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Originally Posted by b54red
Big Beef is a good hybrid to use as long as you don't have that third race of fusarium wilt. I guess the best way to find out is plant a bunch of Big Beefs and if they all stay fusarium free then you don't have to worry for now.
As to using the seed from Big Beefs I have done that and the resulting tomato plants were not always as good nor as disease resistant so you should talk to someone who knows more about that type of thing than I do.
Bill
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Bill your experience answered my question about F2 Big Beef. As I sat here and thought about it - this is the first year that I have had Big Beef plants survive and produce in the garden. In 2015, I blamed the record amount of rain on the demise of a lot of tomato plants. It rained every day for 7 weeks From May through mid June. To me, it made sense to blame it all on the rain.
Last year, Big Beef plants didn't get as big as the Sweet Million plants are this year. The Big Beef plants looked the same as the first pictures in this thread. That's when I learned about RKN and I figured it was RKN that killed the plants. What didn't make sense was that the Big Beef plants were some of the first to die.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter
Salt, since you seem to have some time to experiment given your longer season, why not root a bunch of small cuttings off your Big Beef plants, start some seeds from the OP varieties you mentioned, and try your hand at grafting?
This would be a cheaper way to learn grafting as you wouldn't have to spend the money on rootstock seed or more Big Beef seed. You would need clips, but if you don't want to invest in large amounts right now, Tomato Growers Supply sells a few sizes in 20-packs for less than $4. And there are very good and patient coaches in the 2017 grafting thread who will help you at every step along the way.
You could still do your crossing experiments, but those would need many subsequent grow outs before you'd know if they worked. Grafting could give you some good tomatoes to enjoy while you wait!
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Father'sDaughter, I do have time to experiment. It looks like I need to try some FFF,N seeds. There is no doubt that I do have RKN in the soil and Fusarium. After remembering the past 3 years of growing Big Beef - it seems that this year, I just happened to plant in an area less affected by Fusarium. Big Beef is VFFNTA.
Going back to what Bill has posted - it makes sense that it is FFF in the garden as well as RKN. I will experiment with some plants including planting some Big Beef seeds later today when I can walk better.