Tomato Journal

[Garrett Schantz]

The strange looking plant grouped in with the habrochaites mix has been dropping a lot of flowers / aborted fruit despite being pollinated frequently. Not every flower on it has exsertion - the ones with exsertion are the only ones been setting fruit, most of them still drop anyway. So it could be a SI plant - or it just has issues due to possible hybrid status.

I checked my notes, the Peruvianum that survived last year was from Restorationseeds. I had no fruit set on the single plant that I grew last year. So, it could be SI. Or I messed up my notes. The plant came up outdoors, so the tags could have gotten mixed up at some point as well.

I am doubting any of my domestics / pimpinellifolium crossed to make this plant. The flowers are large, have markings on the flowers.

Whatever it is, I am saving seed from it if possible. Hopefully it doesn't all abort.

Found a single fruit, every other flower / fruit aborted earlier on for this bract. Photos aren't the best, once the fruit ripens I will take it indoors for a better photo.

The fruit is pea sized at the moment - still developing. Definitely seeing some hairs, the fruit is an off-white color like some other wild species.

The calyx is extremely purple - it was slightly shaded by a nearby plant and still got like this.

So far, the leaves, stems and calyx has antho traits. Even if this isn't a Peruvianum-Habrochaites cross, I will still attempt to use it for antho fruit breeding.

The leaves are definitely small even when mature. Much smaller than domestic leaves, wider leaves than S. peruvianum - similar size to the S. chmielewskii, but nobody is even growing that species here from what I can tell.

Unsure of where all of these antho traits are coming from. I would very much like it if this is a Peruvianum-Habrochaites cross. Very unlikely though. Although the high flower / bud drop is suspicious (So far only one fruit has formed even after being aggressively pollinated). One of the sources that I bought habrochaites from could have been growing another wild species that crossed over I suppose.

Whatever this is, I like it. Seems to be quite disease resistant as well.

[William Schlegel]

Little bags of tomatoes for seed saving are picking up. Have a little bag for Krainy Sever, one for Earl's Jagodka, one for coyote, two for promiscuous in the crossing block (though one of these the first tomato had no seeds), one for sweet cherriette, one for pinnochio and three for MMS,

[Steph S]

We are back to steamy hot weather with humidex in the 90's F.  A lot of tomatoes are ripening indoors and out.  Have to catch up on the fruit evaluations and seed saving today.

[William Schlegel]

MMS x BH four seeds sprouted and four seedlings up. Winter grow out here we come!

[Garrett Schantz]

The supposed S. habrochaites mother hybrid is looking interesting. I originally had some of the odd S. Corneliomulleri in the same grouping - these could have came up from plants that had ungerminated seeds near them.

The fruit on the plant has nodules - if it is a cross, it's between two wild species.

The stems on the plant appear to be a full-on black color. Leaves are dark, cotlydeons are dark as well.

Still only one fruit despite being visited by bees quite frequently - also somewhat exserted.

There is either a SI trait messing the plant up - there are S. peruvianum - corneliomulleri - habrochaites plants flowering next to this plant. Neither of them appear to be compatible.

If this is two different species, there could be problems with the flowers themselves.

Some peruvianums have begun to set fruit as well.

I will post a new image on the probable hybrid when I get the chance.

[Steph S]

Couple of hours pruning out the bad stuff today after another spell of hot and humid weather.  It's more and more noticeable which plants are most disease resistant - they're the ones that still have leaves.     But I don't really mind seeing chunks of plants going out to the compost as the fruit comes in.  Hurry along, season.  Did some tasting and seed saving today too.

[Greenie DeS]

Turns out this is a good trial year after all. We're getting alternating weeks of >30C daytimes and <8C nights/<20C days, which has been hard on fruit set. Nothing in the greenhouse has fruit on it at all, but things are rolling in from the field.

I'm tasting my Lofthouse mix as they come in off the field-- one of those plants was the first of only 2 beefsteaks I've got this year so far (the other was a Maya & Sion's Airdrie Special). I've had two really excellent fruits, several ok ones that I'm saving as A grade seed, and a bunch of B grade tomatoes/saved seed. There's a strong correlation between fewer seeds and better tasting fruit from that row; unfortunate this year but maybe fortunate in a future sauce season once I've propagated enough of them. These are definitely in the top 30% for earliness, though they aren't hugely productive. They're also the first to get yellow leaves and leaf curl, though I haven't had enough of any issues to slow any of my tomatoes down.

A couple determinates are really shining, just loaded down with fruit: Minsk Early from the Experimental Farm Network, Cabot & Cole from Annapolis and Moravsky Div from Casey's are particularly absolutely loaded with near-ripe fruit. Katja from Adaptive has just suddenly started setting and has gone from no fruit to covered in golf ball sized in a surprisingly short time. Those look like the heavy yielders from the bunch.

Taiga from Karen Olivier is looking like it will tie with Maya & Sion for "biggish tomato that ripens more than one per plant". Taiga is relatively sweet, Maya & Sion has a more rich, Brandywine-type flavour.

Interestingly my field sweet cherriettes aren't ripening quickly; the ones on my deck have all given me a bunch of fruit so far though.

My grocery store green cherry remains the absolute best tasting and is in the running for the most ripe fruit so far, though it'll soon be overwhelmed by those determinates ripening. I've done some crosses between that green cherry and exserted orange and they seem to have taken so I'm pretty excited about that.

Big Hill hasn't set a single tomato for me.

The volunteers from seed in my cornfield and bean rows, not far from my tomato trial, had shot up and for awhile were similar in size to my transplanted tomatoes. I was having big dreams about direct seeding success as early as next year. They're only flowering now, though, so I suspect I won't get much off them.

I have maybe 15 varieties in the running for next year at this point, plus my next generation of Lofthouse/promiscuous saved seed. I'm loathe to cross anything I haven't tasted but am starting to consider taking some cuttings from my green cherry and a couple larger favourites to play with over the winter.

We're gearing up for another heat wave here, and then I expect three weeks before our first frost.

[William Schlegel]

Interesting that Big Hill isn't working Greenie. It's one of my favorites. Probably it and Lofthouse buttercup are my favorites of Joseph's work. Wonder why. I have some of it in my direct seeding, one in a pot, and one in a crossing block. They did / are doing fine and I got some tomatoes already from. The two plants that were transplanted.

I have big tomatoes on a very good number of direct seeded plants. All of them are green so far. Wish I had direct seeded just a bit of something extremely early for a standard.

I am getting inundated by the MMS genetics. Largely because many of them avoided the frost entirely.

In general tomato picking is picking up though. Not quite enough to color my fingers black yet but dark green yes.

[Steph S]

Greenie, Moravsky Div was the best performer the year we trialed in the field, and my friend still grows it in her greenhouse every year, where it is reliably the earliest to ripen.  It's the standard I grow when I want a benchmark for earliness.   I also found them interesting in being more flavorful in a cold miserable summer.  The dreary weather gives them super dark green shoulders and I guess it all gets turned into flavor.  I've heard good things about Cole but haven't tried it myself.
Tons of fruit ripening here but in the greenhouse it's sunscald city and just so much unevenly ripening fruit it is disheartening. Picking fruit the other day they were literally hot in my hand. The hot and humid leaf plagues continue taking their toll on the plants too.  Outdoor plants are ripening lots and suffering less, but there is mechanical damage to some plants on account of the occasional high winds. 
I usually wait until fruit have been tasted before making any crosses, but I didn't this year... sure enough, they aren't the same plants I'd have used if I knew which one was going to have the best flavor.   I had to do early crosses with the OP Amish Yellowish Orange Oxheart, just because it obviously was going to finish flowering and get topped or tank or both (which it has).  The early crosses are just ripe now and I still haven't tasted AYOX itself.  So who knows?  Maybe the flavor genetics will work itself out.  The tangerine fruit I've grown have had a tendency to be on the bland side and melon like.  But  I suppose there's a place for that (okay I'll admit it, my mother likes them!  )

[William Schlegel]

Seed extraction is really ramping up. I could host a very small tasting and extraction party.

[Steph S]

Seed decisions being made here too.  Small tasting party of one so far, but I need to get it done.   Sometimes cleverly planned to occur around supper hour, so the husks get tossed into dinner of the day.

[Greenie DeS]

That sounds like a pretty good party, honestly.

Rozovaya Bella, Maya and Sion, and outstandingly Taiga have all given me ripe fruits recently. Taiga is visually gorgeous and green enough when ripe that the squirrel gave it a miss.

My green cherry/exserted orange cross seems to have taken, I am super excited. Seriously considering layering/air layering that section of vine so that if it doesn't ripen in time I can haul it inside and maybe it won't drop those fruits until it does.

I still don't think either of my big hills have set a fruit, but they're in good company.

We're basically into fall weather here, two or three weeks and I pull in anything green that looks like it might ripen, and maybe move some of the potted deck plants into the duck/greenhouse for an extra month. This has been a very interesting year. I still can't entirely predict what will come through for me out there.

[William Schlegel]

A green cherry / exserted orange cross sounds just lovely. The possibilities from that F2 would be charming.

Funny that exserted orange worked better than big hill. The original cross with exserted orange was supposed to be with a habrochaites but then we thought it had failed and a unknown domestic sneaked in but sometimes we then subsequently wondered if it worked as some of the other habrochaites crosses have turned up orange. I got my first ripe one in my seed production garden for it last weekend. Plants are still small from the late frost they endured. Might not make my one ounce seed order for it, but might just!

[William Schlegel]

I have reds and pinks from my 2020 bicolors from the promiscuous project. So XL spread it's pollen.

I also have a red descendent of sungold for the first time so a cross.

Then this year's potted blue ambrosia is a red. That showed up early in blue ambrosia but still a cross even if it happened before I got the strain.

So lots of red crossing back in going on.

The direct seeded I have not yet detected ripening. Curious what it will tell. In the mixed seedings I expect reds to tell me of crossing.

[Garrett Schantz]

The weather this year hasn't been very favorable for the tomatoes. Blight hit a few months earlier than usual.

I did manage to get some fruit set from an interesting looking Wildling, the fruits on the plant are smaller than Neandermato / currant tomatoes - the fruits are currently pure white and very fuzzy. The leaves are very small, also fuzzy.

Assuming that this is descended from a Penneli or a backcross.

I should have a few different uses for this type.


No pea sized pimpinellifolium x habrochaites F2s from what I can tell. There are a few habrochaites sized fruits, some fruits are perfectly round, smaller than habrochaites but larger than the pimpinellifolium. Some plants have a slight exertion, some don't. I am getting some off-white fruit with green shoulders, also some yellow, orange and red fruit. Not seeing any pinks, or "hairy" fruit.

Also have some pea sized pimpinellifolium x reisetomate in the same area - these ones had a slight exertion.

Purple smudge and Blue Cream Berries are still showing large amounts of anthocyanin - even when covered with weeds. This includes the stems, leaves fruit, root nodules. The cold stress seems to have induced a sort of permanent anthocyanin expression in them. Would be nice if it also didn't stunt the plants, none of them are putting on any new foliage growth - I pulled out Wooly Kate because it has been a few inches tall for months now.


I will probably retry the pea sized pimpinellifolium cross again, this time using SunGold or SunSugar as the mother. Eventually the offspring would be crossed with the pimpinellifolium x habrochaites cross, or I would just cross it with another habrochaites - I used a random variety that I found online the first time, Neandermato would probably be better.

I am growing a ton of: Wild Gem, S. peruvianum, Possible S. corneliomuelleri cross / backcross (need to grow the offspring to find out more), S. habrochaites, S. corneliomuelleri and a few other wilds (Possibly S. chmielewskii and S. neorickii, along with a hybrid between the two if they both survive indoors during the winter).

Probably growing Purple Smudge and Exserted orange side-by-side as well.

Hopefully the weather is nicer next year.