New World Seeds & Tubers newworldcrops.com

[Tom Wagner]

Woolly Blue Tomatoes.

They are best kept in a heterozygous trait for Wo because the heavy dose of Wo/Wo traits in many of my varieties just don't yield as well as Wo/+ The jury is still out whether or not the anthocyanin flesh should be homozygous.

Saving seed from a Wo/+ gives a progeny of 1:2:1 which means of every four plants...one will show no woolly at all, two will be partly woolly, and one will have a heavy dose of woolliness.

I was never more disappointed in a woolly variety than when I visited a University of California (Davis) plot of tomato varieties in the late 80's and my Elberta Girl tomatoes were beautiful but had no fruit on them. I realized that my Elberta Girl should be forever maintained in perpetuity as a true breeding heterozygous clone for Woolliness.

Just as Vintage Wine started out as a woolly or part woolly....it immediately was saved as a non-woolly in the Netherlands since it yielded better a full woolly and besides....who maintains a variety with built in variability for life?
To read about that scenario just look up Brandy Stripe.


The Woolly Green Zebra is best maintained as a concurrent backcrossing of a fully woolly selection back to the Green Zebra every other year.

Tom Wagner

[travis]

If the woolly gene dampens production, or kills it in the homozygotous state, why even mess with it? Does it have advantages beyond a curiosity?

[Indyartist]

I'm growing Tom's "Fahrenheit Blues" cherry tomato and it has an interesting curling leaf habit at least in the early stages. I'll have next week as a vacation and will add some photos of my larger plants but these photos are of 6 inch or so plants and they have their leaves curled almost completely shut. The other tomato in the picture is just for comparison and it is an Iranian variety named "Goji Faranji". Here is a web album of more pictures,
https://picasaweb.google.com/hopkins...LnalNumrp_QTQ#

[Heritage]

Indy,

I also noticed the distinctive leaf on "Fahrenheit Blues". I'm wondering if/what gene is responsible for the rounded tip of the leaf and the leaf curling. All 13 of my FB plants are sporting the same stylish leaves although not quite as cool as yours. Mine are in a greenhouse so I wonder if the leaf curl is a defense against dry air? Interesting.

Steve

[Indyartist]

Here is my one and only seedling for Tom 's "Fidalgo Island" tomato. I was unable to get this variety to germinate in the moist paper towel method. My attempt only involved me placing the moist towel with the seeds on my refrigerator so it was not at all scientifically controlled. I then placed all my remaining seeds in seed starting media with the pots in baggies on the same refrigerator and I had one sprout and I've been holding on to it ever since. It is one of my most valuable due to it being my only example with me spending all my seeds to obtain it.
It is listed at Tom's site as such: "Very long red and yellow fruits of red flesh and good flavor. Unrelated to my Casady’s Folly lines. I am looking at this one as a parent line to cross to Casady’s Folly or Sweet Casady. "

Here is a video of me trying to get this tomato "started". Well, not really but it seemed a lot like this.
http://youtu.be/IACjOvyx5hs

[Indyartist]

Originally Posted by Heritage

Indy,

I also noticed the distinctive leaf on "Fahrenheit Blues". I'm wondering if/what gene is responsible for the rounded tip of the leaf and the leaf curling. All 13 of my FB plants are sporting the same stylish leaves although not quite as cool as yours. Mine are in a greenhouse so I wonder if the leaf curl is a defense against dry air? Interesting.

Steve

I took one of my larger / older plants out of my hoop house the other day and here are a few photos of it's leafs. Although not as distinctly curled this specimen also shows curling leaf habit and also some cool colors perhaps from it's P20 heritage.

[Indyartist]

Originally Posted by Tom Wagner

Woolly Blue Tomatoes.

They are best kept in a heterozygous trait for Wo because the heavy dose of Wo/Wo traits in many of my varieties just don't yield as well as Wo/+ The jury is still out whether or not the anthocyanin flesh should be homozygous.

Saving seed from a Wo/+ gives a progeny of 1:2:1 which means of every four plants...one will show no woolly at all, two will be partly woolly, and one will have a heavy dose of woolliness.

I was never more disappointed in a woolly variety than when I visited a University of California (Davis) plot of tomato varieties in the late 80's and my Elberta Girl tomatoes were beautiful but had no fruit on them. I realized that my Elberta Girl should be forever maintained in perpetuity as a true breeding heterozygous clone for Woolliness.

Just as Vintage Wine started out as a woolly or part woolly....it immediately was saved as a non-woolly in the Netherlands since it yielded better a full woolly and besides....who maintains a variety with built in variability for life?
To read about that scenario just look up Brandy Stripe.


The Woolly Green Zebra is best maintained as a concurrent backcrossing of a fully woolly selection back to the Green Zebra every other year.

Tom Wagner

Tom, where does this put me with saving seeds from the plants I'm growing out of SBWM? Should I prefer to save seeds from the most wooly and will this give the 1:2:1 factor? My seedlings / plants germinated some week or weeks apart so I cannot make a final determination on their traits yet as they are all of a different age by weeks. I certainly at this point of comparison have one plant who is most woolly of all. Is this my prime seed producer for woolliness?

[jeremyhilton]

That is such a sweet looking plant, I can't wait to get a lot of tomato seeds from Tom next season! I placed my first order with him the other day; going to try some potatoes for the first time this year :-)

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[Tom Wagner]

The Fahrenheit blues will likely be selected by default favoring perhaps the curled leaf habit which allows the sun to penetrate the foliage better and permit the sun mediated anthocyanin buildup of the fruits exposed more to the light than if the leaves were not so curled. Whether or not the foliage is blue at this time is not so important...as the most blue fruits need not have a super blue leaf/stem trait.

As far as the SBWM (Seattle's Blue Woolly Mammoth) the last picture looks like it is homozygous...most woolly of all and it will breed true for that trait....the heterozygous ones will look slightly less woolly and will seg. for 1:2:1. I never get tired of seeing the seedlings from the half woollies...and having the blues show up just complicates the matter...waiting to see if the fruit are blue and/or striped makes it a waiting game. The flesh colors are designed to seg. for all kinds of colors. I know some of the plants will be indeterminate and other determinate.

Growing tomatoes from seed is fun. Seeing all the different types of tomatoes growing from one pkt. of seed is my intent. Who says that a pkt of seed should be all uniform tomatoes? Not me.

Wish I had a photographer to capture some really odd tomatoes growing in the greenhouse trays. Some of the really woolly and blue foliage plants are striking!

[jeremyhilton]

Originally Posted by Tom Wagner

Wish I had a photographer to capture some really odd tomatoes growing in the greenhouse trays. Some of the really woolly and blue foliage plants are striking!

I bet, I'm envious...


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[Granite26]

I somehow missed the tom seed sales until recently but when I got to it there were a few varieties left and I ordered a pack of each. They arrived Saturday and I got home from work and planted the seed first thing. I am thrilled to try these out and cant wait to see them develope and share my results. Thank-You Tom!

[Indyartist]

I'm growing Tom's "Seattle's Blue Woolly Mammoth" tomato and I have 12 plants started. My starts seem to have developed into three groups all from the same packet of seeds. I think, when I look at the twelve plants, that I see three distinct "varieties" if you will. One group is consists of only two plants that are distinctly more woolly then all the others. One of these two examples is the most woolly with green leaves covered with white wool. The second from this group is less woolly then the first but shows some purpleness to its leaves, thus more purple and second most woolly. The second group is green, leafy and no sign of either purple in the leaves and not woolly. The third group is very compact, perhaps will be determinate, distinctly purple and if not woolly at least more hairy. I'm fascinated that there are three such distinct and recognizable groups all from the same packet of seeds and my imagination is spinning wondering what or if the fruits will be as varied as the plants. I have a web album with a few photos (14) of the three groups , I'll try to keep up with recording with photos and notes for the history books and anyone interested. Here is one picture of what I think are examples from the three groups and here is a web album of more pictures to show details . The photos are not labeled but I think you can see which plant is from which group.
Here is the web album:
Blue Woollies

n/t--------------

[Tom Wagner]

Gold Keeper

As far as teasing...I am usually doing that all the time. I had hoped for the customers to try the tomato as it is bearing and tell me what they think I mean. I am trying to promote, with gusto, varieties that will never have to be stable. We put way too much emphasis on requiring a variety to be stable before it is released and I say phooey to that.

Gold Keeper should throw three kinds of tomatoes.....and half of the crops should be classic Gold Keepers...those are the ones to save seed from.

Don't want to get away too much....and besides I am inundated with potato orders...tubers and TPS...and going off here in a minute to transplant thousands of TPS seedlings and get materials for a day of planting tomorrow. That and the blasted phone ringing with questions from all kinds of folks, doesn't leave me with much sanity.

Gold Keeper will have gene linkage that will help keep the purposeful heterogeneous trait traceable. My involvement with customers about my seed is primarily on the website and tatermater.★★★★★★★★★.com. What's with the stars? Anyone getting a direct response from me is going to be a matter of luck in the future as I am and will continue to be... too busy for my own health.

Tom Wagner

[kevinrs]

ok, from what I've seen earlier on this thread, but some may have missed, some of these tomatoes have genes that give a desirable plant when heterogeneous, as in having only one copy of the gene. When they have 2 copies, they are less desirable.
The woolly gene is one. No woolly is a normal plant, 1 copy of the gene is somewhat woolly, with good production, 2 copies of the gene gets a very wooly plant but low production. Harvesting seed from the productive, moderately wooly plant gets 1/4 non woolly, 1/2 good, and 1/4 very woolly. The same is likely on plants like that gold keeper. If more genes are involved, it becomes more complicated, but if 1/2 of plants are the desirable ones, this would be the likely scenario. Commercially, the full woolly and full non woolly would be grown, and crossed for seed to sell as a hybrid. This seed would be 100% heterogeneous.