Some tomato germination and leaf shape data -Updated 15 Mar
 

Whew....working my way through transplanting my plethora of tomato seedlings (up to the M's - 56 cells transplanted, 54 to go on this initial round!). It is giving me a chance to record some data on germination percent vs seed age, and especially, wrong leaf shapes.

What is clear is that potato leaf seedlings popping up in regular leaf varieties is very rare. I've looked at about 1300 seedlings of regular leaf varieties and there are no potato leaf plants.

Potato leaf varieties are showing a few reg. leaf here and there, which is not unexpected, since we know tomatoes do cross.

Brandywine - 63 plants, 5 were regular leaf
Elbe - 22 plants, all potato leaf
Grandfather Ashlock - 32 plants, all potato leaf
Green Giant - 28 plants, 1 regular leaf
Kimberly - 19 plants, all potato leaf
Lillian's Yellow - 40 plants, 3 regular leaf
Little Lucky - 22 plants, 3 regular leaf
Lucky Cross - 32 plants, 3 regular leaf
Magnus - 26 plants, 5 regular leaf

So - 284 plants, 20 regular leaf - about 7% regular leaf.

Dwarf varieties would also show crossing, since an indeterminate F1 would most likely result.

Dwarf Stone - 26 plants, all dwarf
Golden Dwarf Champion - 27 plants, all dwarf
Lime Green Salad - 24 plants, all dwarf

The above makes me feel pretty good about the incidence of crossing in my garden - I don't bag my blossoms. From the above, 20 crosses out of 200 plants works out to about 5% - not too bad at all (my assumption is that this is a good model for crossing frequency in my garden, using my seed saving techniques - saving early set fruit).

I am also really happy with germination. Saved seed can stick together, so my seed counts are approximate- but for the 57 cells I've transplanted, 34 are at 100% or greater than 100% (seeds stuck together that I did not catch), and 6 others are at 85%.

Worst germinators so far - Arkansas Traveller (55%, seeds from Fusion), Earl's Faux (30%, seeds from Earl), Golden Queen (65%, my 2002 saved seed), Lucky Cross (65%, 2002 saved seed) and Great White (25%, my 2005 saved seed!).

A few other things I noticed - Black Cherry, which has a notorious reputation for being either late to germinate or poorly germinating, was up in 5 days at 100% from 2003 saved seed. Aunt Ruby's Green seed saved in 1998 - 8 years old - was greater than 100% and up in 6 days. Lots of varieties saved in 2000 or 2001 are up at 95-100% success.

Last - ONE variety has exhibited CRUD (brown, drying edges and yellowing of the cotyledons, which spreads to the foliage - but does not cause death if you get the plants transplanted and into sunlight quickly) is Kellogg's Breakfast, as usual. This has been consistent year to year.

So, just a few observations that I found interesting.

Craig,
Those are interesting stats Craig.
The Golden Queen seeds you sent me a few years back were equally poor germinators. I was planning on starting some of the saved seeds from the two or three plants that managed to fist germinate and then survive.

I think there were 3 out of 15 germinated from the seeds you sent.

Clay

Craig -

How do you know dwarfs are dwarfs,
when they are just seedlings ?
Are they just ... dwarfed compared to
the others ? Or by the true leaf type ?

~ Tom

They are truly dwarf when compared to other seedlings - when I transplanted my last flat, the indeterminates were about 3 inches tall, the dwarf varieties planted at the same time were about 1 inch tall, with relatively thick, stocky stems.

Gotcha Craig ~

Yeah now that I think of
it , the GDC seedlings are
much smaller in comparison
to the others ; same for the
SFT ~

Thanks !

~ Tom

also - its funny you meantion
Kelloggs Breakfast -
as my seedlings look
"wimpy" compared to
some of the others -
Other "wimpy" seedlings
are Aunt Rubys German Green ,
& Neves Azorean Red ~

Tom

Interesting data, Craig - thanks for sharing. Also, your results for Earl's Faux made me feel a bit better about my own poor germination rate with EF seeds (also from Earl). I do have a couple beautiful EF growing happily though, and am excited to try them in a few months.
Paul

Leaf Type vis-a-vis Cross Pollination
 

Craig,

Not sure I understand the 5% (20 out of 200) rate of cross pollination. Isn't it true that even though the CORRECT leaf type shows up, that the plant may still be cross pollinated ? Sorry...maybe I'm dense !

Thanks,

Noreaster

Noreaster, thanks for your question. I am using the potato leaf plants as an model - since I have significantly more regular leaf varieties growing in any particular vicinity than potato leaf or dwarf varieties, and since regular leaf is dominant, seeds saved from potato leaf plants or dwarf plants would show regular leaf indeterminate if crossed.

Cross Pollinating
 

Thanks, Craig.

Couple of questions...am I reading this correct...20 crosses out of 200...that would be 10% (not 5%?).

Also, would it be that PL's also cross with other PL's ?
If so, and result is a crossed PL, that would add to the
occurence probability?

All things considered, I would think that without bagging (which we're personally debating as to whether or not to do), the cross pollination likelihood is about the same no matter where (or by whom) a multitude of varieties are grown, in a close-by geographic area...

....would you agree with this ?

Thanks alot,

Noreaster