To update on the crosses with Zolotoe Serdtse, all of them were the same 'orange-red' colour, and confirmed that the orange colour is produced by the beta gene.
Also surprising to me, was the dominance of some other fruit characteristics of ZS. The overall shape, firmness of the fruit, strong skin that doesn't crack, slow ripening was seen in all of the F1 offspring, although when fully ripe they were softer than ZS. The three F1's were virtually indistinguishable from each other by looks. The interiors were redder than the outer skin and flesh. Zosanko was different from the other two in texture, mushier and more suitable for sauce, for sure. Taste of all of them was okay, but by texture best suited to processing . Incidentally I dried some ZS in the dehydrator and was really pleased with the sweet result.
The three near identical F1 fruit are shown in the photo on the white plate, with parent Zolotoe Serdtse two fruits above.
|