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dfollett · March 11, 2018

How heritable is flavor? I found something interesting yesterday. From a group of F5 plants in the fine-leaf micro line from the Tidy X Pork Chop cross, I identified 4 plants I felt were the best from a growth/production perspective. I decided to taste and save seed from the very best.

I don't have a very good sense of taste, so I have recently started using the refractometer again to help in that process. The refractometer measures sugar content – the higher the number, the more sugar in the juice. What I found surprised me. The fruit from each plant was consistent with other fruit from the same plant, but the plants differed wildly. From my limited experience, most tomato plants are in the 5-7 Brix range.

• From plant #1, no fruit was over 4 on the Brix scale – very strong flavor – good flavor but a little too tart for me.
• From plant #2, everything was between 10 and 12 on the Brix scale – also very strong flavor – delicious – almost too sweet for a tomato.
• Plants #3 and #4 were 5.5 and 7.0 respectively. They both also had a lot of flavor but were more tomatoey – like a real tomato, not a cherry – especially the 7.0.

They were all grown in the same conditions - soil - light - temperature and fertilizer. I kept seed from each one of them.

Hence, the question. How heritable is flavor? Can anyone who has experience with the Dwarf Project or other breeding programs tell me at what stage the flavor stabilizes. (My guess is there isn't a real answer that doesn't start with "it depends").

I'm going to grow the F6s as four separate lines. I'd like to find two or three folks willing to grow a couple of each and give me feedback. By this time next year, I hope to have them at F8 or F9, at which point they are supposed to be stable.

March 11, 2018	#218
dfollett Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Utah Posts: 693	How heritable is flavor? How heritable is flavor? I found something interesting yesterday. From a group of F5 plants in the fine-leaf micro line from the Tidy X Pork Chop cross, I identified 4 plants I felt were the best from a growth/production perspective. I decided to taste and save seed from the very best. I don't have a very good sense of taste, so I have recently started using the refractometer again to help in that process. The refractometer measures sugar content – the higher the number, the more sugar in the juice. What I found surprised me. The fruit from each plant was consistent with other fruit from the same plant, but the plants differed wildly. From my limited experience, most tomato plants are in the 5-7 Brix range. • From plant #1, no fruit was over 4 on the Brix scale – very strong flavor – good flavor but a little too tart for me. • From plant #2, everything was between 10 and 12 on the Brix scale – also very strong flavor – delicious – almost too sweet for a tomato. • Plants #3 and #4 were 5.5 and 7.0 respectively. They both also had a lot of flavor but were more tomatoey – like a real tomato, not a cherry – especially the 7.0. They were all grown in the same conditions - soil - light - temperature and fertilizer. I kept seed from each one of them. Hence, the question. How heritable is flavor? Can anyone who has experience with the Dwarf Project or other breeding programs tell me at what stage the flavor stabilizes. (My guess is there isn't a real answer that doesn't start with "it depends"). I'm going to grow the F6s as four separate lines. I'd like to find two or three folks willing to grow a couple of each and give me feedback. By this time next year, I hope to have them at F8 or F9, at which point they are supposed to be stable.