Messages

1

Tomatoes / Re: Breeding with wild tomato species

« on: 2021-04-18, 11:39:33 PM »

I took a detailed look at tomato nomenclature a few months ago.

The most startling thing that I discovered is that the species most commonly called "Galapagos Tomato" is Solanum cheesmaniae. I have about 8 seeds of that species. If I plant them, I'll go all in, and risk loosing the species from my garden.

I have about 100 seeds of Solanum galapagense, which is the species that common sense would indicate should be called "Galapagos". Oh well! I have a pot of seedlings growing. As a result of this discussion, I'll plant more.

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Tomatoes / Re: Breeding with wild tomato species

« on: 2021-04-18, 08:15:47 PM »

My tomato breeding efforts end up selecting for yellow/orange fruits because of the amazing flavor, and for determinate because of the quick early productivity.

Therefore, I am selecting against the red indeterminate tomatoes that are highly popular. Perhaps other people, in other climates will work on those types.

At my place, Solanum galapagense has tiny fruits, with few seeds per fruit, and few fruits per small plant. I could aspire to grow enough seed for close collaborators, but not enough for a seed company. Although, I have grown it enough generations that the seed doesn't require scarification, and it survives outside in the native soil.

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Asters / Re: Wild Lettuce Crosses?

« on: 2021-04-18, 09:42:01 AM »

I estimate that lettuce, at my place is about 99.5% selfing. In damper climates, with higher insect populations, it might cross up to 6%.

I used to taste the lettuce to screen for bitterness. The bitter is poison, so I poisoned myself the first time I tasted about 300 lettuce plants. These days, I look at the sap color. I don't taste plants with thick milky sap. I can tell just by looking that they are nasty. And I spit these days after each taste. I don't have to taste plants with spines. I just cull them.

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Asters / Re: Wild Lettuce Crosses?

« on: 2021-04-17, 11:38:10 PM »

The first photo shows what I think was an F1 hybrid between my wild lettuce and Romaine.

The second photo shows a pure wild plant (left), and domestic Simpson's black seeded (right), and what I think is an F1 hybrid in the middle.

The third photo is about an F3 or F4.

I select for winter hardiness, quick/early growth, and against spines and bitterness.

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Cucurbits / Re: Tetsukabuto croce

« on: 2021-04-16, 10:59:44 PM »

I plant squash 15 to 30 cm apart in rows separated by 3 meters, which is about 0.5 to 1.0 square meters per plant.

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Tomatoes / Re: Xenia Effect in Tomato Seeds

« on: 2021-04-15, 07:33:08 PM »

I tend to pick through my seeds and choose the bigger ones to plant, just to get a bigger seedling.

That was also my strategy when I was growing purely domestic tomatoes. I figured that larger seeds had a competitive advantage, and my tomatoes need every bit of earliness and vigor.

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Seed Saving / Re: Germinating super old seeds

« on: 2021-04-14, 06:53:39 PM »

Humidity is very high, because the pots are in a sealed wooden box.

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Seed Saving / Re: Germinating super old seeds

« on: 2021-04-12, 11:05:23 PM »

Update on the 47-49 year old tomato seeds.

I tried a number of germination strategies with the seeds. Sterile conditions. Gradual rehydration. Tea from fresh seeds. M/S-Gamborg. Natural soil. Tried about 110 seeds total, with zero germination.

Today was tomato planting day. Therefore, I planted nearly all of the (700?) remaining seeds, under the same conditions as I've started tomatoes for years:  coconut coir, with a hint of peat, pearlite, and some slow release fertilizer. In a germination chamber at 90F while LED light is on 16 hours per day, cooling to room temperature at night. The plants like the LED much better than the old fluorescent tubes.

 

9

Tomatoes / Xenia Effect in Tomato Seeds

« on: 2021-04-12, 04:59:51 PM »

I have read that there is a xenia effect for the size of tomato seeds based on pollen donor. Last fall, I found a possible candidate to test that.

Last spring, one of the potato-leaved Brad plants grew up to be regular leaved, indicating that it crossed the previous summer. I planted the F1 in an area that was surrounded by S habrochaites, S peruvianum, S pimpinellifolium, and [BC with habrochaites cytoplasm). They all have small seeds compared to domestic tomatoes.

When I harvested the seeds, there was a mixture of seed sizes. I sorted them into a population of the largest seeds, and a population of the smallest seeds. I planted the seeds today.

I also planted the smallest seeds from the general populations of Brad, and Jagodka -- as controls. Also planted the largest seeds from Brad, and the general population of Jagodka. The ratios of potato-leaved to regular-leaved Brad will be obvious within a month.

Jagodka was the variety that started the train of thought that lead to the Beautifully Promiscuous and Tasty Tomato Project, because it was so attractive to bumblebees. Therefore, I'm looking forward to watching for naturally occurring hybrids. 

10

Tomatoes / Re: Breeding for Late Blight Resistant Tomatoes

« on: 2021-04-12, 04:49:34 PM »

Following the example of Raoul Robinson in Return To Resistance, would lead us to eliminate all known resistance genes from the population. And then select among the inter-crossing survivors for whatever can eek out an existence. This selects against a few alleles with large effect -- that are subject to short-term defeat, and selects for a multitude of alleles with minor effects -- which add up to robust long-term resistance.

11

Legumes / Re: Phaselous Species / Crosses

« on: 2021-04-09, 12:10:37 AM »

Based on what I've grown, I wouldn't call tepary beans bush beans, and not pole beans either. They are vining, but they just flop onto whatever happens to be in the way, they don't twist around things, and are thus not capable of "climbing".

"Clump forming vine" might be a good way to describe tepary beans.

For what it's worth, I'm miffed about the anti-tepary bean meme that has been floating around the Internet for decades. Sorry teparies, trying to right this particular idea would be more effort than I want to expend at this time.

12

Tomatoes / Re: Marker Assisted Selection, Promiscuous Tomatoes

« on: 2021-04-07, 10:07:33 PM »

The definition that I'm using for dwarf, is vines less than about 18" long.

S-36 bears a strong resemblance to it's ancestor Jagodka, because it sent out new shoots at each leaf node, therefore it was a highly compact plant, which quickly created a closed canopy, and suppressed weed growth.

Here's video footage of S-35, and S-36. Sorry that I don't have a streaming service running on my web site, perhaps download it prior to playing.
http://lofthouse.com/p/s35-s37.mp4

13

Tomatoes / Re: Marker Assisted Selection, Promiscuous Tomatoes

« on: 2021-04-07, 12:50:52 AM »

I haven't done any selection for the green-shoulder trait on fruits. (Other than whatever selection is inadvertent because they taste great.)

I would say that the trait is present in the [Big Hill X Wild]-XL population, but not very prevalent in the general (Q-series) population.

14

Tomatoes / Re: Marker Assisted Selection, Promiscuous Tomatoes

« on: 2021-04-06, 10:38:38 PM »

I wonder if the scented flowers on S. sitiens & S. lycopersicoides are due to nectaries? The honeybees would love that.

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Cucurbits / Re: Tetsukabuto croce

« on: 2021-04-06, 03:56:56 PM »

Some of the [Tetsukabuo x other] plants may have normal male flowers, some might have male flowers that shrivel up without making pollen.