View Single Post
Old September 10, 2019   #1
crmauch
Tomatovillian™
 
crmauch's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Honey Brook, PA Zone 6b
Posts: 399
Default One of my other Beta crosses

As I mentioned before, I did a 97L97XOpalka cross. That same year I did another cross of Jaune Flamme X Heidi. I didn't grow out the F2 until this year. I grew 8 plants and this is what I got (with one apology - the uncut tomatoes are rotated in reference to the cut ones):

prior to cutting the tomato from plant 1 is on the lower right):
JFxHeidiF2_2 - Copy.jpg

After cutting (the plant 1 tomato is now on the upper right):
JFxHeidiF2Cut.jpg


I also have Jaune Flamme in the picture as a comparison.


I liked the F1 plant the best as it had good size and decent flavor. All the F2 were rather dry (as you can see) inside. This also answered a question for me. Some catalogs list Heid as a indeterminate and some as a semi-determinate (which means it has the determinate gene, but has modifier genes that let it grow longer than other determinates.) Well plant 7 (the red tomato) is definitely determinate, so it resolves for me that Heidi is semi-determinate. I saved seeds from plant 1 as it was meaty, decent flavor and the largest fruit of the 8 plants. I'm a little concerned that the F2s were so hollow inside. I'm going to watch that going forward.

THe one frustration with this line is that Jaune Flamme has the beta gene, but not the modifier gene that has the fruit express pure beta and not carotene (which is why they develop a red blush),
crmauch is offline   Reply With Quote