QUESTION- saved seeds

[cottonpicker]

This year I had a "mystery" tomato plant that came from a pkt. of seeds I traded for. The expected tomato was supposed to be a large round pink, BUT my plant only turned out very good tasting perfectly round red cherries about 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter. Obviously a mixed bag of seed. This cherry had very good tomatoey flavor, no splitting, was very productive AND it resisted the Late Blight which destroyed about 80% of my other tomato plants. It is now STILL producing after all others have given up the ghost. However... On this single plant I grew, I found ONE tomato that was different from all the rest it produced. It was red, but was oblate in shape and about 1 3/4 inch diameter across it's major axis. Definitely different from all the rest! I have saved seeds from this oblate tomato and am asking for opinions--- do you think it likely that these seeds will give the same larger, oblate fruits? comment??... Carolyn?? , anyone?????

LarryD

[geeboss]

Possible cross? I'd sow 8 seeds next spring and see what develops as far as leaf, plant structure and ultimately fruit shape / taste. Might be the beginning of a long term relationship. If you want I'll plant some here in N Va for more of a sampling.

George

[carolyn137]

Larry, as long as the oblate one was on the SAME plant it could be a somatic mutation.

The only way you'll know is to save the seeds from tht one fruit and grow it out again next year. Somatic mutations are permanent so if that's the case then all plants you set out should give you the same as the oblate one.

I had an interesting situation this year with a new variety called Kazachka, which is an excellent small black . I had just one plant and got fruits that were a bit larger than a cherry but were oblate small beefsteaks. bcday, who does almost all of my seed production for me grew more than one plant of that variety and had one plant with the same fruits I got and one that had perfectly round cherries.

I got the variety from Andrey and he was growing it this year for the first time and he got the same; some seeds gave rise to small oblate fruits on the same plant and other seeds gave rise to plants with cherries.

[cottonpicker]

Thanks for the replies!!! humm? Somatic mutation..... It WILL be interesting to see what happens next year from these seeds from the single oblate fruit that ocurred on just one plant! Will also grow out seeds from a regular cherry from this same plant. Nice mini-experiment for next season & something to look forward to!
THANKS!!!!
LarryD

[ContainerTed]

Larry, as I read the posts above, it occurred to me that you might have had a fruit from a "MegaBloom". Any possibility of it being a megabloom?

This past year was a banner year for megablooms. Seems like everyone I've talked to had a few and the percentage of fruit sets was unusually high. Hope that one works out for you.

Ted

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by cottonpicker

Thanks for the replies!!! humm? Somatic mutation..... It WILL be interesting to see what happens next year from these seeds from the single oblate fruit that ocurred on just one plant! Will also grow out seeds from a regular cherry from this same plant. Nice mini-experiment for next season & something to look forward to!
THANKS!!!!
LarryD

Larry, somatic mutations are ones that occur in the actual cells of the plant as opposed to most mutations which occur in the seed.

Yellow Riesentraube came from a single yellow fruit on a plant that had all normal red fruits.

I've seen two somatic muations myself. One was the variety Green Gage where the fruits are supposed to be yellow but one branch had all red fruits. The other one was with the variety Dix Doight de Naples where one branch still had the normal red fruits but they were a completely different shape from what they should have been.