Some of you know I am trying to breed a paste/processing tomato with high beta-carotene. The resulting tomato (if I succeed) will be orange (since there are several pathways to orange tomatoes, I'm only breeding red/pink tomatoes to high beta tomatoes).
The parents are the following:
Paste tomatoes:
Opalka*, Shannon, Heidi
High beta tomatoes:
97L97, CaroRich, Jaune Flamee
**Goals: To breed a high beta delicious processing/paste tomato that is also good for fresh eating
Plan:
All paste types crossed w/ each of the high betas
and the reciprocal cross of each high beta w/ each paste type
what has seemed to take thus far (I have a number of crosses that I'm still waiting to see if they're a 'take'):
Opalka x Jaune Flamee:
Cross_1_OpXJF.jpg
Shannon x 97L97:
Cross_2_Shx97L.jpg
CaroRich x Opalka:
Cross_3_CRxOP.jpg
Jaune Flamee X Shannon
Cross_4_JFxSh.jpg
Jaune Flamee x Opalka:
Cross_5_JFxOP.jpg
My concern now of course is that now that I've counted my chickens before they've hatched that an animal or something else will prevent me from collecting these before they ripen.
*on this forum someone said that Opalka was too 'wet' to be a good paste tomato which is the first I've heard that. Elsewhere, I've heard the opinion ventured that they are just as happy to use beefsteak types as their sauce base.
**Note: I have a secondary goal of breeding a high crimson paste variety which this year I have Tasti-Lee F3.