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Old October 4, 2015   #62
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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Ha! I definitely don't earn a living by plant breeding or farming. But it gives me something to do to occupy my time.

Last growing season I made a hybrid between a huge yellow/red indeterminate beefsteak (Hillbilly or Virginia Sweets) and a small red saladette determinate tomato (Jagodka). I grew it out overwinter and planted F2 seedlings this spring.

Some of the fruits have ripened. Here are photos of what they look like:



HX-3: Early bi-color fruits. Determinate. Industrialized flower. I'm likely to grow this one again as a breeding line due to the bi-color fruits and early productivity. It will definitely be added to my landrace tomatoes.


HX-6: Early red fruits. Indeterminate. Industrialized flower. None of the traits I was looking for from the cross. I intend to drop this line.


HX-9: Large early fruits. Determinate. Loose/open flowers with exerted stigma. Big petals. Nice floral Display. Bi-color fruit. This is the phenotype that I was hoping to get out of this cross!!! The first time I evaluated the patch, this plant had set twice as many fruit as any other plant in the clade. I intend for this to be a high priority grow-out next year.


HX-13: Small early fruits. Indeterminate. Industrialized flowers. None of the traits that I was looking for. Unlikely to grow this one again.


HX-15: Early small red fruits. Determinate. Vigor somewhat lacking. Open flowers, but stigma not excerted. The open flowers and determinate growth habit are interesting. I'll roll this one into a landrace due to it's open flowers and determinate growth, but don't intend to do line-breeding on it. Even though I'm calling the fruits small, they are larger than Jagodka, one of the progenitors of the cross.


HX-16: Early extra large red fruits. Determinate. Marginal vigor. Industrialized flowers. The early large fruit and determinate growth habit are nice enough to get it rolled into the landrace, but I don't feel inclined to pursue it as a breeding line.


I have a lot of blemishes (bacterial speck/spot) on tomato fruits and leaves in my garden right now... I walked my garden yesterday looking for any plants that were resistant. Most of this clade, and a bi-color indeterminate beefsteak that looks like the father of the cross showed minimal spotting. Hmm... I'll have to watch that in coming years.

Last edited by joseph; October 4, 2015 at 12:37 PM. Reason: fix photo
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