L. pimpinellafolium x Bonner F1 and F2

[Fusion_power]

Thanks Frogleap, it still does not show up in a search of ars-grin.

DarJones

[frogsleap farm]

yeah, its gone now. 568259 is a sister to 568258. I got seed of both a couple years ago. The pedigree is as noted.

[Fusion_power]

As of today 6/4/2011, the plants I set out 10 days ago have quadrupled in size. We have had outstandingly good weather for growing plants which gave them all they needed to pack on leaves and grow. It is hitting 98 degrees today which is a bit too hot, but soil moisture is still high so they should bask in the sunshine.

Interesting observations so far include S. Chilense that does not grow as fast as S. Peruvianum or S. Pimpinellifolium, and unusual colors and leaf shapes on several of the S. Pimpinellifolium lines. I'll try to write something up over the next few days and post it here.

DarJones

[Fusion_power]

update for 6/23/2011, I weeded one row lof the S. Pimpinellifolium and other odd species plants. A few plants didn't survive the extreme heat and dry weather we had for about 5 weeks. We have had heavy rains the past week so everything is in rapid growth mode. Most of the plants have 3 ft long runners and have small fruit set. I saw the first signs of septoria on a few Burgundy Traveler leaves that are set in the same row as a control to see how they compare with the wild species lines.

DarJones

[frogsleap farm]

Many S. pimpinellifolium lines have exerted stigmas, here's a photo of LA2093. This line looks particularly interesting, with good early tolerance to Septoria this season and reported general disease resistance and enhanced lycopene content.

[turtleheart]

possibly a chimera. joined embryos before the stem cells became specific. it might have genetic material from two plants in one body. were the other fruit set at a different time? was it possibly environmental?

[Fusion_power]

I went through the breeding lines today. There appear to be 3 mechanisms of tolerance to Septoria with almost all lines grown showing extreme susceptibility.

1. Grow so fast that loss of foliage is minimized. Many lines had this tolerance but it is weak at best. Heavy fruit load almost totally cancels out this effect.
2. Hypervirulent disease response with rapid leaf necrosis (infected leaves rapidly die, dehydrate, and turn black). Several lines had this tolerance. Foliage looks surprisingly healthy on these plants, but if you look close, entire leaves at the bottom of the plant are shriveled and black.
3. Genetic tolerance where Septoria does minimal damage. Only a few showed this. There were some real surprises in this group.
4. Susceptibility ran the gamut with some plants almost totally defoliated and others in a range of damage.


All S. Lycopersicum lines I grew as controls have been seriously damaged by Early Blight and Septoria. This was the expected response based on previous experience. One line from Frogleap shows less damage than average but is no better than 3 on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is best and 10 is defoliated and dead.

LA1617 had absolute worst damage on any of the S. Pimpinellifolium lines with both EB and Septoria running rampant. These plants are nearly defoliated.

LA0373 had relatively low levels of septoria but was heavily damaged by Early Blight. While this sounds bad, if this line is really tolerant to Septoria, then crossing with LA2533 might have a ton of potential.

LA1237 had extreme vigor giving an appearance of being very healthy but lower leaves showed Septoria beyond acceptable levels. This variety might still be useful for development given the extreme vigor.

LA0530 is an S. Galapagense (Cheesmanii) line that showed surprisingly low levels of both Septoria and Early Blight.

PI1298934 is an S. Peruvianum X S. Lycopersicum line that has very low levels of Septoria and Early Blight.

LA1582 is an S. Pimpinellifolium with low levels of Septoria and Early Blight.

LA4442 is a line out of Florida with SW7 for spotted wilt tolerance. It also showed surprisingly low levels of Septoria and Early blight.

LA2533 had low levels of Septoria and no sign of Early Blight. It is known to have genetic tolerance to Late Blight. This one is an excellent candidate for further work.

I grew some breeding lines from Randy Gardner in a different area of the garden that are showing some very good results for overall disease tolerance. I will include them in further results posted. Early Blight tolerance with moderate Septoria tolerance appears to be involved. This is expected based on use of PH2 and PH3 genes.

I will go through the breeding lines at least 2 more times before winding up the trial. There were some interesting varieties with some extreme cherry red color, some sweeter than normal, and one variety had very good color and flavor. I'll make notes as I do taste tests.

One thing I've got to do is set up a reliable rating scale for septoria infection. This is difficult since Early Blight and several other diseases can confuse identification.

DarJones