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Old December 6, 2012   #54
Redbaron
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Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Oklahoma
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fusion_power View Post
You are thinking of the ug gene. It causes fruit to be a uniform gray/green color. The advantage of this gene is that fruit ripen evenly and don't have green shoulders. The disadvantage is that fruit flavor is reduced. However, there is a LOT more to tomato flavor than just this gene. I will be deliberately selecting against this gene.

Re cracking and splitting, so far, I have not included any crack prone varieties. But I do have Burgess Crackproof which could be easily incorporated to eliminate this problem if it occurs. I would also point out that Druzba and Eva Purple Ball rarely crack or split. This also brings up the question of whether thin skin or thick skin is to be selected for. I would prefer to be intermediate, not too thick, not too thin.

Fruit size is also important, if I were selecting for large fruit with the fasciated gene, then catfacing and deformed fruit would become a problem. Since I am targeting a round fruit in the 2.5 to 3.5 inch range, I won't have to worry about this problem.

DarJones
Yep that's the one. I got it backwards. It is the LACK of a UG gene that makes for dramatically higher sugar content. I mentioned it primarily because Sugar in plants is an antifreeze. My collards don't even get real tasty until after a few good frosts. So trying to develop a freeze resistant variety at the same time as including the UG gene may possibly be fighting against yourself as far as the fruit goes. Not sure if the varieties you are starting with have the UG gene or not?

As far as the 100+ temps go..it might be too much to ask to have them tolerant to both freezing AND high temps, but I suppose it is possible. In any case if you need a growout looking for the heat tolerant gene. I can guarantee Oklahoma summers are PLENTY hot enough 110 is common, and yet we still get early freezes here too. Every year we have temps in the 90's followed soon after with frosts. Just a few days ago we had temps in the 80's and the weatherman predicts snow Monday????.
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"Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted & thoughtful observation rather than protracted & thoughtless labour; & of looking at plants & animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single-product system."
Bill Mollison
co-founder of permaculture
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