The ripe tomatoes are trickling in here, and taste tests with my mother are underway. Hardin's Mini is also ripening fruit, so we can do direct comparisons.
I found the best tasting tomato in the whole world. #56. It tastes a lot like Hardin's Mini, same strong taste, plus sweetness. Problem: it's a small-fruited variety. It's growing in a 1 gallon pot, small-leaved, bigger than a micro. The fruit is small and heart-shaped. I will be keeping F3 seeds, and hopefully developing it into a micro.
However, that doesn't meet my primary goal of a large-fruited that tastes like Hardin's Mini. There are still 9 of the original F2's to taste here (almost all with large-ish fruit), plus about 38 of the second set of F2's, plus Eugen's taste tests.
I'm getting about half of them heart-shaped and half oval. Since hearts and ovals both have the elongation gene (el), it's not surprising that everything is oval or heart. The ones I thought were round have turned out to be just variations in heart or oval shapes.
I'm having a lot of trouble determining what rugose leaves are. The Hardin's Minis, with double dose of dwarf genes, ought to be rugose, no? They aren't crinkly and never have been. A few of the F2's are short, thick-stemmed, darker green, and leathery-leaved, but nobody is crinkly. Is that dark leathery leaf a dwarf leaf?
Nan
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