Quote:
Originally Posted by nicollas
Thanks for the lengthy answer. You managed to do a lot of breeding work on a much smaller scale i've imagined !
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Yes, but bear in mind that the results are also limited by the small scale.
It was good this year to cast a wide net, because the awful weather was a test that pointed out defects in certain lines, that means in a bad year they may not produce good tasting fruit or a marketable crop.
Small space means that it may take a lot longer to find the 'best' in a line.
But I think it's okay to select your best and grow it forward, along side a second group of F2's. If all the desired traits are not in one plant, a cross between generations down the line may be able to fix that.
Some traits really require a larger growout, for example larger fruit. Frogsleap published an excellent blog this past year, showing that their growout results were strongly skewed towards smaller and earlier fruit. Recovering a larger size fruit from Kim Kupola, for example, would take a minimum of ten plants for just one larger fruit. And it might not be a tasty one. It would be nice to find some large tasty fruit from this cross, but I can also be contented with small or medium sized.
One thing I am noticing about segregation for taste, so far. Either the good taste is a dominant cluster of traits, and most fruit of the cross are good tasting, or it just isn't there at all. For example in the Black Nipper F3, two of three were quite good and personally I couldn't tell them apart. Only one was obviously smaller and not as sweet, and 1/6 no good is also what I found in the Stupice X cherries. In Kim Kupola one of four was not so good tasting, although it did produce lots of fruit.
Greenhouse space is expensive to build and maintain, so naturally the farmers who depend on a crop for their livelihood can't take large risks that may waste their space and produce no crop for market. I may find someone willing to grow a larger group of Kim Kupola F2, if the less tasty fruit are in a ratio of one of four they could be sold as mixed pints and the customers would not be dissatisfied I think. I'm thinking that half a dozen F2 plants is enough to evaluate the taste and quality ratios, and identify the lines that can be grown in larger numbers without risking a financial loss. If more experienced breeders disagree, I hope they will tell me so!
I am also very curious to find out how the taste segregation goes when it comes to larger fruit. Both the Skipper and Rodney, and also the Warbler Yellow are expected to segregate for size in the F2 generation. Whether the sweetness and intensity is carried over into larger fruit, and whether the interesting texture in Skipper and Rodney - meaty and chewy - will be 'just right' in a larger fruit, remains to be seen. I would be happy to stabilize any of these three exactly as they are, but I think a medium sized fruit has a better production value. I would like to grow ten of each this year, if I can fit them in.
As regards segregation for taste, if the parents are right, possibly a larger growout makes it possible to find something truly unique and outstanding in the world of tomatoes. Those goals are great, but they are a bit beyond our more humble needs.
