Landrace Tomato Pics

[reed]

One of yours in my patch has almost perfectly round, softball sized tomatoes. They started out with light and dark green streaks changing to orange and pink streaks but are now evening out to orange / red with pink / green tops. Expect to be able to pick some when I get home today.

[reed]

Well crap, I should have picked those tomatoes yesterday morning cause when I got home the two biggest most ripe and colorful ones were just scraps on the ground, a nasty tree rat I suppose. There are several more higher up on the plant and I went ahead and picked this one from down lower. 



They also got in the other patch and half ate two of my best Cherokee purple and a bunch of XH-9. I was able to cut off the parts of them contaminated with squirrel spit and process the rest for seed but the others from this plant were completely destroyed. *This plant has less than normal amount of blight symptoms. 

[reed]

The woman has noticed a lot of color in the tomato patches and wants to do some canning today so I went out last night and snatched up some for seeds. I'll go back out this morning and get the rest. I'll get some of these  processed for seed while she starts on the others, not that I don't trust her to save and label seed from individual plants' it's just that I don't trust her to save and label seed from individual plants. 



MN-Big Round, PP Rutgers and XH-9 are under represented because they are apparent favorites of tree rats. PP Rutgers also doesn't have many ripe ones yet. Utah Red Bottom is missing because they also aren't ripe but there are lots on the one plant I kept. Got a couple other plants with no or few  ripe as well, including  MN Stumpy which I haven't tasted yet. Cherokee Purple is completely missing because of tree rats and me. I do have seed though from some the rats partially ate.  

I culled the other URB cause they flowered good but did not set fruit. When I pulled them up  they didn't have hardly any roots. Just a tap root looking thing with lots of little hairy roots out an inch or two from the tap but no big roots growing out away from the main tap, weird looking things. The one that did set fruit set lots of it, curious to see at end of season what it's root's look like. 

I hate the thought of it but I might also cull Local Heart. If you look closely you can see they are prone to what I call moon crater disease. I know it might be sacrilege but I'm not sure I mind a little toughness to the skins if it prevents that, which I think it does. Also I'v found that tough skin and good flavor are not counter to each other.

After this mornings picking I'm gonna go out and cull all plants that have average or more than average amount of disease, then later I'll save another round of seed from the ones that I leave. Just a guess cause they are so intertwined but I think out of about thirty five there are maybe six or seven that really stand out as not as affected as the rest. Since only a few are very badly effected I'll lose some production by aggressive culling but if our jars are full already that is fine. Plus I got three other crowded dehybridizing patches  that were planted later and are just now starting to come on. 

Here's a close up of  the accidental current cross. 

 I have never had much interest in cherry type tomatoes but for years let a small pea sized yellow current grow mostly volunteer. Last year they turned into larger red and orange so I saved some and this year they turned into this. Various sizes and shapes, the yellow oblong ones like the one top right are awful but all the others are very nice, especially if you like sweet tomatoes. We've been putting in salads whole. I'm just going to save them as a mix, except the yellow oblong. 

The normal leaf Frosty Volunteer that lived through 23 F as a seedling is really nice. I think it is F2 of Red Rose so it's seeds are F3 I guess. *F designations in the first picture  refers to the seeds in the fruits, not the fruits. I'm still not sure how to use that designation but don't really care since I think it's actually pretty useless in  regards to a landrace. 



The potato leaf frosty volunteer is much larger, they aren't ripe yet. 

  

[reed]

My MN Stumpy have blight but what I consider less than a normal amount of it. They are also both red 3 to 4 inch size. How do you rate the flavor? I don't participate in descriptions of flavor but to me they are getting dangerously close to the way a tomato should taste. Will definitely be in my patch next year.

My XH-9 got the blight worse than normal and were culled.  I have a consolation prize though in Utah Red Bottom, a discovery in one of Joseph's mixes last year.  Looks almost exactly like XH-9 but much less blight, much later and much tastier. I had that problem with most plants not setting fruit and culled them but the one that did has redeemed the line with lots of fruits that are also getting real real close to what a tomato should taste like.  It's another keeper for next year.

[steev]

That Utah Red Bottom is pretty, though it looks a tad "corey"; no big thing, if it's tasty and productive.

[reed]

Yea the green core is the only negative but it's only in the top 1/3 or so and I can live with it for the great flavor. Actually I mostly just eat it.

[steev]

Good fiber, no doubt.

[reed]

It looks worse than it is. Except for the very top it's just a little more al dente but tastes fine.

[reed]

Realized I didn't have good seed box pictures for some of my tomatoes

[reed]

Copy away, I don't mind. I don't know what causes the cracking or green cores, they just show up sometimes. On the green cores I've wondered if an over abundance of rain might be a factor. I'v had a lot of horizontal cracking of the skins this year especially in the big slicer types but it usually dries out and the tomato is fine if you eat it right away, otherwise rot eventually will set in.

What I hate to see is this;


This is a Red Rose F1. Tomatoes that have this often have a few seeds with dark edges or a dark spot. Occasionally a seed from other tomatoes have that spot, it's usually just a few that have it even in a tomato like this one. I'v seen it in commercial seeds and traded seeds. I don't plant those seeds and although I think it mostly environmental if I see even one in a fruit I don't save any seed from it. Sometimes in a cluster of three or four the first and largest will have this and the others not. 

The other thing I hate is what I called moon crater disease, which I think is some kind of blight effecting the skin of the fruit. One little spot taints the flavor of the whole fruit I think. I don't save seed from them either. 

[farmermike]

I've been enjoying and learning a lot from this thread, so I thought I'd share a photo of my initial attempts at creating tomato landraces.


From left to right (and top to bottom) the known named varieties are: chocolate stripes, blue beauty, Japanese black trifele, true black brandywine, lucid gem, glacier, siberian, forest fire, yellow glacier, orange siberian, striped roman, ukrainian purple, amethyst jewel, michael pollan, indigo rose, cosmic eclipse, tomatoberry garden F1, chocolate cherry, indigo kumquat, and sungold F2.

I am currently dividing them loosely into separate landraces based on type: early/determinate, cherry, slicer, paste/heart. But this year is mostly about figuring out what I like. Right now, I kind of feel like what I like more than anything is diversity. I am particularly fond of multicolored fruits because they seem to have more complex flavors. I also have been enjoying the blue/anthocyanin varieties. These ones seem to keep really well. (I ate my last Blue Beauty tomatoes in January last year -- ripened indoors.) I think some of the first antho varieties (e.g. Indigo Rose) were lacking in flavor, but some of the newer ones, like Blue Beauty and Lucid Gem, are very flavorful.

It seems like most of the landrace tomatoes I see on this forum are red, pink or yellow -- not much in the way of black, purple, blue/antho, or other mixed colors or patterns. Is this just a matter of personal preference, or because these require longer seasons?

My most exciting tomato trials this year have been with the early, determinate varieties. This is the first year I have really sought out early ones (I'm in California and have a very long season), and had my first ripe fruits a month earlier than usual -- Forest Fire was earliest. Early varieties seem to be pretty much all red and yellow though. One of my breeding goals may be to move some other colors and flavors into these. Not sure why this hasn't been done yet.

I should have plenty of seed to trade next year and would love to try growing some the tomatoes pictured here. My garden gets no summer rain though, and few problems with blight, so I'm not sure what use my seed will be to those in wetter or cooler climates.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Aug 8, 2016 0:37:52 GMT -5 farmermike said:

It seems like most of the landrace tomatoes I on this forum are red, pink or yellow -- not much in the way of black, purple, blue/antho, or other mixed colors or patterns. Is this just a matter of personal preference, or because these require longer seasons?

I'll speak for my own garden... I haven't been including blue tomatoes in my landrace because the genetics are brand new. The genetics only got stolen out of OSU about 8 years ago, and only got officially released about 4 years ago. The stolen varieties had about the blandest/mealiest flavor that I have ever tasted in a tomato. Hard to get excited about growing something like that. Perhaps the flavor of the blues has improved since then.

I really disliked the acidic taste of Green Zebra, so I haven't tried any other green-when-ripe tomatoes.

The browns and pinks didn't thrive in my garden, and so self-eliminated.

I'm moving my tomatoes in the direction of more yellows, oranges, and bi-colors, because I think that they taste better. That's subject to change in the next few years as my tomatoes move more towards promiscuous pollination. I don't much care for the taste of lycopene.

[reed]

I enjoy yellow and bi-colors in my slicer patch and I love my Cherokee Purples. I'm in total agreement with Tom though on my patch for juice and sauce also having grown up with that. I love the Ox heart mix I got in trades, made some fabulous pulpy juice. Very little separation of clear liquid in the jars. Gonna have some good vegetable soup this winter.

I might try a new one now and then but I'm pretty happy with what I'v got.

[paquebot]

Aug 7, 2016 5:39:48 GMT -5 reed said:

The other thing I hate is what I called moon crater disease, which I think is some kind of blight effecting the skin of the fruit. One little spot taints the flavor of the whole fruit I think. I don't save seed from them either. 

Sounds like stinkbug bites. They are like mosquitoes in that they inject something as they bite. May ruin the whole tomato.

Martin

[reed]

That never occurred to me but quite possible. We have plenty of stink bugs.

Another seed box picture. Looks a little more pink that it actually is.


Just got Cherokee Purple and a couple others still missing. 

Most of the ones in the pictures have open flowers, not necessarily dramatically so but enough to be attractive to the little bees which I think is good enough to get some random crossing now and then. 

Disease Tolerance - My definition is that 1/4 to 1/3 of the lower leaves effected but the plant keeps growing and producing is what I call normal.

          Better than normal
 
Red Rose F1 and potato leaf F2 - well less than normal.

Cherokee Purple especially one plant in particular - well less than normal

PP Rutgers, Utah Red Bottom, Local Heart, Utah Heart, two different MN hearts, MN fan shape or pleated - all better than normal. *that fan shape one has been a work horse on production and fine flavor but appears to be getting tired, must be determinate

Current cross - more than in the past but still less than normal

Plum Regal F2, Mountain Merit F2 - nearly free of disease

Two weed patch volunteers one egg shape and one round both producing lots of very sweet small fruits in clusters - almost 100% free of disease.   These have to be from Joseph's seeds grown in the same area last year. 

Some other later volunteers also disease free. I'v noticed that before on volunteers and am getting more curious about the possibility that plants grown  directly from seed might be more resistant than transplanted ones. 

        Worse than normal
Several MN pastes
Mountain Merit F1 - little weird that F2 is good and F1 not?
MN long skinny
XH- 9  
MN Stumpy - but still healthy top growth and still ripening fruits
All these and some others except MN Stumpy were culled. I want to try crossing some others on to MN Stumpy.