Floriferous dwarf tomatoes

[templeton]

I did a cross of dwarf 'Snowy' ( one of raymondo's crosses) with Jaune Flammee a few years ago, got distracted by pea breeding, but this year found a seed packet just as i was sowing seed, so i grew out a dozen or so plants, most of which have ended up with massive branching inflorescences. The tomatoes aren't ripe yet, and i need to go back to my records, but I'm pretty sure there weren't any huge inflorescences in the parents.

102 flowers on the one i counted this morning

[diane]

Jaune Flammee has clusters of 6 to 8.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Wow! cool. Reminds me of Alan Kapuler's "Centerflor" tomatoes.
peaceseedslive.blogspot.com/

Others like Red Centiflor, Yellow Centiflor and Orange Centiflor can have more that 100 flowers on a tress and hence we coined the term centiflor for this phenomenon. In addition, both Geranium Kiss and Full Moon Kiss have hypertresses with 20-50 or more fruits on an inflorescence.

The hypertress trait arose from a cross of a cherry tomato with an Andean species. It was completely unexpected. In order to adapt to changes in environmental conditions crosses between individuals and species (ie outbreeders) are a fundamental part of the process of evolution. As a society and gardening culture that favors tomatoes we have been growing and seeding inbreeders ie self fertile cultivars and do not mix genetically with one another. Thus we have not been developing cultivars that are locally adapted. Only by outcrossing and especially outcrossing by local insect pollinators do we move back into the rapid and essential adaptation of tomatoes into our own gardens with their unique ecologies and that face the extreme environmental changes that are now happening.

Further discussion of Occasionally Outbreeding Tomatoes can be found on Mushroomsblog.blogspot.com.

Thus it turns out that centiflors are occasional outbreeders. The stigmas are exerted and hence accessible to pollinators that carry pollen from one flower to another. So outbreeding tomatoes can exchange pollen with other tomatoes in the garden. If hypertress centiflor tomatoes planted with other tomatoes cross and pass on their hypertress trait this gives gardeners and seed savers the opportunity to develop new lines that are locally eco-adapted without having to hand pollinate. The new genetic mixes have both hypertresses and novel recombinants encouraging environmental adaptation.
If one has both centiflors and currant tomatoes (Solanum pimpinellifolium) in the garden flowering at the same time as favorite cultivars, there will be crosses between these different categories of tomatoes. By saving the seeds of these potential mixes for several years, one will encourage the development of hypertresses, late blight resistance from currant tomatoes and fruit size and flavor from long time favorites.
Most heirloom tomatoes are late blight sensitive.

Neat. I now notice that Alan is also listing several wild tomatoes such as:
Solanum habrochaites v glabratum Wild Andean Species Tomato
Solanum habrochaites v typicum Fuzzy Leaf Tomato
Solanum peruvianum Wild Peruvian Species Tomato
Solanum pimpinellifolium Currant Tomato

Solanum lycopersicum Golden Tressette Tomato 20/6.00
This new cultivar has both Solanum pimpinellifolium and Solanum chilense in its ancestry.

[templeton]

I'm puzzled as to where it might have come from. Checking my records, they are Little Flame F4 from 2014. I would have expected that i might have noticed if this trait was in the parents- i recall selecting for productivity, ie fruit count per plant, but don't remember this trait on any of that batch. They were grown at a friend's lot, but perhaps 60 metres from her garden making crossing very unlikely, and i'm pretty sure she didn't grow any hypertruss tomatoes anyway. I would have collected seed from multiple fruits i think, making it even more unlikely that this was a chance cross - that the dozen seeds i grew this year came from one crossed fruit out a packet of dozens of seeds.
Anyway, a happy occurrence.

That's if they taste nice

T

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

It sounds more likely that you just happened to make a chance cross where some of the genetics from both lines recombined in a cool way to result in what you are seeing now. Keep us informed as to what these turn into. Still sound pretty cool. But you are right, only if they taste good. Perhaps the dwarf had some pimpinellifolium in it's heritage.

[raymondo]

Excellent templeton. Love these unplanned delights.

[nicollas]

Multiflora is a single recessive gene so you may have something new. Would be useful to grow some offsprings and to make a cross with a multiflora to try to see what kind of gene(s) you are into...

A dominant single gene for cluster flowering would be so cool...

[templeton]

Jan 8, 2017 11:06:14 GMT -5 nicollas said:

Multiflora is a single recessive gene so you may have something new. Would be useful to grow some offsprings and to make a cross with a multiflora to try to see what kind of gene(s) you are into...

A dominant single gene for cluster flowering would be so cool...

My record keeping with this project has been somewhat short of diligent. I wish I had kept better notes.
I did intend to backcross this line to original JF, I think i did a few years ago, but the seed is probably lost in the bowels of the second seed fridge. The original plan was to get a dwarf JF, and I really should just get the project going properly.

I don't think I've got any multiflora seed - certainly a bit late in the year to be sowing more - too much on my plate at the moment.

I am growing these side by side with JF at the moment, so might do that cross this year and label it correctly! I need to wait until some fruit ripen so i can use the best parent.
I will be collecting seed, so if anyone wants any, let me know - and then remind me !
T

[troppo]

Jan 8, 2017 18:20:52 GMT -5 templeton said:

Jan 8, 2017 11:06:14 GMT -5 nicollas said:

Multiflora is a single recessive gene so you may have something new. Would be useful to grow some offsprings and to make a cross with a multiflora to try to see what kind of gene(s) you are into...

A dominant single gene for cluster flowering would be so cool...

My record keeping with this project has been somewhat short of diligent. I wish I had kept better notes.
I did intend to backcross this line to original JF, I think i did a few years ago, but the seed is probably lost in the bowels of the second seed fridge. The original plan was to get a dwarf JF, and I really should just get the project going properly.

I don't think I've got any multiflora seed - certainly a bit late in the year to be sowing more - too much on my plate at the moment.

I am growing these side by side with JF at the moment, so might do that cross this year and label it correctly! I need to wait until some fruit ripen so i can use the best parent.
I will be collecting seed, so if anyone wants any, let me know - and then remind me !
T

Hey T,  just following up on these Floriferous tomatoes. How'd they go this season and were they any good? Decent yields?

[templeton]

tropp, they were very tasty on the whole. i got seed off all of them, so will be replanting the most productive ones next season to see how they produce.

[troppo]

Apr 8, 2017 7:16:45 GMT -5 templeton said:

tropp, they were very tasty on the whole. i got seed off all of them, so will be replanting the most productive ones next season to see how they produce.

Good to hear that they were tasty, here's hoping that they maintain their floriferous nature. What colours showed up?

[templeton]

Mostly orange and tangerine - if you can tell the difference? and one pink, and a pale yellow. out of 10 planted.

[shmack1]

I had the same thing show up from some seed I saved from the Woolworths cherry truss tomatoes you get in the fancy wrapper that are way over priced because the packaging costs more than the tomatoes! They would be a greenhouse hybrid so they well may have some wild tomato genetics?