Other thoughts on good crosses to make....

[nctomatoman]

Patrina (and Bruce, with Sleazy) really fueled this project with their crossing skill and imagination of using different parents as starting points to enlarge the variety of dwarf varieties. One thing struck me - if we really want to get size into these, using New Big Dwarf is probably the best route, as it is by far the largest fruited of the dwarfs (so far, anyway!). Using real monsters as breeding partners would be interesting - Cuostralee comes to mind, as well as Delicious, and Omar's Lebanese, and Tennessee Britches, and Neves Azorean Red - if we really want to stretch this thing to the limit and see how large a tomato is possible in the dwarf lines. So - Patrina - do you have any monsters you can use to cross with NBD to try this out?

Recall that is the way that New Big Dwarf was originally created - by crossing Dwarf Champion with Ponderosa back in the late 1800's, then selecting for size.

[Patrina_Pepperina]

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

So - Patrina - do you have any monsters you can use to cross with NBD to try this out?

Not much in my garden this year, but I tried Cuostralee with NBD last year and failed. I'm having difficulty using NBD as female in general. I have 2 plants of NBD this season and I chose the better looking one for crosses since it also budded earlier. Now it's not looking too healthy compared to the other NBD (so fingers crossed it will last long enough to ripen the crosses), but I also have a cross on the second plant which I'm hopeful about (NBD x Persimmon).

The other problem I have with NBD crosses is that they seem very slow growing compared to crosses on GDC and Dwarf Recessive. Crosses made on the same date are about 6 times larger on other plants, but maybe that's to do with factors such as amount of pollen and development of the stigma at the time of pollination.... I might have emasculated the flowers a bit too early in my attempt to catch the first bud of the clusters.

As for the first NBD plant, there's another success - NBD x Brandywine Yellow PL (Platfoot strain) - which I'll call "Cranky". And I'll announce it with Dwarf Recessive x Stump of the World ("Stumpy") in the thread I started in General Discussion.

Maybe Bruce can have another go with NBD this season as well

Patrina

[Suze]

How about BTD x NBD?

[Mantis]

I have BTD and Portuguese Monster and NBD growing and still flowering.

[Patrina_Pepperina]

Go for it Mantis!! 8)

[Grub]

Stump of the World would be great since it's productive, large and PL. I think you are working with this one now, yes?

I have never intentionally crossed a tomato, but I have Portugese Giant, Tom's Yellow Wonder, Cherokee Green (bicolour) and some very large Oleyar's German (thanks to M.Korney) that would work well. And why not Polish?

[Patrina_Pepperina]

Have a go Grub, ya never know! Stump of the World is in 2 of the crosses (Sleepy and Stumpy) but none of the others you mentioned. Do you have NBD growing by any chance?

Patrina

[Rena]

I was thinking about Black Sea Man (its pl) and New Big Dwarf. Black Sea Man is Det and a short one at that. Both are growing in the greenhouse currently (no bees). I need a book on plant reproduction or need to study it on the internet. Or maybe Black Sea Man and Golden Dwarf???

[Tomstrees]

Not only the "large yellow" (TYW - working name) I have
but:

Pink Potato Top would be an awesome big fruited dwarf ~

Tom

[OmahaJB]

This thread is from Jan/Feb, but the thread title makes this seem like a good place for me to 'think out loud'.

First though, I'm wondering how NBD is doing in regards to plant size, in the dwarf project. Again, I'm thinking out loud here. I'll read the threads in the Dwarf Project forum where NBD was used. The reason I'm curious about it, is because I have read posts where people had 6 or 7 foot NBD's. And when I tried growing it indoors it was getting too big for my set-up last year so I had to replace it with something else. I do realize it's legitimately considered a dwarf, but when I think of dwarfs I normally think of a 2 or 3 footer, 4 footer at the most. But for getting large tomatoes on a dwarf, it does seem that would be the best bet.

Now for the real reason I posted. Besides using tomatoes for sauce, my favorite way to enjoy tomatoes is as juice. There's nothing like drinking a cold glass of thick tomato juice. I'm not crazy about the canned stuff, and know fresh tomatoes would have to taste tons better. So, following the concept of the dwarf project, what's your opinion for the potential of the following cross:

Polish Dwarf - red, 1-4oz., very productive, 2-3 ft.
x
Mexico - pink, 1-2+lbs., good production, "very tall", & "makes good thick juice".

Those descriptions are from Victory Seeds, the best that I remember. In the past I've seen a post or two regarding Mexico not having the best taste. But I like the fact it supposedly makes "good thick juice". And the picture I've seen in one of the seed catalogs makes it look huge and delicious!

As for Polish Dwarf, I like the fact it's red, very productive & 2-3ft. I have not grown either variety, although I did purchase Polish Dwarf seeds recently. I also bought Dwarf Champion seeds. Not that I'm planning on attempting crossing anything.

Any thoughts? Good idea, bad idea? Better ideas?

Thanks, Jeff

[Raymondo]

Why not use NBD as dad if it's proving to be a difficult mum?