Morning Y’all, and welcome to another downheah edition of Saturday Morning Garden Blogging. Last August, our own GCNY sent me seeds for a tomato breeding project that she received from some Master Gardener friends of hers. It turns out that they obtained this project kit from Dr. Matt Sullenberger, a plant scientist currently in Syracuse, NY.
Dr. Sullenberger (Matt) crossed Tim’s Black Ruffles with Garden Peach, then crossed Galapagos with Plum Tigris. Those two crosses were then crossed to get the seeds that I received from GCNY. Matt refers to these seeds as a “Double Hybrid F2”. It kinda makes my head hurt to think about what may result from this 4-way cross… A bit more info on each of the parent varieties:
1) Tim's Black Ruffles: A cross b/w Zapotec Pleated and Black Krim. Here
2) Garden Peach: A fuzzy skinned yellow variety native to Peru. Here
3) Galapagos: A small, yellow, ground cherry type native to The Galapagos Islands, and...Here
4) Plum Tigris: A Russian commercial plum variety; red/orange w/yellow stripes. Here
Matt and I have had email discussions about the project, and he has also joined us at Doc's to be better able to follow my progress. Initially, I intended to only grow out about 6 of these plants, but the most variations occur in the F2 stage, so the more plants, the better. So, I revamped my 2022 grow list to make space for as many of the Sully F2s as I could. All 25 seeds germinated, (planted March 6th) but I lost 2, giving me 23 viable seedlings. 15 will be planted in-ground; the remaining 8 will be grown in containers.
The one on the left looks to be the dominant type with 19 plants. The middle one accounts for 3 plants; they are shorter and more compact. All the parent varieties are indeterminate, except for Plum Tigris, so I guess that’s where that trait comes from. Lookee Here. I gots no clue about the one on the right; it’s the only plant with that leaf type.
So...the goal here is to find a good tasting, productive tomato that can be grown out going forward from these F2 plants. There may well be more than one line to follow; stay tuned, it’s gonna be a long process…
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Spring is asserting itself downheah, but the weather in April has been really screwy these last few years, so my plant out date for both tomatoes and peppers is still about 3 weeks away. There’s still a LOT of work to be done before then…
Meanwhile, the azaleas and wisteria are starting to bloom, and the pine tree pollen is nothing short of atrocious. We’ve had midweek lines of severe thunderstorms roll through here the last three weeks, with more on tap for next Tuesday/Wednesday, ugghh...
What’s going on in your garden?