Tom Wagner talk on basic tomato genetics
 

A great overview by Tom re dominant traits in tomatoes .........

[URL]http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/2009/11/tom-wagner-on-tomato-genetics-and-hairy-potatoes/[/URL]

Very interesting, thanks for posting this information.

[URL="http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/2009/11/tom-wagner-on-tomato-genetics-and-hairy-potatoes/"]http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/2009...airy-potatoes/[/URL] __________________

I think of myself as a complete Dork on those videos, as I gave those interviews with a very small group of people and did not truly expect folks to actually listen to them on the internet. I was trying to relax after a two month long tour of Europe and after listening to a few minutes I had to shut them off. I sound giddy and tired.

But then again, how many of us on Tomatoville can be seen and heard talking about subjects that pertain to our interests here. Hearing again what I had to say also reminds me of "You might be an Aspie if......"

I have hours of video of my Europe trip...unedited.....that has me talking in front of many groups in Europe and more formal than what Patrick filmed of me. But then again, I have video of me breaking into a ancient ruins after hours traipsing around like a trapezoid unhinged. Of course, the fact that my host at the time only happened to be the 2nd most beautiful woman of all Europe had something to do with that. I don't think anyone would want to see that kind of nonsense!

However, if anyone has any questions that were not asked in that video, just jot them down in this thread and submit reply.

Tom Wagner

Tom,

I don't know if you remember me, but we met for lunch around 2002 or 2003. We talked some about tomatoes, particularly ones that might be cool tolerant (my main interest then).

You convinced me that breeding tomatoes was a stupid way to make money, but I didn't listen and I quit a good job to become a stressed out tomato farmer trying to breed tomatoes late at night after working 14 hours hoeing weeds, picking produce and driving produce around to customers.

Unfortunately, your excitement about breeding and your heirloom (wink wink) tomatoes convinced me to ignore fiscal responsibility.

Just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration. Oh... nice video. Now I need to try your potatoes, even though they are banned from our farm. Maybe a little plot by the house.

Fred, I'm glad you began breeding tomatoes because I just received a pack of seeds for the tomato pictured in your avatar and look forward to growing it this summer. Have you found it to be reliably stable so far, or is there a chance it might sport a few off types yet this year?

Hi Travis,

It's stable... I don't think there will be many off-types. We grew a 200 ft row (approximately 80-90 plants) of the final version of Blush in our field and there were no off-types in that row.

We also had a 400 ft row of the previous generation and there were no off-types in that row either.

Okay. Thanks. By the way, is there Sun Gold or similar in the parentage? What parentage gives it the advertised fruity flavor?

[QUOTE=travis;191496]Okay. Thanks. By the way, is there Sun Gold or similar in the parentage? What parentage gives it the advertised fruity flavor?[/QUOTE]

Travis,

[URL="http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost.php?p=191371&postcount=17"]This[/URL] is what I can say about the parentage.

I can also say that Sungold was not used in the development of the line.

I didn't follow that Floridity thread, so I missed that. Thanks for pointing it out. I have nothing against a breeder filing a PVP on truly original work, and I understand protecting against pirating your work. I asked mostly because one fellow known around the boards crossed Sungold to Romeo several years ago, and it just came to mind when I looked at Blush. But Blush looks more along the lines of Juliet type cherry but much more interesting.

I haven't tried the Juliet tomato. Have you? How is it?

IMO, Juliet is a typical commercial tomato. Thick skin, relatively dense flesh, relatively low flavor. I won't grow it again.

DarJones

[quote=Fusion_power;191503]IMO, Juliet is a typical commercial tomato. Thick skin, relatively dense flesh, relatively low flavor. I won't grow it again.

DarJones[/quote]

IN addition to that the current Juliet is not the same as the original Juliet bred by, as I remember, the Known-You Seed Co in Taiwan. Different size and taste according to those who have grown both.

As always there are those who like it a lot but most folks have said that there simply is no taste there and echo what you've said about thick skin, etc.

Fred, I followed your suggestion and did some poking around and found this source for Floridity and Zucchero. In addition to the comments made in the Floridity thread, do you have any comments regarding taste and other qualities of Zucchero?
[URL]http://growingwithsuttons.diy.com/Shop/Vegetable+Seeds/List/[/URL]

Hi Travis,

The Zucchero we have used in our breeding is not the Zucchero that is at the link you provided. I did not know there was an Italian tomato named Zucchero when I named one of our varieties "Zucchero". We do not grow our Zucchero anymore as it was great one year, and not so great the next. With a name like Zucchero, you can assume that it was sweet -- during the good times when we came to love it (but not during those times that caused us to discontinue using it).

It does live on now, in it's offspring varieties. With regard to it's parents, one was an heirloom and the other is a more recently bred variety that is often mistaken for an heirloom, but is not old enough to be a bona fide heirloom.

I know this is an incomplete answer, but I just can't identify and/or describe in more detail my top breeding lines.

I can say that they are my top breeding lines because when I ordered a boat-load of different OP varieties, most of which were touted by someone, they were the ones that did best in my field, and showed outstanding flavor. They certainly aren't obscure or unavailable varieties.

At the same time I ordered most everything Chuck Wyatt and Seed Savers were selling, back in the day, I also ordered 10-15 "commercial" varieties. Since my thing is flavor, the commercial varieties were abysmal failures, and I stopped growing every one (with the exceptions of SunGold and Momotaro). I did do a bit of breeding with SunGold as a parent, but the lines that came out of the crosses that I did with SunGold did not distinguish themselves, for whatever reason.

Fred, Chuck was a good froend of mine but if you ordered anything past about 1998 or so there's no telling what you got unless it met the specs for the variety to your satisfaction.

And that's b'c Chuck was a very sick man and they didn't know what was wrong with him until a few years later but he was suffering from lack of oxygen to the brain and many of the varieties were all mixed up.

He died in June of 2002.