Learning • Practicing to Cross Breed Tomato Varieties

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MRxZM.F2.4B Plant 1 (red, round fruits)
MRxZM.F2.4B Plant 2 (muddy red, grape shaped, some are more elongated with a point), (orange grape shaped with point?)
MRxZM.F2.4B Plant 4 (pronounced swirly red and yellow, teardrop shaped )



For comparison, small red cherry is a Matt's Wild Cherry. Small white cherries are Coyote.

...I'm thinking even Plant 1 fruits are not quite solid red like Matt's Wild.
...I checked several times and those orange, grape shaped with point fruit truss is coming from a side shoot vine near the bottom of Plant 2. Maybe they are going to ripen from this to the muddy red and yellow?
...the appearance of the Plant 4 marble/swirly red yellow teardrop fruits are my favorite. Haven't tasted it yet though.

...white grape fruits are from MRxCF.F2.1F Plant 1 and they can be slightly larger (taller but thinner) than MRxZM.F2.4B Plant 2 fruits which are slightly more rounded.

...larger pingpong ball sized, pink pointed heart shaped fruits are from WSxFFSlv.F3.WWL

...some have more pronounced point than others. Haven't been able to ascertain whether they are growing on different plants.

[applestar]

A new segregate has ripened -- designated MRxCF.F2.1F-P2 -- Plant#2 of Maglia Rosa x Coyote+Faelan's First Snow lv F2.1F

Plant#1 has the excellent flavored white grape. First three fruits of Plant#2 (front and to the right of the 1F-P1 fruits in the white bowl) were round pink cherries that are larger than Coyote but smaller than the round red cherries of MRxZM.F2.4B-P1



I tasted one and it had very thin skin and excellent sweet, rich flavor but milder than the Coyote (which my DD described as "in your face" )

I noticed last time, and confirmed again this time that 1F-P1 fruits are somewhat more peachy pink tinted than Coyote. The color is closer to Raymondo's Australian Mist which had a couple of fruits with slightest Blossom end blush among the many harvested yesterday. Maybe these have the potential to develop a blush as well?


Raymondo's Australian Mist with BE blush

[applestar]

Another segregate started fruiting from the MRxZM.F2.4B line. I guess I'll call it Plant 3 since the other Plant 3 hasn't done anything and may even have died off -- can't tell for sure in the jungle.

The fruits are grape shaped like Plant 2 but have distinct stripes when green and are ripening yellow. I hope this one tastes good because I like the color. I decided I'm not thrilled with the red round, thick skinned Plant 1. My favorite so far has been red-yellow marbled tear-drop shaped Plant 4.



The pink grape on the right is actually another segregate from the MRxCF.F2.1F line. I guess this will be Plant 3 as well. Both the white grape Plant 1 and pink round Plant 2 have been tasty. Let's hope this segregate is as well.

This season is like opening a mystery box of chocolates.

[applestar]

I really like the color of this new segregate.

[applestar]

MRxZM.F2-4B.p1 (red round),p2 (red grape),p3 (yellow striped pointed grape),p4 (red/yellow blended tear drop)
MRxCF.F2-1F.p1 (white grape),p2 (pink round),p3 (large pink tear drop)
WSxFFSlv.F3 (pink egg)


Vernissage Yellow, Raymondo's Australian Mist, Amethyst Cream, Coyote
Sun Thai, Gochugaru yong Gochu, Hanoi Market g2

[applestar]

[Whippersnapper x Faelan's First Snow less variegated] F4 pointed egg/heart

My poor seedlings. Between the mite attacks, which however was fortunately not as severe as last year thanks to the predatory mites, the stupid see-saw weather that shot up into the 90's then plunged too often into the lower 40's during the hardening off process when I couldn't drag them back inside, never-accurate weather forecasts, and any number of other excuses, they look quite pitiful as they are going in the ground ...so much later than normal.

I have 6 of them planted here. Their variegation have faded (are hard to discern) due to the cold-stress yellowing plus some sunburn. I don't know if any of them are dwarf/short -- I think I lost those last year so haven't carried them forward. (will have to try the mass seed sowing again next year from previous generation seeds).



Hopefully, they will recover and show us what they got. I planted some of the the overgrown peas next to them to hopefully help nurse them along.

[applestar]

{Maglia Rosa x (Coyote+Faelan's First Snow lv)} F3 -- several segregates:




I'm bummed not to see any variegation. I'm guessing these were from the Coyote pollinated seeds, though it might help if I did several generations of mass sowing starting with the F1 seeds.

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These are some of my Maglia Rosa x (Coyote and Faelan's First Snow) F3 segregates. Early to mature.
So excited to see the different shapes in the baby fruits, but I must remember that the fruit characteristics were those of the F2 and what these will look like --and taste like-- still remains to be seen....

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I am excited to see ALL THESE fruit shapes in the MRxCF F3 segregates. A little surprise, too, which I'm not sure how to interpret -- I will followup about that later. (Click for enlarged, zoomable view)

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I emasculated a few blossoms this morning. I meant to only practice, but it was just like riding a bicycle.

I did bruise the stigma of the very first one by accidentally pinching with the forceps, and had to remember the trick of holding the sepal close to the base to keep the flowerbud steady.


Marz Pulcent, Maskotka, WSxFFS F4, MRxCF F3 white cherry, Sgt. Pepper's.

I got impatient with one of the tiny MRxCF buds and accidentally pulled the stigma off. But after doing all the little flowers, Sgt. Pepper's huge flowerbuds were a breeze.

[applestar]

I'm going to post an update after the cross-pollinated flowers start to show fruit development. Anyway, here's another one -- this one is a megabloom of Dwarf Blazing Beauty:

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This one came from some abandoned fruits from last year. I had them in a container to process, they started to "ferment" on their own... past prime and fruitflies got thick and ugly in there, and I didn't want to deal with them at the time so I pushed the container out the back door. It eventually got shuffled under the patio table -- frozen and forgotten...all winter.

When I discovered them in spring, they looked ...fine. So I recovered some of the seeds and started them.
So glad I did too because I'm getting such varieties in shapes from different plants, and this one is intriguing me. These are larger than grapes or even elongated grapes. Almost but not quite as big as Maglia Rosa I think ...yet... but those stripes must be from Maglia Rosa.

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WS.FFS F4 heart 8.16.16 ChLn


The plant on the left has the most extremely variegated stems. It is very short and is looking like a determinate.
I hope it will get a little bigger. The gorgeous white splashed leaf to the right of it belongs to the plant loaded with all these green fruits.

[applestar]

M.CF.F3
16-1F.P3
elongated/pt pink grape cherry
Sept'16

This one deserves a photo by itself. It's very strange. I can't decide it's super wispy or something is wrong with it. I gave it a Spiral stake all to itself, but it is only this tall. It's from a different elongated/pt pink grape cherry, not one of the abandoned fruits.




--- edited to add ---

The color of this plant seems a bit blue-ish to me. I noticed similar effect on on of the WS.FFS F4, like it was organizing colors so yellow color is more in the variegation, making the rest of the leaf looking a bit blue-ish. Does it seem like the near-left leaf in this photo has the slightest variegation? Maybe there was a bee cross happening last year.

[applestar]

We had a heat wave and many other tomatoes ended up dropping a lot of their blossoms without setting. Ha. Really gotta check the weather before attempting to make crosses.