How many generations per season are you able to test?

[WhippoorwillG]

I was curious how many generations of seed some of you are able to work through in one calendar year?

What I mean is, if you make an F1 cross, how many of you are able to test and select the F2 or F3 generation in the same year? I know it will heavily depend upon climate (Southern California versus Minnesota), and upon your season extending structures in many cases, but I am curious what some of you are doing.

[bwaynef]

I'm just soaking up knowledge and might start experimenting next season. Since I notice we're "neighbors", how many are you able to test in a season?

[robertoccm]

2 per year, and if I am lucky 3
El Paso, TX

[bower]

Originally Posted by robertoccm

2 per year, and if I am lucky 3
El Paso, TX

That's amazing Roberto... I'm jealous!

I have two ???? schemes for getting F2 seed from my F1's this winter, so I don't have to wait a whole year to start selecting. It happens that my dear friends' child was born the same day I made my crosses. They are farmers, and spending the winter in Hawaii, so I thought for sure we could grow out the F1 and have F2 for next season. But it turns out Hawaii is a very hard place to grow tomatoes, so although we try, success is not assured....
The second scheme is to try and grow them out in my home during the winter, with lights. Again, a doubtful enterprise. Some will endure low light conditions and fruit after we get back to 12 hour days. Others won't make it.

I suspect I'll be growing my F1 next year.

Truth is, we are not really assured to bring tomatoes to maturity in one summer season here ! If it's a bad year, like last year, I didn't get to taste 7 out of 10.

Maybe I should move to Mexico...

[robertoccm]

Oh, as I see you have very cold winters and short hot seasons. I live in northen mexico, I still get to see about 1-6 inches of snow 3-6 times a year, but is not as cold as Canada I guess. Summers can be cruel here with about 100 fahrenheit of temperature, which makes it hard for the tomatoes to pollinate
I can only transplant tomatoes into my garden from April to August, and sow the indoors from February to June. What I do is that I sow my F1's on February and by June I have the first ripe tomatoes, so I get the seeds from those and sow them as soon as possible, and by August I have the plants ready to go. I transplant them and by October I have my F2's ripe enough to get the seeds before the first frost comes, and if I get a greenhouse I can get my F3's ripe by February of next year and repeat the cycle again. The problem is that I have no idea on how to make a greenhouse

[meadowyck]

Bower

since our growing season is opposite of everyone else north of us, and this will be my first attempt at trying for more than one, next year should really tell me, as I'm hoping to get 3 growing season, provided I start seeds at the right time so as to already have plenty of fruit growing by the time the heat hits.

[WhippoorwillG]

I was debating whether or not to try and keep a couple varieties going with the aid of artificial light and heaters in the greenhouse. I routinely start my first seedlings in mid-december so that I have mature plants in march, even though I can't plant them out until april.

That is why I was curious what some of you did.

Thanks for the responses.

[DKelly]

I am happy to help out on selected projects!
-d

[bower]

DKelly, I see you are in Hawaii! What techniques have you developed for Hawail tomato growing challenges?
I've read that cherries and roma tomatoes are easier to grow there, so I'm hoping that's auspicious for the Black Cherry/Fiaschetto F1.

[DKelly]

Hawaii has buckets of rain at a time for spell thus the fungal/bacterial pathogens really dig it
late blight, fulvia, bacterial speck to name a few
In regions we also have tswv and tylcv
so varietal selection is important...however equally important is providing close to optimum fertilization for quick growth...it's a race.
I personally have a few sites and a greenhouse I can stick plants in.
This way if late blight hits at one locale I can usually keep it from other sites.
I have a couple lb resistant lines that I grow and this is my fail safe.
It should also be noted that crack resistance is especially important because once it cracks its toast!
Last but not least we must also trap mail fruit flies and bait the females.
that's the short answer
I'd like to try your cross bower I love black cherry toms!
-d

[bower]

PM me your address, d, and I'll send you some F1 seeds. I have two Black Cherry crosses, one with Fiaschetto a Napoli roma, the second is with Stupice, so hopefully early and disease resistant too. It's great to hear you're working with lb resistant lines, it is so devastating. I'm lucky I have not seen it here.
My greenhouse tends to be very humid, whether hot or cold, so fungal diseases are always a problem, and disease resistance is a key trait I'm always looking for.
Another outstanding variety for disease resistance and tolerance of both cold and heat, I found this year, was Oaxacan Jewel PL which I got from Solana Seeds. It is about a month later than Stupice though, so not a bit early, but very nice medium sized bicolor fruit and fine genetic material for future breeding.

cheers,
bower