[joseph]

To follow up on the progress of this project...

I attempted the following crosses which seem to have been successful.

[DX52-12 X Jagoka]. I got a couple dozen seeds. DX52-12 is an indeterminate plant with exerted stigmas and an open anther cone. It is a Moscow type that was developed specifically for my valley. The F1 aughta thrive here. DX52-12 was highly afflicted by blossom end rot this year. The only tomato I grew that was afflicted. I am not at all happy about that. Whatever. I'll eliminate that trait later on.

And also the reciprocal cross [Jagodka X DX52-12]. It also produced a fruit. It ripened on the vine, but I haven't extracted the seeds yet.

[Jagodka X very late season indeterminate plants with open flowers]. This fruit was picked green. I'm allowing it to ripen on the front porch. The pollen donors were things like Croatian Brandywine, Hillbilly, Virginia Sweets, and/or Black Early, Indian Stripe, Danko, Zolotoe Serdise, and F1 crosses between them.

I made a mistake with the pollination method... I should have used pollen from the extra long season plants to pollinate the quick maturing plants. I did it the other way around, so the fruits didn't mature. By the time I figured out what I had done, it was too late in the season.

Most of the late season pollen donors didn't even ripen a fruit in my garden. But I collected seed from those that did. My intention is to grow this population continuously, selecting year-by-year for earlier maturity and open flower structures, and attractiveness to pollinators. And to use them as pollen donors to my other lines. The ideal tomatoes for my climate will always be determinate, but there are some clever traits in this population. I tasted a Hillbilly. I remember growing it decades ago. The taste is actually palatable, perhaps even bordering on enjoyable. Mostly though I am growing this population for the open flower structure and exerted stigmas.

I also collected a group of fruits that I am calling "Best Of Jagodka" and "Best of Matina". Jagodka last year was highly attractive to bumblebees. There was a lot of diversity among the plants this year. I'm speculating that some of the differences in some plants may be due to natural cross pollination.