My breeding projects in 2015

[bower]

Just starting this thread to post some results of my growouts in 2015.

Since my plan for 2015 was somewhat to gallop madly off in all directions, I don't know what to say by way of introduction, except for my thanks to everyone who participates in discussions here, for all the food for thought.
In spite of the contrary wisdom, I found I had to put a name on the lines I want to grow forward or even remember in the short term, because I seem to be truly incapable of remembering strings of numbers and letters as the 'name' of a plant. So amongst the small fruit below you will find my favourites from 2015: Hope's Early and the Yellow Warbler, Kitten Paws Pink, and the Skipper and Rodney as will be discussed further down in the thread.

[bower]

One of my objectives this year was to collect some data on growth habit for crosses between indeterminate and determinate or semi-determinate plants. And I did. And now I know why there is so little written about it - the data is a PIA to collect, pretty much impossible to photograph unless you are willing to yank the plants and lay them out on a sheet. So instead I have put together a few graphics to show what I found.

Black Nipper is a sp/sp "semi-determinate" black cherry selected last year from the F2 of the cross Napoli a Fiaschetto X Black Cherry. I was baffled by the F2 because they were very late to express the sp/sp terminal bud pattern and until they did, appeared to be indeterminate with numerous repeats of three leaves between flower clusters. I grew three plants of the F3 and carefully counted the leaves/nodes and cluster patterns, shown below. As you can see, each plant has a unique semi-determinate pattern on the main stem. The number shown below the first leaf in the graphic refers to the number of leaves/internodes before the first cluster, which according to what I have read is under separate genetic control. It also appears that the number of leaves between clusters or leaf-cluster pattern is a complex trait which is certainly still segregating at the F3 stage.

[bower]

Also the pattern of side shoots and axillary shoots was different. Two examples below, to compare Black Nipper F3 B1-7 and B2-9. There is obviously a big difference in the fruit to shoot ratio for the two plants.

[bower]

As it happens the plant with the 'best' growth habit also got the top rating by my taste test panel so plenty reason to grow this one again. I have no idea if the growth habit is stable at this stage, or how much the pattern will continue to segregate. Since I saw a lot of variation in the OP's I grew this year, it looks as though perhaps??? any desired pattern can be stabilized? I will have to grow it and find out I guess.

This is a decent black cherry, that produced a lot of fruit in a small space although it didn't entirely live up to its potential and failed to set all the clusters that flowered late in the season. It is not the champion in the earliness and perhaps cold or stress tolerance department, but it has some good traits and I made several new crosses with the F3 again this year, to 'stir the pot' and keep avenues open for improvement as well as development of some variety of fruit with semi-determinate growth habit... I hope.

[bower]

One trait that has turned up in the Black Nippers, which I think is great for a plant that you don't intend to prune, is the grabby "self staking" foliage. No I'm not kidding. These plants will grab onto the cage, even onto their own stems when they outgrow the cage. I noticed this trait in Black Cherry, and honestly, I've grown peas that didn't grab as well as these do.

[bower]

Very inspired last year by Tom Wagner's description of his approach of crossing 'unstable' generations to maximize diverse interesting combinations. So besides doing some backcrosses for backup, as Dar Jones has often advised, I also made a cross between the Black Nipper F2 and my F1 plant Zolotoe Serdtse X Black Early. I intended this cross as a shortcut to diverse semi determinate black combinations, because the expected frequency is then 1 of 2 plants sp/sp as well as 1 of 2 black fruited.

I grew 4 plants of the BNZB F1, and was pretty baffled when I ended up with four indeterminate plants. But thanks to discussion of Beta and sp linkage in another thread, it was explained. The chance of getting a single Beta allele in this cross is only 1/4, and I didn't get any in the four plants grown. I definitely want to grow more of the F1 next year and see how the segregation goes with the furtive Beta.

I did get two black, as expected, and these were very similar in taste but differently shaped. They were both unexpectedly fantastically sweet and rich tasting, my personal favourites of all, and were dubbed the Skipper and Rodney. These will segregate for size in the F2, and I'm very curious to see how the fruit quality traits play out in different sized fruit. They were also earlier than the Black Nippers, but I'm not sure whether that is heterosis or a fixed trait.

[dokutaaguriin]

Originally Posted by bower

One of my objectives this year was to collect some data on growth habit for crosses between indeterminate and determinate or semi-determinate plants. And I did. And now I know why there is so little written about it - the data is a PIA to collect, pretty much impossible to photograph unless you are willing to yank the plants and lay them out on a sheet. So instead I have put together a few graphics to show what I found.

Black Nipper is a sp/sp "semi-determinate" black cherry selected last year from the F2 of the cross Napoli a Fiaschetto X Black Cherry. I was baffled by the F2 because they were very late to express the sp/sp terminal bud pattern and until they did, appeared to be indeterminate with numerous repeats of three leaves between flower clusters. I grew three plants of the F3 and carefully counted the leaves/nodes and cluster patterns, shown below. As you can see, each plant has a unique semi-determinate pattern on the main stem. The number shown below the first leaf in the graphic refers to the number of leaves/internodes before the first cluster, which according to what I have read is under separate genetic control. It also appears that the number of leaves between clusters or leaf-cluster pattern is a complex trait which is certainly still segregating at the F3 stage.

Hi Bower,
I am not sure if you realize this or not but for people of Japanese descent would find the use of Ni***** which comes from N** which in turn came from Nippon (Japan in Japanese) as racial slur.
Best of luck with your breeding efforts,
Jeff

[bower]

Originally Posted by dokutaaguriin

Hi Bower,
I am not sure if you realize this or not but for people of Japanese descent would find the use of Ni***** which comes from N** which in turn came from Nippon (Japan in Japanese) as racial slur.
Best of luck with your breeding efforts,
Jeff

Astonished (and horrified) to hear this notion Jeff. There are many definitions of "nipper" and I think you'll find most of them listed here:
https://www.wordnik.com/words/nipper
and no reference whatsoever to any use of the word "NIPPER" as a racial slur, nor does this perfectly decent word originate in the manner you suggested from derogations of "Nippon". You are mistaken.
In the case of the name "Black Nipper" I'm using it in the nautical sense, that is a short rope, and refers to the grippy foliage which I mentioned above.

I hope that sets your mind at ease.

[bower]

You can see from the picture below that there was some uneven ripening damage on Indian Stripe as well. And in the circumstances, it was lacking its outstanding taste as well. So although I have to judge the taste of all the fruit, I know that some favourites were not at their best either.

[MendozaMark]

Great Job and great info. I will be keeping my eyes open for Black Nipper in the future.

[BigVanVader]

Did you cross randomly or are you trying to achieve a specific collection of traits?

[bower]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

Did you cross randomly or are you trying to achieve a specific collection of traits?

BVV I just have the general goal of developing some varieties that are well adapted to our growing conditions. Season is short and cool and unpredictable. Little sunshine compared to other places where tomatoes are grown, and since growing under cover is the only sure way to get a crop of tomatoes, there are additional limits on light as well as confined growing space. My interest in semideterminate growth habit and fruit/shoot ratios is because of what happens to the typical tomato deprived of light.... long leggy and many yards of vine per clumps of fruit.

It is not worth the effort to grow anything rated more than 80 DTM or 'midseason' here, and those would be late and possibly too late for us depending on the specific variety and the season. We need tomatoes that will set happily at temperatures between 60 and 70 F. You may have noticed that there are lots of small red varieties for early season... not so many blacks or tangerines or hearts or... although there certainly are some great OP's, I am always looking for the best to try.

[BigVanVader]

Very cool, I wish you luck and nice looking tomatoes so far.

[bower]

I can't say enough good about Stupice as a parent. All the great traits, earliness, vigour, trouble-free foliage, reliable set, were passed on and the weak trait - taste only so-so for me - didn't bite at all. Out of six F2 plants there was only one that didn't have better than average fruit - a small black cherry on the sour side. My best surprise was a multilocule little flat pink that I'm calling Kitten Paws Pink. I had forgotten that pink was in the cards at all, and this one was so tasty and sweet... I love it. Only one defect, the fruit are so thin skinned, the ripe ones burst when the pressure went up on a thundery day.

[bower]

The segregation for this cross was not as I expected. The precocious flowering trait from Kimberley is recessive, so I expected 1/4 to be precocious. I only grew four plants of it, and three of four were early flowering similar to Kimberley. The fourth was a suspected Goblet mutant which indeed was dwarfed and slow growing, flowering later. Two caveats for this observation: I didn't have Kimberley this year for a side by side for comparison, and I guess with a small number of plants it could be chance. I will have to grow more to see if there's really anything unusual happening with the cross.

The three normal plants also retained a trait I saw in the F1 - short internodes and a nice concentrated set of fruit. Also, like the F1, red fruit ripened yellow first, then orange and finally red. The ripening process is a little slow, and they were at their best when fully ripe. Meanwhile the colours of the fruit ripening on the vine reminded me of Lifesavers - the candy, not the flotation device. It was a lovely sight in our cold and glum spring.