working with sugarlump
 

Last year I crossed brandywine & sugarlump hoping for an earlish, mid sized delicious tomato that would do well in relatively cool summer weather. What I don't want is a cherry tomato. The F1 plants I started last week flew out of the seed starting mix - very cherry-like.

My question, given my goals for this cross: should I back-cross this F1 generation with something large (like brandywine again, or cherokee green, which also does well in my cool weather)? Or grow out the F1 plants and hope to see a midsized tomato emerge in the F2 generation?

I have limited space or I would just do both (might still). But if someone here has experience with sugarlump and says, as Tom intimated in an earlier thread, that it is really tough to get it up to size, then I'll probably just back-cross it.

Thanks!
Paul

I have not intentionally crossed a large tomato with a cherry
tomato, but what have seemed to be chance F1s in packets of
cherry seed have never been larger than plum-sized, so I
would not expect anything bigger in the F1s, and the likelihood
is that they are all cherry sized.

I would wait until the F2s before doing any backcrosses
(pick the biggest, earliest, etc).

I would backcross an F1 flower or two. That way you'll have them.You needn't grow them all out next season.

Here is a description of a brandywine x cherry cross,
for example:

[url]http://t-garden.homeip.net/mwiki/index.php/Brandysweet_Plum[/url]

That grower selected for the small-plum sized fruits of the
F1 in each generation until it was stable, but it is possible
to get larger fruits in the F2 and later generations when one
of the parents was a large-fruited variety like Brandywine.

Dice, thanks for the Brandysweet Plum information...interesting! I'm after something similar and am anxious to see and taste this F1 fruit. I'll probably back-cross a couple of F1's as Raymondo suggests to see what the next F1 gets, plus grow out a bunch of F2's from this year's unback-crossed F1s.

It would be great for us cold summer growers to have another option.

Paul

The F1 fruit from this cross is excellent. I'll keep growing out the F1's in the future. Small plum sized, sprawling, productive. I wouldn't be surprised if there is already a named hybrid from this cross as it was easy to cross and excellent tasting.

You mentioned this "heirloom by design" at NORCATT when we spoke briefly.
Do you have any pics and do you plan to make more seed?
Brian