Solanum galapagense
 

I grew Solanum galapagense last summer. The plants were tiny. They were almost like a woody plant instead of herbaceous. Here's what a young plant looked like.

[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/tomato/solanum-galapagense_640.jpg[/IMG]

I harvested a few very tiny orange fruits from them.

The instructions that came with the seeds gave detailed instructions about a complicated procedure that I should go through to germinate the seeds. That doesn't fit with my plant breeding philosophy, so I just planted the seeds as if they were normal garden vegetable seeds. After a long time, a few of them germinated. I want to select for varieties that can germinate without special conditions. That's the kind of selection that I do with any species I work with. Just plant them, hoping that eventually that will select for strains that germinate without special requirements.

A few days ago I planted seeds from fruits I collected last fall. They germinated quickly. That pleases me a lot. Seems like my selection criteria may be making a difference.

Interesting! Good to have fresh seed!

How did your plants look later in the season and how did the fruits taste?

This is awesome Joseph! I'm very interested to see what you get.

It is a very useful philosophy, to select for something at every step. :yes:
S. galapagense is afaik the source of Beta orange in many tomato OPs that were bred in the past years? :?!?: No SWAG at the years since the cross breeding work began, I have no memory for years and dates.

The fruits were really tiny, like the size of a popcorn kernel. And there were only a few per plant, so I didn't taste them. But they were orange! I didn't even attempt to extract seeds from the fruits, just let the whole fruits dehydrate.

The plants reminded me of sagebrush twigs. Gnarly. Woody stems. They stood upright, but only got about 9 inches tall.

I was trying to get seeds from a seed bank for these and they told me that they may contain toxic compounds I don't know if they where just trying to scare me into not getting them ?

Isn't this the same which is available at Trade Winds Fruit?

[QUOTE=Tomtato2;720602]I was trying to get seeds from a seed bank for these and they told me that they may contain toxic compounds I don't know if they where just trying to scare me into not getting them ?[/QUOTE]


They may have just been warning you that the seeds were treated with an unknown chemical or powder. Some of the seed banks ha e samples that were from the 50s and they used DDT to prevent insect infestation. I've had seed banks warn me to use rebber gloves and a dust mask when working with some of their seed in the past.

[url]https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=solanum+galapagense+seeds&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart[/url]

I also checked out Keith Mueller's site as well,since nomenclature changes very often.

[url]https://www.google.com/search?q=Keith+Mueller+tomato+website&hl=en&cad=h[/url]


There are still many seed sites who list tomatoes as Lycopersicon esculentum instead of the correct Solanum lycopersicon.

Carolyn

Very pretty, it would be a nice crossing plant to some ornamental tomato projects..:)

I've grown 2 generations of S galapagense on my farm now. I suppose that I'll grow it again this summer. Last fall, I yanked the clump of plants up and left them in the greenhouse. The fruits have dehydrated nicely.

I planted Solanum galapagense again this spring. The seeds germinated quickly and at a high rate without any special treatment. (The instructions that came with the seed had complicated methods, which I ignored in favor of trying to select for a variety that works with my no-fuss philosophy.)

Yay! It's nice to see that easy germination was a heritable trait in this population.

why would you plant something that has a fruit the size of a popcorn kernel? breeding purposes or??? just curious, as I find the smaller the fruit the harder it is to be worth while picking it. man, if you are starving you will still die because it took too long to pick any sizable quantity.

@clkeiper: You got it. I'm a plant breeder. I adapt every species possible to my garden. In the case of Solanum galapagense, the only intentional plant breeding that I have done, is to do three generations of selection for easy germination, (and I suppose for the ability to grow well enough in my garden to make seeds.)

At this point, it would be suitable for use in a breeding project, or to grow for sharing seed with other people. In essence, the seed has made the domestication contract with me: The seed agreed to give up it's seed dormancy self-protection mechanism, and I agree to plant it at an appropriate time and place.

I don't think you should eat this type of tomato. I got some of these seeds last year, the person I got them from said they where toxic and could cause liver damage.

Don't know if by crossing it with other that gene can go away .