Lime Green Flower Garden

[travis]

You reckon this Lime Green Salad has enough blossoms to set a couple?





Time'll tell.

PV

[kimpossible]

OMG ... did you try to count them???

[nctomatoman]

Yes, it is a remarkable variety - seems to have more flowers and fruit than leaves! I didn't think of it this year (and since I am travelling most of August, will probably go for it next year), but LGS would make a great breeding partner with large fruited, different colored, good flavored varieties (Lucky Cross, Cherokee Purple or Chocolate, Brandywine, Andrew Rahart, etc) - it seems to have really good disease tolerance and productivity...imagine a large purple fruited version of LGS?!?

Patrina or others in NZ or Australia....how about making a few more crosses during your next growing season!

[Mantis]

Great idea Craig. Consider it done. I have a lot of pinks in and some big reds. Well heres a few:
Brandwine Suddeths
Stump OTW
Aunt Ginnys
Prudens Purple
Anna Russian - could be interesting ....
Cherokee Purple and green
Zogola
Druzba
Livingstons Favourite and Oxheart
and many others.
Any good choices here???

There is my complete grow list on my web site
http://users.netconnect.com.au/~myrna

[Lee]

Stangely enough, my LGS has what I would consider
backups in waiting...

Some fruit has set and grown in size, whereas others on
the same truss seem to have set (flowers aren't dropping)
but are not growing in size at all.
I guess the plant is putting it's limited energy into the
few tomatoes and the others will start growing once the
first ones are gone....

Very intersting indeed, as I ususally just see a plant drop
the "unneeded" blossoms.

Lee

[feldon30]

Sort of an off-topic question, but how long have you seen a flower "sit" on a tomato plant and still eventually turn into a fruit? 3-4 days? A week? Longer? Should one abandon hope if it doesn't turn into a pumpkin in just a couple of days?

[Mantis]

I've seen them sit for weeks Feldon and then suddenly start growing. Not at all sure why. Cherokee Green was a memorable culprit of this last season.

[mdvpc]

PV-how tall and wide is your plant? I am getting ready to germinate seed, courtesy of Craig, and am curious just how big it is. Thanks.

[travis]

Michael,

I haven't taken very good care of the LGSs. The one in the picture is sprawling on straw in the ground. It's about 20 inches tall at most and about 24 inches wide. There's another one just like it next to it. These are in full sun all day long.

The one I have in a container is just as neglected. It would be about 2.5 feet tall if I picked the poor leader up off the ground and held its head up. It's not nearly as bushy and not multifloral like the two in the ground out in full all-day sun ... it just has normal "patio tomato" type clusters.

If I had it to do over, I would get some of those short tomato baskets that are kinda cone shaped and sold at the box stores in Spring. I think a short little basket about 18 - 24 inches would give LGS just enough support to make it look a little more cared for.

When you pick up the trailers and look underneith that LGS in the picture, it's loaded up with small green tomatoes. The multifloral blossom clusters didn't spring out until the plant had already loaded up with more normal clusters of greenies.

I got the seed from Victory Seed Co.

PV

[nctomatoman]

Wow, Mantis - kid in a candy shop here. How about Cherokee Purple , Brandywine (Sudduth), Cherokee Green, and Anna Russian....and Zogola!!! I would be sure to use LGS as the female; that way we would know immediately if the cross took (the F1 would be indeterminate).

[Mantis]

I will give them a go Craig. Might have to get some of those magnifiying glasses I seen someone on these forums using, as LGS flowers would be small.
I'll start a thread in the R&D forum when I get started. Probably about November.

[travis]

If I were you guys, I'd go the other way ...

What's that green PL you got? Grubs Mystery or something?

I'd bet it's easier to emasculate and not as multifloral to keep up with ... and then you'd have the LGS for scads of pollen.

Then germinating seeds from the PL mother would let you know immediately if the cross took.

PV

[Mantis]

Well, thats another gosh darnoodley good idea. I just sowed some Grubs Mystery Green (which was PL for me last year), so I will give that a try as well. The same would be true for Brandywine of course. With these two crosses with the PL as mother I would only have to get resulting seeds to grow to first true leaf to see if the cross took.
Thanks PV

[DonnaMarieNJ]

So, it is expected that every flower will NOT produce a fruit? Is this true on all tomato plants? I have LGS and mine looks that way, but the flower sort of died off. So I guess I won't get as many fruit as flowers......

[Worth1]

Worth