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Post by swamper on Aug 25, 2017 13:14:14 GMT -5
I have 2 sets of f1 plants from 2 crosses I made from tomatoes with S. Habrochaites. Habrochaites was the pollen donor and the plants look a lot like habrochaites., so the cross was a success.
Blossoms on the f1 plants keep dropping, no green fruit yet. I don't think it's climate related.
Any advice? I want f2 seed.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 26, 2017 0:55:02 GMT -5
I highly recommend hand pollination, and cross-pollination. I get very little fruit set on crosses of [domestic tomatoes X S. habrochaites], unless I'm doing hand pollination, or the bees are very active. I'd expect the stigmas of the F1s to be exerted, so they don't need to be emasculated. I collect pollen onto a spoon using a vibrator, and brush it onto the stigmas.
The F2 hybrids are also dropping flowers like crazy for me. I'm cloning my favorites, so that I can attempt hand pollinations this winter. I wonder if the self-incompatibility mechanism was restored in some of the F2s?
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Post by swamper on Aug 26, 2017 8:41:55 GMT -5
Thanks, that's useful information. I have a few plants of each f1 still in containers so I will be able to extend the season if needed. A cross with a domestic tomato probably makes sense for me if I can pull it off. I'm off to look for blossoms on some of the smaller plants that do well in containers.
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Post by swamper on Nov 1, 2017 20:04:35 GMT -5
I finally ended up with 4 fruit on 30 plants from 2 different crosses. They might be insect crosses. Success.
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Post by walt on Nov 2, 2017 12:48:43 GMT -5
Congratulations.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jan 23, 2018 12:51:53 GMT -5
Same with my indoor F2 pennellii. I think it must be SI. Hand pollination seems to set fruit fine but a few weeks later and the fruits fall off.
The other indoor (tomato leaf) f2 pennellii or habrochaites descended tomato has not bloomed yet. But i may try Joseph's method of trying random crosses when the first flowers are available from any tomato. I have a galapagos hybrid cherry started in the aero/hydro thing. Have seedlings emerging for LA1996, and planted S. Galapagense seeds the other day in the aero/hydro thing.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jan 24, 2018 14:53:46 GMT -5
i may try Joseph's method of trying random crosses when the first flowers are available from any tomato. as luck would have it i have another adult tomato plant that i had neglected and forgot about. Turns out there was a S. galapagense that has sprouted and was growing in the pot that i have the spineless cactus i ordered from texas growing in for the winter that i brought inside and had under the grow light. At least i think it is. Originally thought it was a peruvianum which is why ignored it, but let it grow. Leaf shape and smell and partially yellow leaves leaves me to identify it as S. galapagense. Great luck as i just tried to plant some seeds the other day for S. galapagense but expect them to take a long time to germinate. How seeds for this plant got into the pot with the cactus i will never know. I think perhaps it was not full enough of soil and i had thrown in soil from the failed to germinate tomato trays from last year. There probably were ungerminated S. galapagense seeds in there too. Haha! Awesome! Anyway, i have extracted the plant and placed it in water to grow some better roots. It has some flowers almost ready. I demasculated some of the F2 pennellii flowers and expect to try a cross with the S. galapagense. Will be my first attempt at a hand tomato cross. I find the unattached anthers that fail to form a closed cone on the F2 pennellii to be quite helpful for removing them for cross pollination. I think the closed cone on domestic tomatoes is what prevented me from attempting tomato crosses before. Waiting for these tomato flowers to mature.. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 24, 2018 23:46:37 GMT -5
i just tried to plant some seeds the other day for S. galapagense but expect them to take a long time to germinate. My S. galapagense germinated in a few days this winter, unlike the weeks that it took the previous generation. |
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jan 25, 2018 13:04:22 GMT -5
i just tried to plant some seeds the other day for S. galapagense but expect them to take a long time to germinate. My S. galapagense germinated in a few days this winter, unlike the weeks that it took the previous generation. Interesting. To be honest i had some seeds i started early that germinated just fine indoors without any seed treatment i think. But i treated all the rest to be safe the rest of that year. I had mostly good germination, but some never did. One accession never did at all either. So i wonder if germination is spotty in S. galapagense and S. cheesmaniae. I highly doubt they are adapted to go through a turtle or bird or iguana stomach before germinating, despite the superstition regarding them. I feel like it is 80% myth and 20% some other real reason some seeds don't germinate quickly. Perhaps the ones most adapted to extreme environments have another mechanism to prevent early germination in case it is the wrong time to grow? |
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Post by philagardener on Jan 25, 2018 18:36:24 GMT -5
Fresh seed, properly prepared, is usually a plus too!
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jan 27, 2018 11:13:47 GMT -5
My S. galapagense germinated in a few days this winter, unlike the weeks that it took the previous generation. I had a thought today. Many of the the accessions i had originally requested were found and collected from specimens shockingly growing through cracks in pure volcanic lava/ash. Even if there is some truth to the difficult germination, which there is, but not completely, i am more inclined to believe it is not adaption to passing through the stomach of a tortoise but rather to the soil itself. Surely, high volcanic ash content would serve to highly acidify the soil ph. Adaption to this ph would explain the seed dormancy issues but also the typical yellowing of the leaves as though there were some sort of nutrient deficiency. Perhaps it is just a major adaption to poor soil with high ph. edit: although, on the other hand, many of the soils of the galapagos islands were tested and found to be around pHH2O ranges between 5.8 and 7.0, the pHNaF between 8.8 and 9.8. Still, it seems that sea water is very alkaline being around a pH of 8. I think i'm still inclined to believe my original idea that it may be an adaption to higher than normal soil pH due to growing between lava flows. I believe the yellowing to be due to a form of being in too alkaline soil compared to what they are adapted to. |
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