Septoria and early blight resistance in Solanum habrochaites

FredB · January 2, 2016

Just for fun, I tried growing out the rootstock tomato Emperador Hybrid. It was definitely S. habrochaites: enormous plant with 1" diameter stem, fuzzy silver leaves, large flowers, and small hard green fruit that never ripened. Interestingly, this variety showed complete resistance to Septoria and intermediate resistance to early blight. This observation isn't entirely unexpected: the following thread by Fusion_power mentions Septoria resistance in two S. habrochaites lines.

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=33010

I saved seed from an F2 plant and grew out the F3 this year, and all the plants were resistant to Septoria. Resistance to early blight was all over the map, varying from highly susceptible to highly resistant.

This variety isn't easy to cross. Out of a dozen attempts, I got only one fruit and only about 20 seeds. This was a cross with Brandywine. I'm planning to grow out several plants this summer and I'll report how they did.

At this time, I have a good supply of F2 seed from Emperador Hybrid if anyone is interested. I also took a cutting from the most EB-resistant F3 plant and am growing it in the greenhouse, so I might have F4 seed by this spring.

Fred

jmsieglaff · January 2, 2016

Thanks for posting this. A very interesting thread that I will be looking forward to see how your growout goes this season.

Fusion_power · February 17, 2016

Fred, based on the look of that plant, it is not pure S. Habrochaites. By the look of it, it has another species somewhere in the background.

bower · February 17, 2016

Great project, FredB!

FredB · February 17, 2016

Any idea what it might be? It's definitely a hybrid, but I figured it was a cross between two S. habrochaites varieties. All the tomato species I know of other than habrochaites and lycopersicum have skinny little stems and seem unlikely to be a parent to this great big robust variety. Maybe one parent could be lycopersicum, but if so I would have expected some of the F2 to look more like regular tomatoes in terms of foliage and fruit.

Fred

Fusion_power · February 21, 2016

I would only be guessing Fred. The clue is that the leaves are slender. S. Habrochaites leaves are wider and a bit more jagged.

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January 2, 2016	#2
jmsieglaff Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Southern WI Posts: 2,742	Thanks for posting this. A very interesting thread that I will be looking forward to see how your growout goes this season.

February 17, 2016	#3
Fusion_power Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,250	Fred, based on the look of that plant, it is not pure S. Habrochaites. By the look of it, it has another species somewhere in the background.

February 17, 2016	#4
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,793	Great project, FredB!

February 17, 2016	#5
FredB Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Carmel, IN Posts: 76	Any idea what it might be? It's definitely a hybrid, but I figured it was a cross between two S. habrochaites varieties. All the tomato species I know of other than habrochaites and lycopersicum have skinny little stems and seem unlikely to be a parent to this great big robust variety. Maybe one parent could be lycopersicum, but if so I would have expected some of the F2 to look more like regular tomatoes in terms of foliage and fruit. Fred

February 21, 2016	#6
Fusion_power Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,250	I would only be guessing Fred. The clue is that the leaves are slender. S. Habrochaites leaves are wider and a bit more jagged.