Restoring Promiscous Pollination To Tomatoes

[philagardener]

It is said some people can't smell the distinctive scent of F1 Sungold; I'm apparently one of them too. Folks trying to stabilize that cross say that scent co-segregates with the unique taste of the fruit (and have even screened F2+ seedlings on that basis). I'm wondering if maybe that impacts my taste experience for that variety, too.

[DarJones]

Grow some S. Habrochaites seedlings and you will know where the odor of Sungold comes from. I've eaten Sungold fruit that had been pulled from the plant several hours that tasted very sweet but otherwise were not repulsive.

[trixtrax]

For what it's worth, S chilense has a characteristic cilantro smell to my nose. I think fusionpower made comment of that one time on here as well

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I'm continuing work on this project. It has been divided into two sub-projects:

1- Develop a population with huge flower petals, exerted stigmas, loose anther cones, and bold floral display. I'm calling this the "promiscuous pollination" project. Selection criteria includes dropping clouds of pollen to be highly attractive to pollinators like bumblebees.

2- Include all of the above traits in a strain that is self-incompatible. I'm calling this the "self-incompatible" project. I'm liking it, because it would be really clever from a plant breeders perspective to grow tomatoes that are mandatory out-crossers. It would be a way to keep genetic diversity high, to avoid the 50% loss of productivity typical of selfing tomatoes, and to create a robust self-hybridizing and self-breeding machine to throw at problems like late blight, frost tolerance, etc...

This spring, I am making lots of manual pollinations: The goal being to combine traits like exerted stigmas with loose anther cones, or bold floral display with exerted stigmas, etc... I'm also steering this population in the direction of earliness and determinate growth pattern to work better in my garden.

Here's photos I took yesterday of some of the plants that are contributing to the project.

Tiny flower, but exerted stigma. This is about an F3/F4 from a cross with an unknown wild species. I called the mother the second tastiest tomato in my garden last year.


Bold floral display. This plant almost belongs in a flower garden. The petals are big!


Huge flower, stigma easily accessible, and anther cone loosely fused.


I have been using a wild tomato species, Solanum habrochaites, LA1777, as a pollen donor to pollinate domestic tomatoes. It has a very exerted stigma. Allegedly it is self-incompatible, and I'm only growing one clone. The flowers are mostly falling off without making fruit, but there are fruits on it as well, so no telling what is going on there. (Perhaps it's only 99% self incompatible like sunroots?) If it turns out to not be self-incompatible, at least I aughta be able to grab the exerted stigma trait from it.

Solanum habrochaites, LA1777. Highly exerted stigma.


Some of the crosses between LA1777 and the domestic tomatoes almost have ripe fruits on them. They will be ripe in time to grow out the F1 hybrids this summer.


This summer I'm also growing S peruvianum, S pennellii, S corneliomulleri, and other accessions of S habrochaites. Perhaps some of them will contain the self-incompatible trait. And I'm still growing my old tomato varieties during the transition to promiscuous pollination.

[philagardener]

May 10, 2016 9:48:18 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

1- Develop a population with huge flower petals, exerted stigmas, loose anther cones, and bold floral display. I'm calling this the "promiscuous pollination" project. Selection criteria includes dropping clouds of pollen to be highly attractive to pollinators like bumblebees.

Beautiful, Joseph Lofthouse !  Maybe even the "cut flower" market!

[raymondo]

Lovely work Joseph Lofthouse.

[templeton]

Joseph,
while i understand the usefulness of an exerted stigma for your project, wouldn't it also require a 'pollen production delay' trait so that it doesn't self on the way out of the pollen cone? Just wondering how you are approaching this issue.
T
Edit - the self incompatibility trait - I get it

[Joseph Lofthouse]

May 13, 2016 20:29:15 GMT -5 templeton said:

while i understand the usefulness of an exerted stigma for your project, wouldn't it also require a 'pollen production delay' trait so that it doesn't self on the way out of the pollen cone? Just wondering how you are approaching this issue.

Oh no!!!! One more trait to add to an already super-long list of traits to be combined into the same family.

I intend to pay attention during the next couple weeks regarding when stigmas become exposed compared to when pollen is released.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Here's photos of some of the plants/species that I am using in this project:

Solanum corneliomulleri:


Solanum peruvianum, LYC 2669:


Flower with exerted stigma, and curved style:


Solanum peruvianum, LYC 2822:


Solanum habrochaites, NoID:


Solanum pennellii: The least vigorous growing:

[steev]

So ambitious, Joseph; kudos!

[Joseph Lofthouse]

May 22, 2016 22:42:57 GMT -5 steev said:

So ambitious, Joseph; kudos!

I'm partially doing the Alan Kapuler style grex... Plant closely related species close together, and let them duke it out, and intermingle as they will. That way, I don't have to be nearly as ambitious. It requires less labor, but more observation. One of my totem animals is a hawk: Likes sitting around on a high perch, while watching what's happening.

[steev]

Ambitious does not imply labor, but vision, observation, and imagination; it's the will to do better, to progress; that looks like what you do, to me.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

One of the species I am working with is extremely drought tolerant. It's just begging to be trialed without irrigation! Seed is limited this year, but perhaps next.

[reed]

This notion of promiscuous tomatoes is exciting and I think I might, with Joseph Lofthouse 's help, have hit the jackpot. Here are some of my open flower plants this year. 

This is one of the ones that came up and survived a couple nights in the low 20s. I thought at first is was from one of Joseph's that I grew last year but it exhibits the same phenotype as the F2 of a hybrid called red rose so I'm not sure.

Next is the potato leaf version of what I think is the same thing. 


Here is Cherokee Purple from my own seeds saved for several  years.



Same thing with Pineapple


Then what I call Utah Red Bottom, from Joseph's "early all kinds" mix last year. Very flavorful, similar to pineapple but with firmer texture.



Most open of all surprisingly is Red Rose F1, cross between Rutgers and Brandywine, if I remember right I got it from Burpee.


Red Rose and Joseph's XH-9 look almost just alike.


Last and woo hoo! somebody is interested!, that's another XH-9 they are chomping on. 


Assuming XH-9 is also tasty then all of these tomatoes are the phenotypes we like as far as flavor for fresh eating or on sandwiches. I personally like a thick slice of tomato liberally sprinkled with black pepper on top of a fried egg with some smoked salmon, a little feta cheese and fresh thyme leaves crumbled on top. Admittedly it might not appeal to everyone but I like it. 

The only tomatoes in this patch without open flowers is the disease resistant hybrid Mountain Merit, guess if I want those genes mixed in I'll have to learn to do it myself.  

[reed]

Jun 23, 2016 8:43:51 GMT -5 toomanyirons said:

Couple of questions:

1.) Does flower type remain consistent on a plant? For example, if the first flower shows an open anther cone should this trait be expected on every flower that plant develops?

2.) Should flower type be expected to remain consistent between plants of the same commercial open pollinated variety or can they vary? For example, if I purchase a seed packet of Brandywine tomato seeds will all plants from those seeds produce the same flower type or will they vary between plants?

3.) Regarding modern commercial hybrid varieties (industrial varieties as Joseph calls them, which I find to be a very fitting term), do they all have closed up flowers or is it possible that a person might come across a unique plant that bears flowers more open to promiscuous pollination? In other words, should it be expected that all flowers of hybrid plants will always and consistently be closed up to promiscuous pollination?

Thanks much for any responses.

From my very limited experience it this endeavor I would say the answer to 1, is no. The answer to 2, is no.  The answer to 3 is it depends, I don't think they are all the same.   I'm curious to hear what the more experienced folks have to say about it.