[joseph]

StrongPlant: All bets are off regarding things like plant vigor. I grew the hybrids in a too hot greenhouse in August, and they are still in it in October when it's barely above freezing and the days are super short and cloudy. I didn't grow mother-varieties as controls, so I can't offer many details about how the hybrids compare to the mothers. However, with that said, the vigor of [Fern X LA1777] seemed very low starting out, so I replanted. They seem to be growing fine now, as do the others. They are comparable in size, and shape to LA1777. By fine, I mean fine considering who the farmer is, and how they are being treated. It's looking like they will make seeds, which is the point of the project.

Flowers per truss on the hybrids is 6 to 7. It's 10 on LA1777.

Fruit set is 50% on the hybrids, and about 10% on LA1777. I have been buzz pollinating the hybrids, and using pollen from them to try to pollinate LA1777 (and some domestic crosses), but I haven't been doing buzz pollination on LA1777. Today, I tried a new pollination technique: Broke anther cones from the hybrids, and slipped them over the exerted stigmas on LA1777. They can drop/receive pollen as they wish.

LA1777 has stipules. The hybrids don't.

The hybrids have 13 to 16 leaflets per leaf. LA1777 has 15 to 23 leaflets per leaf.

Leaflet shape of the hybrids closely resembles LA1777, regardless of whether the mothers were potato-leaved, fern-leaved, or regular-leaved.

I grew three accessions of Solanum habrochaites this year. Two of them were vigorous upright plants. LA1777 was more wispy and vine-like. If it makes any difference, LA1777 were cuttings from a two year old plant that I overwintered in a south facing window. LA 1777 is also different from the other accessions, because it only has a single stem on the truss. On the other two accession, the truss-stem splits before the first flower, and each half of the truss has 10-ish flowers. The leaves are small on LA1777. They are huge on the other accessions.