Update on this project. Grew out F2's this summer, and found 4 worth pursuing.
RAE-56: has the great taste, similar to Hardin's Mini (the taste-target). Fruit is small, red, elongated with a point. Plant & fruit are still small, but it is the most promising, given the goals.
These others don't further the original goals, but were good finds and I'll try developing them too:
RAE-58: Too pretty to pass up. Dwarf plant with large shapely pink hearts. Taste needs work. SO attractive; who can resist?
RAE-79: Pure candy. Very sweet and very good. Doesn't taste like Hardin's Mini at all, but who could pass up this taste? Even my mother, who claims to not like hers too sweet, agreed this was good. Not pure sugar, though, but a really good taste. Large plant with small elongated fruit.
RAE-85: Large sturdy plant, large pink hearts with centers that look like beefsteaks. A really nice looking plant with big fruit. It just deserves a chance.
Over the winter, RAE-56-4 (an F3 of RAE-56) yielded the same good "almost Hardin's Mini" taste, same smallish plant, pointed red fruit a little bigger than Hardin's Mini. About identical with its F2, really. Its F4's will be grown out this summer, along with the F3's of the other three.
I had big plans to grow out the F3's of all 4 of these this past winter, but the fungus gnats & whiteflies had other plans. I learned a lot about pest management. <sigh>
Nan
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