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I tried it out briefly with an old tomato variety I had intended to pledge years ago called Mission Mountain Sunrise. Will see if it works.

It worked!

I tried it out briefly with an old tomato variety I had intended to pledge years ago called Mission Mountain Sunrise. Will see if it works.

Saved Seed 08-30-2026

298
F3?
Small
Ok
Is a blue bicolor MMM X PZ X MMM X PH5

523
F2
Large Packet
More
294 GWR Antho Stripes x PI 129143

533
F2
Medium
Ok
EO X ET x LA0410

544
F2
Medium
Ok
310 Yellow Bicolor Good Flavor X 129143

550
F2
Large
Ok
321 Sunviva X X LA 1385

551
F2
Medium
Ok
321 (Sunviva X) X 129143

569
F2
Large Packet
More
339 Blue Bicolor Dwarf from Promiscuous Project Cross Best Flavor x LA1385

570
F2
Medium
Ok
339 mild x 129143

583
F2
Large
Ok
365 Blue Yellow Heart Reed Collaboration with some Purple Zebra x 129143

587
F2
Medium
Ok
4-124 x 129143

610
F2
Small
Ok
499 (Dwarf Moby's x 303) Yellow Antho x LA0410

623
F2
Large
Ok
501 Blue Bicolor x LA0410

635
F2
Small
Ok
515 (358 (Payette x MMM x Sweet Cherriette)X 319(MMM x Galapagense X X MMM X LA2329))Antho Bicolor x PI 129143

636
F2
Small
Ok
5-66 orange? X 129143

643
F2
Medium
Ok
Fisher's (Benewah x Beefmaster) x EO X PI 129143

649
F2
Large Packet
Ok
LA0410 x 284 gonna be red

650
F2
Small
Ok
LA0410 X 286

651
F2
Medium
More
LA0410 X 294 has light stripes and antho and excellent flavor

654
F2
Small
Ok
LA0410 x 339

655
F2
Medium
Ok
LA0410 x 366 Dwarf

659
F2
Small
Ok
100%

662
F2
Medium
Ok
Marchenengel x LA1385

663
F2
Medium
Ok
Matt's Wild x 314

664
F2
Medium
Ok
129143 x 283

665
F2
Medium
Ok
129143 x 303

669
F2
Small
Ok
SH13 X LA 1385

Sunsugar
F2
Small
Ok

I believe I just put an adequate supply of #651 seed in to ferment in order to get a really decent population size in 2027. 651 is LA0410 x 294. The fruits have half strength anthocyanin, faint striping, and are red and of a good size. Most remarkably they have superior flavor in the F1!

I think the F2 will be a lot of fun. Not quite as exciting as the Mission Mountain Morning x Brad's Atomic Grape F2 that led to 294 but I think I can expect some excellent flavor, color, and fruit variations.

Anthracnose is a strong possibility for a pathology in my garden this year. Perhaps with susceptibility from all the hail scars on fruit.

What varieties of tomato would have some anthracnose resistance and be ok to breed with patent wise?

This the 294?

I can't tell for sure without more context than that quote pulled from 2024. However, it seems possible. I'm not sure if there have been other green when ripes- and I wasn't expecting the GWR flavor to be as good as it is.

Cross takes 2026

294 RL round x Punta Banda large
294 x 390717 very small
294 x 128445 large
294 x 158164 very small
129129 x 303 small
Andrew's pimp x 303 small
PH5 x 303 large
Chiapas x 303 large
Galahad x 129143 large
Stupice x LA1385 small
Black Cherry x LA1385 small
Texas wild cherry x 303 medium
294 PL plum x Punta Banda large
298 x Lyc859
298 x 390714
576 x 303 large
523 x 303 large
569 x 303 medium
550 x 303 large
662 x 303 large
669 x 303 large & small
655 x 303 large
587 x 303 large
635 x 303 large
667 x 303 large
Galx x 303 large
656 x 303 medium
650 x 303 small

Hopefully frost waits for these cross takes

It's the blue and green stripes I'd like to see a photo of.

I have that of 294 somewhere.

Just now I asked Google a question and AI answered. It was validating. I wanted to know how many seedlings to grow next year of my 294 green when ripe antho striped x currant and 294 green when ripe antho striped x mid sized red south American indigenous LA0410. The answer was 64 to 250 each. It then gave helpful follow up advice that should allow me to thin the direct seeded rows of seedlings without anthocyanin expression and again at fruit set- just thin out the plants without stripes. Since I want to select GWR antho striped plants in both cases. So basically I just need 500 plants. I likely already have enough seed from the currant cross, but need some more seed from the LA0410 cross. I think this will be a major focus of my 2027 gardens.

Though I should check the AI's math for the three traits involved at some point. It was very interesting that it could do that instantly. Though to be honest, last time I didn't do the math. I just devoted a whole direct seeded garden to the F2 that became 294. That cross was simpler though because both parents were mostly stable for anthocyanin. My main worry was that I had overdone the growout previously.

My plan with late blight breeding since it is currently a very rare occurrence here is to occasionally make crosses with known resistant lines. I attempted a new cross with the PH5 currant tomato and I added a free Galahad F1 plant to my garden this year. The older crosses with Galahad F1, Purple Zebra F1, and the PH5 currant are all included in various lines though often in dilute forms. For instance number 303 is 1/4 PH5 currant and 583 is 1/8 Purple Zebra. It would be interesting to have a rare late blight infestation or have someone with consistent late blight problems grow out some of my lines on an organic farm somewhere someday or do some MAS when some of these lines are stable. I don't think I have any lines stable that would make sense to do MAS with yet but if the OSSI grants program continues I'll work harder to develop some. I have the PH5 and PH3 currants so I would probably do something like cross those both with Purple Zebra and then cross those together and with some of the lines like 303 and 583.

This year is not very photogenic being heavy on F1s with red tomatoes! Unless you like red cherry and saladette tomatoes some with a bit of blue skin already! So yes- 2027 will probably find me taking a lot more photographs! The 294 descended F2s should be nice!

I only have a couple 294 plants this year- mine arent ripe yet- though other folks are growing them and they look and taste great.

If some of the part sibling 303 crosses segregate back to blue bicolors next year that will be nice as well.

I attempted as many as 55 unique crosses today and yesterday with my cherry tomato which is a blue bicolor potato leaf 50% wild accession currant tomato #303 as the father. My plan with this is to get lots more lines that are greater than 50% wild and indigenous and fancy. When the 294 descendants start to segregate next year I'll try to find a striped blue green when ripe to make crosses with. I know from the cross that got me 294 that the crosses between blue bicolors and striped blue skinned green when ripe tomatoes will be highly variable and exciting. I doubt all attempts will succeed but it was a good effort in a year I haven't had much time yet to attempt crosses. In some cases the mother was simply red genetics, in others there is already some fancy parentage and these will have a high potential to segregate to fancy types in 2027.

I've continued collecting tomatoes for seed and it looks like this latest picking is 18 F1s. Highlights include two crosses with 294 and one with the best tasting variant of 339. One of the more important goals next year will be to get fancy segregants from these 294 cross lines. So a larger growout!

From last weekend there are about 11 cross takes

Tomato season is gradually picking up. Most of my plants still seem to mostly have leaves and flowers with little fruit. However seven F1 lines are producing ripe fruit.

Line 523 is an F1 of 294 x PI129143 and it has precisely one small red fruit with anthocyanin shoulders. The F2 seed within has the potential to produce some really wonderful cherry tomatoes. Given that 294 is a fancy tasty green when ripe with anthocyanin skin and stripes. The specific plant this cross was made on was potato leaf- which I find a helpful marker for cross takes.

It is funny because I absolutely loved the graduate non-degree plant genetics course I took at Oregon State in 2011-2012 which was probably the culmination of genetics in high school, college, and reading plant breeding books like Carol's. Then in actual practice I just use the first principles. Very simple understandings like knowing that blue skinned tomatoes are likely a little bit partially expressed in the F1 and then segregate out in the F2 and subsequent years. In many ways a lot of my breeding is very simple. Though I do think I have grown out some F2's that were perhaps too large! If I did a little bit more planning I could have right sized my growing efforts. However, I also think that there is great value in some other techniques. As my skill at making crosses has gone up- and the number of my own crossed lines I'm growing as well. Now I think my new plan may be to grow a clump of each cross (maybe 10 or 20 plants of each line all in a clump), hope for a segregant I like- but also, I can cross with something like my line 303 that has already segregated back to one of the phenotypes I like- it is a blue bicolor potato leaf cherry. Then the odds are more in my favor that the cross with 303 will segregate back to that same phenotype in a small grow out. With my line 294 on the other hand, I want to do some larger grow outs of the F2 crosses with it. 294 has everything I want except for some genes from wild and indigenous tomatoes from mostly South America. So, my plan is simply to cross it with those and then get it to segregate back to its phenotype which is striped, green when ripe (with amazing flavor), and blue. When I crossed one of my blue bicolor lines with Brad's Atomic Grape to get 294 the F2 was amazing and had a lot of diversity. So, I know that once I get the 294 phenotype in a tomato that like 303 has everything I want, I can make lots of crosses with it and get a wide variety of fancy tomatoes in relatively small grow outs of each given line. I don't know if I stated that very clearly, but it is my plan to turn my 75 or so 50% or greater wild and indigenous lines into at least that many very fancy lines that meet all my criteria. Which can be summed up as: wild and indigenous x adapted x fancy x open source. Double crosses being necessary in all cases. This plan has gradually changed over the course of this project. For example, I've realized recently that one key thing of import is that I want my lines to contain at least 50% wild and indigenous genetics- and those mostly from South America. Last year's crosses made that a practical goal. Then my released lines and varieties should support the conservation of tomato genetic diversity for years to come while at the same time making the Montana tomato fancy and modern!

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