F1s for the People! 2026

[Tim DH]

As mentioned further up this thread. My main focus this year is recreating Craig's Gift F1.
As a sort of insurance policy, I got both parents from two different sources.
One of the supposed Lillian's Yellows didn't even get to planting out since it wasn't potato leaved.
(The same thing happened with one of the Pruden's Purples.)
Now, as the fruit ripens, one of the Cherokee Purples is also off type. Very irritating, I'd used pollen from that plant in quite a few crosses and they'll all be useless.

Still, all is not lost, I have one fruit on a plant I believe to be Lillian's Yellow, which was pollinated by a plant I believe to be Cherokee Purple. ... Here's hoping it has plenty of seed in!

A (small) Cherokee Purple on the left and an imposter on the right.

[Roland]

I got the same, a regluar leave Lillians Yellow 

[William Schlegel]

That's very upsetting about the varieties not being kept true to type.

[Tim DH]

Happy Days!
The first fruit of what I believe to be Lillian's Yellow. Hopefully pollinated by what I believe to be Cherokee Purple!!

Aware of Roland's warning (back in 2023) that Lillian's Yellow is not particularly seedy, I've attempted the cross twice and the other fruit is also fattening up.

SO: I should have plenty of Craig's Gift F1 seed. I'll check that both lots ARE hybrid, by doing a seedling leaf test in the Autumn. Since Lillian's is potato leaf and Cherokee Purple is regular leaf, if the seedlings are regular it will prove they are hybrid.

Tim DH

[Adrian]

Some variety low seedy can be very seedy with crossed fruits.
The fruits of andine cornue contains at normal time between 30 and 50 seeds by fruits.
I have found 140 seeds in the crossed fruit of andine cornue between canestrino di lucca x andine cornue.
Some varietys can giving the priority at the crossed fruit.

For my cross with pineaple, The crossed fruit was the more small of the bunch.

[Tim DH]

Getting to the exciting part of the season now, evaluating the new F1s.

These little fellows are SunvivaXTasteofParadiseF1 (I was trialling this outdoors as hopefully Blight resistant, however we haven't seen any Blight for a couple of years!) This is a good example of why I've got interested in truss architecture. What I suspect is that, because the fruit set is placing so little demand on the plant, the hybrid vigour is being expressed as excessive vegetative growth.



For comparison, at the other end of the spectrum, a determinate F1  (LatahXPolarStar) I got 6kg from one plant of this cultivar last year and here it goes again! I think here the balance might have swung the other way, not enough vegetative growth! The focus of next year's F1 project will probably be creating more early outdoor determinates.