Back to the beginning

[SeanInVa]

I see, so then I have to imagine with that lovely environment you just "price in" some losses in the garden

While I don't have any new MF stock growing this year, I did make a cross last year of Dwarf Mocha's Cherry x Rev Mike Keyes that appears to have been successful, and will be growing out a few of those. DMC was a very prolific short determinate, so it will be interesting to see what the MF gene does. Obviously not a micro - I do hope to make a few micro crosses this year.

[Diane Whitehead]

These are tame deer. They come and peer in the window at me as I sip my tea, and if I'm outside working, they are hovering near by to see what I am pruning.

[SeanInVa]

Sounds like it's time thin the herd!

seriously though, you are having a heck of a time with these deer! I suppose you may have already tried other forms of deterrent? Sprays, lights, etc?

[Diane Whitehead]

That project will begin again this year as last year I had a trio of fawns slither under my deer fence and eat everything before I noticed. The fence is now reinforced right down to the ground.

That won't necessarily be the last problem, of course. We had a dump of wet heavy snow that brought down a couple of trees - yes! on the fence. There went all my winter greens - kale, leeks, lettuce.

Now, why won't a cougar come by?

[Diane Whitehead]

Several of the 12 X , 13 X and 37 X had big clusters of fruit, and I saved seeds from them.

The Orange Centiflor is a bit more prolific than the Red. Everything is a bit too much of a tangle to count flowers to compare to fruit, but one cluster of the Orange has ten tomatoes so far. I didn't count the other clusters.

The bed with Millefleur, Yubileyny Tarasenko and Rose Quartz MF is overrun with Blue Ambrosia, so it is not possible to see what they are doing.

[SeanInVa]

do you have any of Dan's crosses that were MF? If so, it would be interesting to see what comes of a <Dan's Cross> x Rose Quartz

How are the Orange and Red Centiflor's doing? I was going to order some of those. As I understand it, the MF trait from those arose from breeding from wild relatives (non S. Lycopersicom)

[Diane Whitehead]

I have seeds of all these, and the ones with a + beside them are ones that are currently growing in the garden.

Ildi
Millefleur +
Myrium +
Orange Centiflor Hypertress +
Rebel Alliance +
Red Centiflor Hypertress +
Red Cluster Pear +
Riesentraube +
Rose Quartz Multiflora +
Yubileyny Tarasenko Red, aka Jubileyni Tarasenko +
Zluta Kytice

[SeanInVa]

Diane, what MFs do you have currently? I only have Reverend Michael Keyes - but am eyeballing several others.

[wykvlvr]

None of those are ones I have here. Most have handled our cool nights (normally in the mid 50s) without much problem but we have also had some bad heat here during the day... so not a typical growing season.
Outside I have:
Baby
Hahms Gelbe
Yellow Canary
Rosy Finch
Aztek
Monteka
Pygmy
Bonsai

Hahm's Gelbe has not done well for me but I think much of its problems are from my inexperience as it was one of my first one to start and plant outside. I managed to fry the majority of the seedlings and then the two I kept alive wound up not thriving in the their original pots. I moved them to pots with a different soil mix and they have slowly recovered and are catching up with my others. Good luck with your experiments

[Diane Whitehead]

No, not yet. I need to see how the little ones do - about half are ones I've never grown before. A number are from Casey's tomatoes in Alberta, Canada. It's a lot warmer in summer over on the Eastern side of the Rockies, so they may not do well for me out here near the ocean.

[SeanInVa]

Do you have certain varieties selected for certain crosses?

[Diane Whitehead]

I've been growing a lot of Dan's crosses he made with Chris' Red Robin X (maybe) Rose Quartz Multiflora F4.

I've got seeds of mini plants besides Red Robin, and a number of multifloras besides Rose Quartz Multiflora.

So, I've just sown the mini group, and will take cuttings from the multifloras that are currently fruiting outside, and grow them inside the greenhouse.

I haven't made any tomato crosses before (rhododendrons and squash have the size of flowers I prefer), but I will try.

The small ones:
Andrina
Ditmarsher
Edelrot
German Dwarf
Latah
Minibel
Mohamed
Red Robin
Rejina
Rejina Yellow
Tiny Tiger
Tiny Tim
Totem
Venus
Yaponskiy Karlik (Japanese Dwarf)
Yellow Pygmy