OSU Blue observations

[goodwin]

Yes we all love a good mystery (especially if the intrigue involves tomatoes). We had a hard, late freeze here Wednesday and the two plants with purple spots were damaged, but I think they will pull through and we can see what happens. The 'Sophies' are in the greenhouse and doing fine.
Gary has a 'Speckled Siberian' and used to carry the Speckled Roman tomato.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by goodwin

Yes we all love a good mystery (especially if the intrigue involves tomatoes). We had a hard, late freeze here Wednesday and the two plants with purple spots were damaged, but I think they will pull through and we can see what happens. The 'Sophies' are in the greenhouse and doing fine.
Gary has a 'Speckled Siberian' and used to carry the Speckled Roman tomato.

Bingo!!!!

Speckled Roman is misnamed b'c it isn't speckled, it has long wavy yellow lines but from the picture at TomatoFest Speckled Siberian looks like it does have gold flecking. I don't know how the variety Siberian got to be called Speckled Siberian and Gary says it's a Russian variety so I think I'll ask Andrey if he's ever heard of a Speckled Siberian. I mean many of us know of the variety Siberian, but not a speckled one. The fruit shape of the Speckled Siberian is beefsteak like and so the possibility arises that what you might have is a natural cross between Sophie's Choice and Speckled Siberian.

You said that only 2/8 showed the flecking, which further suggests a cross, and seeds saved from those fruits all showed flecking which makes sense since the condition is to a great degree genetically inherited.

You showed us the shape of the gold flecked ones but do you remember if the non gold flecked ones were the same size and shape?

[goodwin]

Yes, I think you're onto something. The regular Sophie's were perhaps slightly larger and broader, and we may have our culprit in the 'Speckled Siberian'.
(I wonder, has anyone written a series of mystery novels where the detective is a well-known expert on tomatoes?)

[frogsleap farm]

I'm not familiar with Speckled Siberian, but have worked some now with the Gf (gold flecked) trait. The trait is heritable, largely dominant, and leads to the dark green specks on light green fruit turning to gold flecks on red fruit. Scabitha is the only variety I've grown that exhibits the trait, and Scabitha fruit looks just like your photo. It would be a bummer if you lost these unique progeny to frost.

[goodwin]

frogsleap -
Weren't you working with some crosses to a speckled tomato last season?

[carolyn137]

I took a bit of time late this afternoon to try and find out where Speckled Siberian came from.

Since Gary at Tomatofest gets some of his varieties from Lisa at Amishland and Google led me there, yes, she offers it and says it's from her friend Sergey in the Ukraine and I think says it's rare, hard to find, her usual adjectives.

I also found out that seedfest/Anioleka seeds listed in many years ago, before Lisa, and one of the owners there has a DH from the former USSR as I recall, and it was said that it was he who first found Speckled Siberian somewhere. They're out of business now.

Then I checked Tania's site and saw that Val McMurray in Canada had also grown in a few years back/

So it's been around quite a few years and it still suggests that the Sophie's Choice seeds from TF were crossed, and no doubt with the variety Speckled Siberian.

[frogsleap farm]

Yeah, Boar's Hoof x Scabitha. In a winter growout the F1 fruit were speckled. I have 10 F2 plants out this year.

Originally Posted by goodwin

frogsleap -
Weren't you working with some crosses to a speckled tomato last season?

[frogsleap farm]

Getting the thread back on track .... here's a March 2010 photo of sorting segregating P20 F2 progeny for the anthocyanin phenotype in leaves and stems.

[Sören]

blue leaves? Are that the leaves of OSU Blue Fruit?

[danwigz]

Those leaves are something. Makes me think of a combo with purple basil would make a mono-colored spaghetti sauce that might come from some alien planet.

[Tom Wagner]

A potato leaf blue...I will have to see if I have one of those in my progenies... Cool, nevertheless.

http://www.tomatoville.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13107&stc=1&thumb=1&d= 1275188988

I don't usually request seed from others so much but that one.....

Tom Wagner

[frogsleap farm]

Under ideal conditions (high light, cool temps) the P20/OSU Blue plants, and selected outcross progeny derived therefrom, show this anthocyanin leaf phenotype in the seedling stage. It's a useful tool for sorting out segregating progeny early. These same plants in the field now have lost this distinctive leaf coloring, but will accumulate anthocyanin in and just below the fruit epidermis. Tom, the PL seedling in the photo is a (Purple Haze F3 PL x P20) F2.

[raspberianred]

Well I never did see any seeds for the P20 if it is supposed to have been released in 2010. Is this like one of those things where a privileged few get them while everyone else has to wait? Well I would like to at least know the secret handshake, if nothing else. Lol.

[lefty_logan]

Originally Posted by raspberianred

Well I never did see any seeds for the P20 if it is supposed to have been released in 2010. Is this like one of those things where a privileged few get them while everyone else has to wait? Well I would like to at least know the secret handshake, if nothing else. Lol.

It was supposed to be that way but some of the privleged few started to send out seeds and more and more people got them. Most of us have OSU blue which is a less advanced version of P20. Very few people have the actual P20. If OSU blue was hard to get then why would a 16 year old kid like me have seeds.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by lefty_logan

It was supposed to be that way but some of the privleged few started to send out seeds and more and more people got them. Most of us have OSU blue which is a less advanced version of P20. Very few people have the actual P20. If OSU blue was hard to get then why would a 16 year old kid like me have seeds.

Oregon State U has released no versions of OSU Blue to the public via seed sites and there are several versions floating around.

They made it available to those who were serious about breeding tomatoes, I don't know if documentation was required, and those folks were supposed to sign off on not distributing it.

And other source was at another message site where I sometimes read/post and someone who works in the lab where it's being worked on offered seeds. When I saw her offer I told her that I thought they weren;t supposed to be distributed and she said no one told her that and proceeded to send seeds to anyone who wanted them.

If you look in the two Tomato Exchange subforums here you'll see threads where folks are offering in trade as well as those who are asking for it.

I was sent two fruits, saved the seeds and never sent them to anyone else b'c if folks who got them for breeding purposes weren't supposed to share them I saw that as meaining that I shouldn't either, so didn't.