Finally grew Big Hill for the first time this year. Since I planted tomatoes late I got my fist ripe tomato this year. Taste was great :) . I will be adding this variety to my must grow list from now on. This one is a keeper. Did well for me this year. Very productive. Large size.
Tomatoes that grow well, are large, AND productive in my climate are rare to nonexistent. So this one is a winner.
It certainly looks lovely, congratulations. Any blight resistance?
I love this tomato Joseph bred for us. Grew seed isolated by 150 feet last year. I believe Snake River Seed will soon put some seed from my growout of it up for sale on their website. The huge open beefsteak sturdy stigma exserted flowers are perfect for crosses both traditional and sans emasculation.
I planted a single cell of Big Hill recently. It has sprouted.
I should be able to keep a pure strain if I emasculate a flower, pollinate it with a newly opened flower. I didn't plant all of the seeds either.
If I can move Peruvianum cold tolerances to the already hardy Big Hill, I would be quite happy.
I considered using the Promiscuous populations to add in a bunch of different larger sized tomatoes - Big Hill is stable, I can probably backcross with it a few times for the exerted, nice flower, high pollen traits.
Suppose I will have to think of a bunch of new names for the future offspring...
Unsure if I would maintain the variety for long. Most likely going to use it for breeding, make something new using it. Although that is the tomatoes intended purpose.
I should dry some of the seed down a bit more and pop it in the freezer in a tightly sealed container. I've enough to last twenty years for my own purposes.
Big Hill is incidentally the BH in W4 x BH so is a major influence in the promiscuous project about three or four tomato generations back. Most exciting of what I saved from 2020 which I think of as the first really tasty year of the project is bicolors. This year I plan to evaluate some of their descendants more carefully. I generally thought they were behaving fully promiscuously last year but I hope to keep better track this time. Or at least plant them far enough apart to tell alot of the individual plants apart. The tags said they were a three species cross as well.
https://www.snakeriverseeds.com/products/tomato-big-hill
Seeds available now from my 2020 grow out (separated by 150' from any other tomato variety), this tomato should be in every tomato breeder's collection in my opinion. Super open sturdy stigmas. I find sometimes when I want to make crosses in the field my emasculated flowers end up drying out. With these I can just make the cross and expect a mixture of crossed and uncrossed plants or just plant them really close to other favorite tomato varieties. Also an great tomato in its own right as a tasty short season bicolor.
Planted seed I saved last year today with some of the ones I'm trialing for the Dwarf Tomato Project. Hopefully it is pure enough to compare, but if not... oh well...
Wish I knew the DTM for Big Hill. Oh well, guess I'll figure it out. I'll be comparing it to Uluru Ochre....
Quote from: Andrew Barney on 2023-03-19, 07:37:41 PMWish I knew the DTM for Big Hill.
70-90 days is what I have down for it. Don't recall where I got that so someone feel free to correct me if that's not accurate.
Descendants of Big Hill I know of:
"The One" - a good tasting bicolor line from Joseph's promiscuous project.
Most bicolors from Joseph's promiscuous tomato project- much of the project.
Orange Hill (sister variety to exserted orange)
Exserted Orange (sister variety to orange hill)
Mission Mountain Morning and all the crosses I made with it last year (about eight).
a Big Hill x LA2329 seedling behind me while I type this.
Ohh fun! I'm excited to see how different varieties do for me this year. I plan on making lots of crosses with Big Hill.
Found one post about HX-9 saying it takes after the Jagoka mother for DTM, so 70-80 but is variable within that.
This means that for those of us growing Big Hill we could probably select for earlier DTM and get something like 70.
EDIT: got an email reply from Joseph. QuoteThe seed catalogs might call Big Hill 65 DTM.
I planted seeds yesterday of Big Hill from last year labeled best tasting 8/10. It will be competing directly with the ones from the dwarf tomato project. If Uluru Ochre is as good as they claim I may cross it with Big Hill. Big Hill i think is technically a determinate but is relativity short so not sure how tall the F1 will be.
I think if Uluru Ochre does indeed taste good that a cross with it and Big Hill would probably be very nice. It would have the potential to be determinate and dwarf.
Krainy Sever is determinate and dwarf and it made my top list of breeding prospects for it back in 2017.
Though I suppose I would rather have Mission Mountain Morning x Uluru Ochre myself.
Quote from: William Schlegel on 2023-03-20, 07:31:14 PMI think if Uluru Ochre does indeed taste good that a cross with it and Big Hill would probably be very nice. It would have the potential to be determinate and dwarf.
I think I'll plan on going ahead and make that cross. If successful it will be my first major attempt at tomato breeding.
I'm thinking the natural resulting name would be 'Ochre Hill'. I'm quite excited by this idea. It seems like the natural result of both Joseph's work and the Dwarf Tomato Project. Perhaps the beginning of The Dwarf Tomato Project Version 2.0
Any one is welcome to try making this cross along with me. At some point in the future perhaps we can merge our individual results into one final one. Or I'll just work on by myself. Happy to do either.
I'm actually surprised Big Hill isn't more popular or widely available online considering how famous Joseph Lofthouse is now.
Big Hill
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1179043589/big-hill-tomato-35-seeds-delicious?
https://www.thebuffaloseedcompany.com/product/tomato-slicer-big-hill-25-seeds-/229
https://www.highgroundgardens.com/products/big-hill-tomato
https://snakeriverseeds.com/products/tomato-big-hill
Descendants of Big Hill
https://snakeriverseeds.com/products/tomato-exserted-orange?
https://www.thebuffaloseedcompany.com/product/tomato-saladette-orange-hill-25-seeds-/232
https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/products/q-series-panamorous-tomato
It is slowly being offered more places. It is also competing with its own descendants. I think the promiscuous project may have more appeal in some ways. It certainly was and is alot more work! Most of my 2022 crosses are Big Hill's grandchildren.
Joseph, do you know if the exerted stigma trait is tied to cytoplasm? Does it matter which way you do a cross?
Quote from: Andrew Barney on 2023-06-03, 09:24:07 AMJoseph, do you know if the exerted stigma trait is tied to cytoplasm? Does it matter which way you do a cross?
I used my Mission Mountain Sunrise as the mother and Big Hill as the Father and I was able to recover it last year in the F2. Years ago when Joseph sent me F2 seed of the cross that led to Orange Hill and Exserted Orange where Big Hill was the mother I was also able to recover it in the F2. Fairly large numbers needed to get a really extreme form to choose as your best exserted. However cytoplasm doesn't seem to be a factor with the form of the trait from Big Hill.
Quote from: Andrew Barney on 2023-06-03, 09:24:07 AMJoseph, do you know if the exerted stigma trait is tied to cytoplasm? Does it matter which way you do a cross?
I think that they are not-connected.
If crossing domestic tomatoes with an obligate-outcrossing tomato, the cross succeeds only if pollen flows from the outcrossing (wild) plant to the (domestic) plant that is capable of selfing. Therefore, all of the inter-species panamorous varieties that I have shared so far have domestic cytoplasm.
Last fall, I finally isolated a family that have habrochaites cytoplasm and yellow fruits. Gotta come up with a name for that clade. This year, I expect them to segregate for orange, yellow, and red fruits.