year. I totally forgot about this poor guy until i saw it in the masses of seed i have piling up around here. The first parent in this cross is from a F3 growout of an experimental hybrid some of us grew a few years back called 3C57 from Frogsleap farms. It was originally a cherry tomato similar to Lucky Tiger but with antho shoulders. The second parent is a volunteer plant my kids found out back by their swingset a year before i ever grew tomatoes in the ground on my property. I really have no idea what it could have been but it was a red round tomato similar to a better boy. Im growing 6 plants with 5 being RL and 1 being PL. The foliage types vary quite a bit with the RL plants. I am really liking the shape and speckling/streaking of the PL plant thus far. Anyway here are some pics of the progress so far.
This is plant 1 PL

Plant 2 RL

Plant 3 RL

Plant 4 RL

Plant 5 RL

Plant 6 RL

[QUOTE=heirloomtomaguy;633369]Plant 6 RL[/QUOTE]

The first ones are cucumbers! :lol::lol::lol:.. they all look great! Save seeds please.:yes: Jimbo :):)

Will do Jimbo. The shape and speckling/streaking is really catching my attention on that on plus its Potato Leaf. If it tastes as good as it looks it should be a real winner. Of course it is too far from segregated at this point to get to excited.

[QUOTE=heirloomtomaguy;633380]Will do Jimbo. The shape and speckling/streaking is really catching my attention on that on plus its Potato Leaf. If it tastes as good as it looks it should be a real winner. Of course it is too far from segregated at this point to get to excited.[/QUOTE]

Well I'll be excited for ya then !:lol:. Bet there will be some awesome one in there.:yes:. Jimbo

Im excited but i also know that after several generations of trying to grow these crosses out losing one to bad taste or selecting one that is mealy really can be frustrating. Its the thrill of the chase!

Yeah those speckles are really pretty! And the shape of the others is good looking too.:cute:

Personally I have loved growing the F1's from unstable-parent crosses and got the best results in terms of flavor and plain old excitement of seeing how different they are and of getting surprises in the mix... good surprises!:surprised:
I'm growing out a couple of side cross F1's this year too, that got passed over for a few seasons. It's nice to give em a chance...
Fingers crossed for Mr. Speckly there, to be delish and smooth! :)

[QUOTE=heirloomtomaguy;633364]I have made numerous crosses in the last several years but the very first one i ever made has been overlooked until this year. I totally forgot about this poor guy until i saw it in the masses of seed i have piling up around here. The first parent in this cross is from a F3 growout of an experimental hybrid some of us grew a few years back called 3C57 from Frogsleap farms. It was originally a cherry tomato similar to Lucky Tiger but with antho shoulders. The second parent is a volunteer plant my kids found out back by their swingset a year before i ever grew tomatoes in the ground on my property. I really have no idea what it could have been but it was a red round tomato similar to a better boy. Im growing 6 plants with 5 being RL and 1 being PL. The foliage types vary quite a bit with the RL plants. I am really liking the shape and speckling/streaking of the PL plant thus far. Anyway here are some pics of the progress so far.
This is plant 1 PL[/QUOTE]
those look really nice. I am hoping to cross Cornue des Andes with a black tomato this year (probably the black cherry) and am just looking for some advice.
For example, when you did the cross, how many "flowers" did you pollinate to make sure you would have enough F1 to work with.
HELP! i am a real beginner with this and any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

creating a hybrid
 

I am planning to do a cross for the first time this summer. Cornue des Andes with Black Cherry. I am a real novice. The first question I have is how many "flowers" do you pollinate to make sure you will have enough f1 to work with.

any thoughts, advice greatly appreciated.

thanks all!!

[QUOTE=heirloomtomaguy;633380]Will do Jimbo. The shape and speckling/streaking is really catching my attention on that on plus its Potato Leaf. If it tastes as good as it looks it should be a real winner. Of course it is too far from segregated at this point to get to excited.[/QUOTE]

How's are maters HTG?.:lol::lol:. Jimbo :)

[QUOTE=robertamell;635573]I am planning to do a cross for the first time this summer. Cornue des Andes with Black Cherry. I am a real novice. The first question I have is how many "flowers" do you pollinate to make sure you will have enough f1 to work with.

any thoughts, advice greatly appreciated.

thanks all!![/QUOTE]

I would pollinate several flowers to ensure you have plenty of F1 seed for a trial. If your hybrid ends up being a real winner then you will have more seed ready to be used again. If it ends up being a less desireable cross then you only spent a bit longer pollinating several flowers instead of a ton of flowers. Good luck on your new adventure.

[QUOTE=Jimbotomateo;635692]How's are maters HTG?.:lol::lol:. Jimbo :)[/QUOTE]

Doing great im just waiting impatiently for them to ripen

[QUOTE=heirloomtomaguy;635720]Doing great im just waiting impatiently for them to ripen[/QUOTE]

Thanks for pics, now I'm waiting impatiently too.:lol:. They look great! :yes:.

ok thanks so much!

Plant 1. Taste was good maybe 6.5/10 may be that it was the first ripe one.

Plant 2. Taste was amazing a solid 9/10 and im a tough critic. It was sweet and had the old time tomato flavor i love. A real winner for this one.

Plant 4. This one had a nice balance and tasted about 7/10. A solid good tomato with a nice look amd size.

Nice, nice. The speckles are really.. speck-tacular!

The results are in.......

They are beautiful! 8-)

[QUOTE=bower;643943]They are beautiful! 8-)[/QUOTE]

Thanks Bower! I cant wait to see what the F3's bring.

A few more pics and an in hand comparison of all 6 different tomatoes.

Great stuff HTG! Are you going to follow all 6 lines or just the best flavored ones?

That last pic was really great because we can clearly see the many looks one early cross can present. Thanks for posting. Are you going to grow other generations this season? If so, which did you choose?

I really like the look of the green spotting on the fruit from one of your plants. I hope that trait sticks around!