Early flowering identified- 12 weeks seed to seed

[dfollett]

You could do what I've done and cross with them all. I've not grown any on your list other than Stupice. It was an OK red, but that was all. My primary objective has been diversity. Make some crosses and have some of the folks here help with the grow outs.

[DrTomato]

UPDATE: The fruit on the small/determinate EF plant officially ripened at 11.5 weeks. It looks like there is still some variation in the other EF plants with the first ripe fruit as late as 13 weeks, even though they all flowered within the same week. Micro Tom was closer to 13 weeks. Interestingly, most plants in one of the other F4 families ripened at 12 weeks which follows the patter of the EF family, although none of those were ready at 11.5. A few other families have single plants ripening at 13 weeks and I expect most of the others to be ready closer to 15 weeks or later. All of the EF fruit so far has still been bland and mealy like Micro Tom.

[wykvlvr]

Wry grin I have been looking at my just turned 1 month old Micro Tom that are in full bloom going hmmm what do I have in regular tomatoes that is also in bloom... Most likely candidate is Stupice but Large Barred Boar, Green Zebra and Blush are also close to blooming... AND both my Pearly Pink Orange are in full bloom. Any suggestions...

[DrTomato]

Your seeds are F4.

[dfollett]

What is the filial generation of these seeds - F1, F2?

[DrTomato]

Yeah, that's consistent with what I'm seeing. I realized a couple weeks ago that this population is not all indeterminate like I thought. Of the six I have growing, I think three are determinate, and two are 6" tall while the other four plants are around 10" (grown in 2" cells and 11 wks old). One of the 6" plants is also determinate and flowered a week before the rest so I'm definitely keeping those seeds.

[dfollett]

I planted 5 seeds of the Micro Tom X Black Cherry Early Flowering. It almost looks like 4 are indeterminate and one is dwarf or micro. Does that make sense? What should I expect from these?

[DrTomato]

Yay! I hope you get a good one; there's still some variation but they do all flower early!

[HL2601]

Here's to hope-the first EF seedling up!

[dfollett]

DrTomato is right. the female is listed first (I don't know about animal breading). I always list the female first. In your cross, I assume you will use the 88X (carrot leaf) as the female. That will make it easy to confirm the cross was successful at the seedling stage. The successful cross will be regular leaf.

I also have some of the EF seed started and will make several crosses with it this summer. I will have F1 seed to share by the end of summer and F2 to share next spring.

Matt, if there is anything specific you'd see it crossed with, let me know.

[DrTomato]

I'm not sure how Dan has been doing it but typically the female is listed first in a cross (for plants anyway; I think animal breeding is reversed).

Also just as one more update to my previous post, it looks like a few of them actually are determinate. The tallest plants are now 15" but the shortest is still around 6". None have a lot of foliage although that's been typical for this line- not great plants, I'm just keeping them for the EF trait. And, for the plant that flowered first (which is also the 6" plant), I wouldn't be surprised if it ripens at 11 weeks. It's currently 10 weeks old and the fruit look fully grown but have not started changing color yet. I'm definitely keeping those seeds!

[HL2601]

Update- Matt sent me seeds and I am starting today. I have 88x's that will be ready, in fact hopefully 2 generations of them. Matt should I call the cross EFx88xf4 etc. Does the male go first or the female first.?

[DrTomato]

Update on the EF line. I have seven plants growing that are currently 5 weeks old, and one of those plants is about to open its first flower in the next day or two! The others are not far behind but look like their timing will be similar to Micro Tom. There's still some height variation with the tallest currently at 8" and the shortest at 6" (the same one that's already flowering) and they're all definitely indeterminate. At 5 weeks old these plants are about twice the height of my shortest micros including Micro Tom. I'm taking much better care of all the plants this time around and they're all very healthy. I will update again when they have ripe fruit which I expect around the beginning of June.

[HL2601]

I like the idea of many trying the same thing and comparing results. It seems we may get somewhere faster. Hesitant to try the cross, but Iwill figure it out and ask ? of you guys.Will PM Matt for the EF.

[DrTomato]

Yeah this project is just a shotgun approach with no end goals. I just wanted as much diversity as possible so that people can have fun with it. I started and stopped a few times; it's really about two years' worth of work spread out over seven. I made two sets of F1 hybrids (Tim's x Peach and Tigris x Galapagos), then crossed the two F1s to get double hybrid (DH) F1. All the plants in that generation could be different but they're also all heterozygous, so recessive traits won't show up. This summer I'm growing 50 DH F1 plants and collecting ~250 F2 seeds from each, then mixing all of the seeds together. That's what will produce the most diversity and what I'll be giving away.

My micro project has a specific goal of an improved Micro Tom. Your issue with Columbianum is common in wild tomatoes. I think Columbianum is a wild form of S. lycopersicum but that's what currant tomatoes do too, along with a lot of the S. pimpinellifolium, which is one reason they're not really grown commercially. Nature wants the fruit to rot, not be picked cleanly.