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Old June 11, 2015   #22
joseph
Tomatovillian™
 
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Join Date: May 2013
Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake
Posts: 1,244
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Promiscuous pollination is among the most important goals in my garden. Therefore, I don't do stabilization by inbreeding generation after generation until I get a highly inbred line in which almost every allele is homozygous.

But I often stabilize traits that are important to me by planting more plants that have the desired trait, and fewer plants that have traits that I don't like. If the desired trait is recessive, such as orange fleshed tomatoes, then once I select for that trait it will continue in all of the offspring unless cross-pollination occurs. If I was selecting for a dominant trait such as red-fleshed fruit, and there were other colors hidden within the genetics, then there might always be some chance of an orange/yellow tomato showing up.

I tend to select for whole suites of genes that end up being mostly stable... For example, all of my landrace tomatoes mature in the available growing season. Super long maturity plants don't just appear in my garden. Beefsteak types don't appear. Cherry tomatoes don't arise spontaneously. None of my tomatoes get blossom end rot when grown in my garden. None of my tomatoes are preyed on by Colorado Potato Beetles. They survive the early spring flea beetle predation. Offspring tend to resemble their parents and their grandparents, so the tomatoes in my garden are pretty similar from year to year.

I'm mixing things up a bit more these days by moving towards orange/yellow tomatoes, and by messing with the flower structures, but I expect some things will stay about the same, such as targeting highly determinate, precocious plants that bear about 3 to 10 ounce fruits. I will never tolerate blossom end rot regardless of whatever other great traits a tomato might have. I can't grow anything that requires a long frost free season. The ability to grow fast in cold/frosty weather will continue to be a very valuable trait in my garden.
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