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Old May 5, 2013   #17
Fusion_power
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Alabama
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Hate to rain on the party, but you are all missing the most fundamental parts. How much time and effort went into developing the new variety? What benefits does it offer to the grower?

If I spend 8 years making complex crosses to introgress 5 disease tolerance traits into a fabulously good flavored tomato that looks and tastes like Lucky Cross, then I might expect more compensation than the average person who has a new tomato that happens to be round, red, highly productive, and decent flavored. In other words, I want to be paid for the sweat equity.

What about the benefits to the consumer? Would they pay a premium to get a fabulously pretty worry free tomato with fantastic flavor?

The simple reality is that no professional breeder can afford to develop a variety under the conditions given above. The time and effort involved simply can't be recovered from an open pollinated variety. This is why commercially developed tomatoes are all hybrids.

In the end, what you have to do is beat the Rutgers mafia. This is the group of OP tomato lines that are already available that have most of the traits being discussed above. You have to come up with a Green Zebra or something similarly novel and useful. Then you have to market it effectively.

DarJones
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